The Practice of Botanical Drawing Discussion Board

Wow. Just gorgeous.

Here is the twig I made changes to based on, Wendy and Vern’s recommendations.

It’s great, and I know how hard it is to get the form to read with flowers of that deep hue!

I love the rich beautiful colors in this hellebore. Just gorgeous!

I love your use of negative space, lovely…

Pen and ink with graphite. Habitat drawing of rhododendron that lives in Boothbay, Maine. It’s sad because the deer ate lots of the buds but happily many more are higher up where the deer can’t reach.

A closeup of the rhododendron drawing.

I like this closeup of the drawing because of the composition better than the full drawing.

Working on this drawing was challenging because I tried to incorporate what was going on behind the main two buds and their leaves. Not sure if I will continue or not.

Newly cut branch from rhododendron showing the change from the color of the old growth and the new green growth. I was interested in the way this branch sent out three branches in different directions and was growing toward the earth.

Rhododendron leaf from the winter.

Found 9 woody plants beginning to bud on a walk today near my house in Maine. Planning to identify them all and make some sketches.

Carol, I have a lot of trouble finding good color mixes. It’s trial and error and doing lots of mixes before starting and sticking to them.

Great advice Vern, helps me a lot. The drawing is really nice Carol and Vern’s advice should help you get the drawing to where you can be satisfied with it.

Beautiful drawing. What Sheila said…

Butterfly Ranunculus. Love the curvy stems and leaves. Also translucent petals that are iridescent when strong light shines on them. This is apparently due to a ‘waxy ‘ coating and is very attractive to the eye of the pollinator.
Challenges: how do I make that shiny white reflectiveness of iridescence?? Apply white watercolour??
I really don…[Read more]

These leaves are so striking!