It’s been a while…and summer has gone, it’s getting stormy and cold outside here in Germany.
As I went through my recent sketchbook pages with a cup of tea in hand, I rediscovered this page of strawflower sketches that I had completely forgotten about. They seem to carry the memory of the last warm summer days.
I collected the flowers from my community garden patch and then sketched each of them in a different ink color, since I’m currently testing a few waterproof inks again.
No need to dry the strawflowers or act quickly before they wilt, because they’re already dried. The only thing they have lost is a few feather-light seeds, a few of which I added in one corner of my page.
I only did a very rough pencil sketch in the form of geometric shapes that outline the form, then decided to ink those delicate flowers without a more detailed underdrawing. I’ve drawn in ink a lot in recent month, so I feel comfortable doing this.
I added a bit of darker value here and there for increased contrast. And because it seemed like fun, I also added very soft shadows in watercolor. This is a mix of Holbein cobalt violet and the muddy corners on my palette.
It was relaxing to figure out the different positions of the flowers – a good way to practice getting proportions, volume and foreshortening right.
On the right, I added a landscape with a river, but I somehow ran out of steam during the painting phase so it’s all very soft and muted.
The flowers are still around, slowly distributing seeds on my desk and floor, I wonder if I should keep them as reminders of warmer days?
Love your strawflower series from different angles, but
especially the side with phyllaries and seeds at the top
of the page! Phyllaries help me a lot in identifying which
species I’m looking at in the sunflower family; it’s encouraging
to see those shapes made part of the composition instead
of being ignored.
Absolutely, I like to keep the plants recognizable even if I sketch them loosely.
Dear Julia,
The ink flowers and the Watercolor shadows just look wonderful together! Thanks for showing them, what a great inspiration!
Thank you dear Jasmin! :-)
Thank you so much!
This inspired me to sketch the kinda-sad, but still blooming, little flowers on my hike. I am such a fan of pen-and-ink, and these strawflowers are just lovely in their accurate simplicity. Thank you.