Sweet Peas

Sweet Peas ‘Fire and Ice’

I have been working on this drawing for awhile now.  Adding different backgrounds to my flower portraits has been an idea in my head for some time, but I have had trouble trying to figure out how to do it.  I have tried before with smudgy type backgrounds (technical term there), but I have never liked it.

The idea for this background came to me when I was photographing some sweet peas last year and was looking at the great pattern of the stems and tendrils and thought they would make a good background, especially if I did them in grey scale.  This also gave me the chance to use my water soluble graphite sticks.  I always love the chance to play with new art supplies and it may even justify their purchase!

Initial drawing

under coat of ink

Starting the coloured pencil

Finished flower

Although I am fairly happy with the result, I am not completely sure that this is the answer.  The sweet peas are cut out and are just sitting on top of the background, so nothing is set yet.  When I am not sure of a picture I have a few techniques I try to get another perspective on the work.

1. Put the whole thing away and look at it again in a few weeks.  Not having seen it for awhile gives me fresh eyes to look at the work again to see if I really do like it or not.
2. The opposite of this is to stick it on the wall where I can look at it for awhile to figure out what is not working.
3. Taking a photo of the work is my third way of figuring out what is the problem, making it black and white can help, especially if you do not have enough contrast, as this is hard to tell sometime with coloured work.

If you have a different technique please share it with me as I always need help.

Last weekend I went back to one of my favourite nurseries, Lambley Nursery just out of Ballarat, as they had a garden tour and you could visit their sweet peas that they grow for their flower seeds, over 100 varieties.  The sweet pea I drew is from their garden last year and is called Fire and Ice.  I took a few photos, (over 70, but who is counting) and have included a few of my favourites for your viewing pleasure.

Might be a second Sweet Pea picture….

Karen

Rose – Pierre De Ronsard (WIP)

This is my latest work in progress and my favourite rose in the garden at the moment.  It is a big call to name my favourite rose, but Pierre wins.  Old fashioned roses are my favourite, the abundance of petals and the heavenly scent are major points in their favour.  I love the way the colours move from cream with a hint of green on the outside, to cream with a flush of pink on the edges in the middle, to a beautiful subtle pink in the centre.  The combination of cream and pink with the hint of apple green is stunning in this rose.

This particular climber has been in my garden for over eight years and is well established and producing magnificent blooms.  I find that my roses produce better blooms the older they get.  This is especially true for the old fashioned roses who tend to ball (go brown at the bud stage and never open) when young.

I have drawn this rose in my usual style with a under wash of sennelier ink then coloured pencil over the top.  It has been a great deal of fun to get back into this work again after a bit of a break and I have really enjoyed working with the beautiful colours of this rose and the challenge of making shadows in the cream rose work.  There is nothing like drawing a flower to make you really understand and appreciate it.

 

It has been ages since I last posted and the past 12 months have been very difficult.  My Mum passed away this time last year and after caring for her for so long and other major life crisis following on, I haven’t had the energy to keep the blog going.  My final blow was being made redundant a couple of months ago, just when you think it couldn’t get worse it does.  But it was a blessing in disguise and it has given me time to re-evaluate and make some new choices on what I would like my life to be like.  One of the clearest decisions was to take the opportunity to follow my art more seriously.  So for the last month I have been preparing my website and deciding on some business strategies and am looking forward to telling you all about them in the next post.

Karen

 

Fairy Wax Flower

Fairy Wax Flower Coloured Pencil and Ink

Still running around taking photos of the wildflowers in the bush, it has not let up and with still more varieties coming into bloom.  We have not had such a bumper year (or a wetter one) and I am still finding new flowers to add to my collection of photos.  I will have so many photos to inspire my drawings, I hope they will last all year.

This one is the Fairy Wax flower.  It is so very photogenic, just about every photo I have taken of these flowers have worked and the white flowers against the dark green leaves really stand out.  I never realised that flowers could be photogenic, but for me it is the case.  Some photograph well enough but just don’t look as good as others.  Of course this would have nothing to do with my ineptitude at photography or lack of real equipment  (Ha ha).  I am still taking all my photos on the Iphone with the Camera+ app.  I love the ease and I know that I would not have the patience to faff around with setting up a lot of equipment and give up taking photos.  Here are some of what I have taken lately.

Pink Fingers Orchid

Pink Bells

Large Sundew

Castlemaine Spider Orchid

Castlemaine Spider Orchid

We have planned a beautiful poteger vegetable patch with raised beds, formal layout and walls of wire mesh to climb things up.  It will be a staged event, with the beds going in this year and the walls next.  But we have had the wettest September on record, instead of 60mm of rain we have had 160mm.  this is really slowing down progress.

I will leave you with t Rosie watching the rain.  She is growing so fast, but seems to do it in stages, one moment her legs have grown and she is all gangling, then her ears will grow and she looks like a fox.  Never had a dog do that, but it is very funny to watch.

Rosie watching the rain

Karen

Greenhood Orchid

Greenhood Orchid Coloured Pencil and Ink

 

Spring is finally ‘officially’ here and I have been torn between walks in the bush to find flowers, drawing and gardening.  I feel like the puppy, excitedly running from one to the other, not settling at anything.

It is such a busy time and as the weather tries to warm up, you just want to be out there.  We have just finished planting the roses and lavender in the front garden bed and made a huge seed order for the summer vege patch.  Not sure where they are all going to go, but it was impossible to be restrained with all these amazing heirloom varieties that sound so wonderful.  Vegetables such as Flageolet Flagrano Bean, Paris market carrots, Costoluto Genovese tomatoe, one of the oldest Italian varieties and Rosa Bianca eggplant.

Little Greenhoods in the bush

The little Greenhood orchids are still flowering and I finally found time to complete a drawing of one.  Such gorgeous little things only a 1-2cm long flower and the stand no more than 7-8cm high.  I am not usually fond of green flowers but these are so crisp and fresh and who can resist such a bizarre shape.

Lynette and the dogs, searching for orchids on a spring morning

I have found a couple of new orchids this year, which is always exciting.  There is the Leopard Orchid all yellow and brown, Lynette thinks it looks more like a dragon and the Yellow Moth orchid with its stunning, clear, yellow petals.  The good thing about being a beginner at this, is there are so many new plants to discover.  Every walk is an adventure.  I now have my sister hooked and it is better with two people searching, as all these flowers are very small.  (Tap/click the image for the orchid name.)

Karen

Pink Caladenia

Pink Caladenia

White Caladenia

Yellow Moth

Yellow Moth

Leopard Orchid

Leopard Orchid

Early Nancy – First of the Spring flowers

Early Nancy Coloured pencil and ink

The weather has been beautiful for the last few days and I have been out enjoying it as much as possible.  Loads of wild flowers blooming and I have been working in the garden getting more garden beds ready for the spring growth.

Here is my latest flower portrait, I have decided to call them portraits as it is how I tend to draw and think of my flowers.  I like to show these little flowers with all their beauty and charm.  They are not botanically correct, though I do try for a reasonable amount of accuracy.  They are portraits with an emphasis on what makes them amazing to me.  With this Early Nancy it is the shape and ‘twiningness’ of their leaves and the vibrancy of the little circlet of purple on every petal that I like.

I have made a few in progress shots of the steps I take to share with you.

Pencil and initial ink outline Early Nancy

First I do an initial pencil sketch and then I will trace it and transfer it to the good paper, which in this case is Somerset rough press in a beige/sand colour about 300gsm. I like the toned paper as it makes the white petals pop.

Early Nancy – Ink layer

Next I use my sennelier inks to block in the colours.  Having the ink underneath really makes the pencils glow.  I used to use acrylic, but the transparency of the inks make a difference and the paper still manages to glow through both the ink and the pencil.  The ink also makes it quicker with the pencils, as I don’t like any of the white showing through of the paper and it covers much quicker.

Early Nancy – Coloured Pencil and Ink

Finally the coloured pencil layer and once all that is finished I will go over with black ink to redo the outline.  After much trial and error and more dead fine-liner pens then I care to mention, I use a dip pen for this outline.  The wax in the pencils will clog a pen very quickly and that is the end of it.  I use a wider nib in my dip pen so I can get a range of widths in my lines which create more movement or interest in the drawing.

Rosie is growing so fast, almost daily I can notice changes.  She is three months now so no longer a little puppy.  She is learning fast and has settled into our family so well.  She is so gentle with Mum, who is getting very frail now, they just love each other as you can see.

Rosie curled up in her bed

Rosie and Hannah

Grandma and Rosie, best of friends

I will leave you with some more photos of the wildflowers that I have taken in the last few days.  Karen

Early Nancy ‘Wurmbea dioica’

Happy Wanderer ‘Hardenbergia violacea’

Greenhood Orchid

Buttercup ‘Rununculus lappaceus’