A plethora of wildflowers (some of which I can’t identify, unfortunately) inspired me to add to one of my altered books this morning:
Here’s a closer view of the page with a wild mustard flower (I think), and a Texas Skeleton Weed:
And a closer view of the page with Purple Loosestrife and Rhatany (aka Prairie Sandbur):
All drawings are in micron pen and colored pencil, with watercolor backgrounds. The page marker is a length of baling twine, and the background book is Fowls of the Air by William J. Long (same book that I was modifying in a previous post).
For a soundtrack, think of Northern Bobwhite calls, Mourning Dove whoooing, and Scissor-tailed Flycatcher chattering.
Good work. Awesome flowers
I wish I had the skill to draw in the field like that. I used tohave to keep images in my head as best I could. Now with a cell phone that has a camera, I can manage. But your drawings are quite nice. I am the Estate Naturalist at a museum in Farmington, CT and we have an outstanding number of wildflowers. Thanks for a nice blog. Cheers, Diane Tucker, Estate Naturalist, Hill-Stead Museum
Thanks for your nice comments, Global Changes and Diane.
@ Diane – I usually draw the contours of the flowers in the field, and then add the colors and shading from my iPhone photos later. I drew and painted constantly as a child, and when I was 12 or so, I was allowed to take drawing lessons with a local artist. She used the methods described by Kimon Nicolaides in The Natural Way to Draw: A Working Plan for Art Study. I think the methods outlined can work for just about anyone, regardless of perceived artistic ability; the book was copyrighted in the 1940s, but it’s readily (and inexpensively) available on Amazon. When I was taking lessons, we always did the gestural drawings, but that was necessary for setting up compositions and learning about shadows. For my art journals and altered books I don’t bother with this part. I think my background in the Nicolaides methods has served me well as an adult, in all sorts of watercolor and colored pencil workshops, and in entertaining medical and dental students during their stressful anatomy lab practical exams.