I made some more progress on my milkweed, but I continue to be tempted to start over (hence the note on the paper). I feel like the flower got too dark. But I’m still going to finish it.
Thanks so much! To get the general shapes and curves of the edges of the leaves I carefully observed the plant. I was working from a photo that I took, because it wilted pretty quickly. But we have a ton of milkweed, so I brought fresh leaves inside every day to observe closely while I drew them. That helped tremendously. There was a lot of detail and color that my photo didn’t really capture.
These leaves were fairly thick, and the very edge of them was quite lighter than the tops of the leaves. So I drew that light edge in first with a combo of may green, cream, and ivory. Then I toned the top of the leaf right up to that line, and then sometimes into it where the line was too thick. Does any of that make sense? I’m not sure I’m explaining clearly.
Love this Pam. I think it is crying out for a few scattered flowers or something…..Is that a milkweed latex drip at the bottom? If so , I think you can make that more obvious as it almost appears to be the inside of the stem. I know you can do it! Love your description of how you accomplished this
Thank you Wendy. Yup. That’s the latex dripping out of the stem. I’ll try to make it more obvious – great advice. My plan is to add some blowups of the individual flowers including a cross-section to show the structure and ovary. I wish you guys could smell the flower. It’s one of my favorite scents.
I made some more progress on my milkweed, but I continue to be tempted to start over (hence the note on the paper). I feel like the flower got too dark. But I’m still going to finish it.
Gosh…beautiful! I don’t think the flower is too dark at all. Your leaf edges are great. Could you offer some tips on how to do that?
Thanks so much! To get the general shapes and curves of the edges of the leaves I carefully observed the plant. I was working from a photo that I took, because it wilted pretty quickly. But we have a ton of milkweed, so I brought fresh leaves inside every day to observe closely while I drew them. That helped tremendously. There was a lot of detail and color that my photo didn’t really capture.
These leaves were fairly thick, and the very edge of them was quite lighter than the tops of the leaves. So I drew that light edge in first with a combo of may green, cream, and ivory. Then I toned the top of the leaf right up to that line, and then sometimes into it where the line was too thick. Does any of that make sense? I’m not sure I’m explaining clearly.
Also, where that light edge line met the white of the paper, I used a very sharp chromium green opaque on the outside edge to define it a bit.
Really pretty Pam!
Thanks Maureen!
This is fabulous! What size paper and how long did this take you do do?
Love this Pam. I think it is crying out for a few scattered flowers or something…..Is that a milkweed latex drip at the bottom? If so , I think you can make that more obvious as it almost appears to be the inside of the stem. I know you can do it! Love your description of how you accomplished this
Thank you Wendy. Yup. That’s the latex dripping out of the stem. I’ll try to make it more obvious – great advice. My plan is to add some blowups of the individual flowers including a cross-section to show the structure and ovary. I wish you guys could smell the flower. It’s one of my favorite scents.