Cornus capitata Fruit

This strange fruit brightened up the dreary winter day as I walked through my neighborhood and spied it on a small tree. Who can resist the cheery red fruit with the bright evergreen leaves?

In photos I have seen, the Cornus capitata fruits seem to vary a lot as far as the bumpiness of the skin goes but the fruits from this tree were relatively smooth so I drew them as I saw them. I submitted this painting for Assignment 7 in the SBA course I am taking, which was to be a study of fruit.

I am continuing on with my approach of using a limited palette of pigments to mix the shades of green and the shadow colors.  I used a wash of yellow under the red of the fruit to give them a glow and a slightly peachy-tint.

Cornus capitata or Evergreen Dogwood, is not native to the area where I live but is grown in cultivation here.  It is not very common at all, in fact I have not ever even noticed one before.

The Road Map

I find it helpful, even essential, to make a road map of where I am going with a botanical painting.  This is where I try out my composition ideas and do a tonal study. Here I can freely erase and rearrange without the fear of damaging the delicate surface of my watercolor paper.  Once I am happy with the composition, I use my light box to transfer the main lines of the drawing to my watercolor paper.  I refer back to my 'road map' drawing often as I paint the forms and shadows of my botanical painting.

I used to think of plants as being quite inert and stationary, but as I have studied specimens closely over time while doing my drawings, I realize that they are constantly in motion.  The leaves and flowers continually make small adjustments according to the light and moisture in the environment, and as they develop and fade. At first I was confused and wondered how I could continually get my drawing so wrong, but it slowly dawned on me that the plant was moving so I needed to choose a spot for a given leaf and leave it there in the drawing even if the plant had moved on to a new position!

 I find myself doing a lot of primping and even propping of my 'live model' to keep her happy and healthy for as long as possible, and roughly in position.  She goes on breaks outside when she is not posing for me, and when she is posing, she gets spritzed and watered regularly. For this drawing I used a cut branch and affixed a florists vial filled with water to the end to keep it moisturized.  I can understand why some botanical artists give their specimens nicknames--they become like well-known actors on a stage, even prima donnas, to be carefully tended to get the optimum performance. I have also found that reference photos are indispensable for when my model has passed her prime and is nearing retirement!

This drawing is of Cornus capitata for Assignment 8 in the SBA course I am taking. We are to depict a fruit.  I wanted to include the twig and leaves not only because they say so much about the fruit but because the forms and colors complement one another so well.  I'll give you an update on my progress before too long.

Lemon Curd

We made lemon curd to give to friends this Christmas, which afforded me a great opportunity to try my hand at painting a lemon for the label. I didn't have much time to spend on it, but it felt good to be back at painting.

Here is the finished label. I put suggestions on the back: "Try it on English Muffins or Toast, Vanilla Ice Cream, or a Spoon". In case you are wondering, the spoon method is the best.

Btw, I am determined to put other things on hold and spend more time sketching and painting in the coming year, so I should be posting more often in the next months.  Life is too short to let something I enjoy so much get crowded out...

Clematis tangutica 'Aureolin'

This is my submission for Assign. 5 in the SBA course I am taking. Golden Clematis is one of my favorite vines so I was pleased to see that it had so many blossoms during September and October while I was working on this assignment.

I spent more time on composition and a tonal study than I did on the actual painting, and I am glad that I did because it is such a complex subject (at least for me as a beginner at botanical painting). The odd angles and twisting stems made it difficult to establish where everything was in relation to everything else.

I wanted to see if I could mix all of the colors from three primary pigments, in hopes that it would unify the overall painting.  I spent one whole day just mixing colors, trying to match the actual plant as closely as possible!

I started with W&N Transparent Yellow, because that matched the flowers best of all of my yellows.  Then I went to the color charts that I made earlier in the course and looked for greens that were close to the leaf color.  Fortunately there was one in the Transparent Yellow column that was pretty close. So that led me to use W&N Winsor Blue (Green Shade).  Next I decided on Permanent Rose for the red since the burgundy stem color seemed to lean in that direction.  So all the colors in the painting are mixed from those three pigments.

Working on the composition in graphite.

A Handy Light Box

I am working on a very detailed graphite drawing that I will soon need to transfer to my watercolor paper.  This handy dandy light box will prove to be invaluable.  The thick watercolor paper I use (so I don't need to stretch it) becomes as transparent as tissue paper when I lay it over my drawing on the light box.  Technology--gotta love it!

This light box is only 3/4" thick and comes with a nice velvety storage bag.  You can get them in several sizes but I thought 12" x 17" would serve my purposes best. It uses a halogen light bulb so should last many years.


Btw, I found mine way cheaper than the manufacturer's suggested price because of a special deal at Jerry's Artarama.

The Garden Island

We spent some time on the Hawaiian island of Kauai this summer, and fell in love with the natural beauty of the island. One of my favorite memories is of our hike along an unspoiled beach.

In one area we could hear air wheezing up through cracks in the stone at our feet because the waves had worn away the base of the cliff. This fisherman was standing on an outcropping, which after I started sketching it, I realized looks like a dragon.

The ocean is an amazing bright turquoise color in Hawaii, especially close to the shore.

We saw many exotic tropical plants during our visit, one of which was this remarkable Ponytail Palm that I sketched at a botanical garden.

Blossoms of PNW Natives

This is my fourth assignment in the Society of Botanical Art course that I am taking. We were supposed to depict blossoms of different shapes, colors and sizes (all life-size). The perspective should accurately describe the construction of the blossom, ie having a throat or a cup-shape. I chose to feature plants that are native or naturalized in the area where I live. It was a very challenging assignment but I learned a lot!

I found some of these growing in the fields around my house.   Some were plants that I either regarded as weeds or hadn't noticed before, but after studying them for this assignment their beauty speaks to me in a new way when I see them on my rambles. 

If you are interested, I posted the flowers individually on flickr.