A pacific northwest themed commission! Autumn fern and bumblebee, the whole thing only 8.5″x11″. Eye-melting detail is my bread and butter so this was a real treat.
Inktober day 14 is my brave little orchid (actual size about 6 inches tall).
Inktober day 5--I'm on a plant kick I guess, this is one I actually own. Four progress shots and the final, which I like significantly less.
Happy mother’s day! I had to wait to post this illustration I made for my mom because she follows this blog and I didn’t want to spoil the surprise. This is lily of the valley, which is my birth month flower, and larkspur, which is hers. Microns on illustration board.
I think this might be done! I'm really happy with it. Sometimes I don't realize how well a piece is going until I photograph it.
Developing this guy for the first time in months! Oh microns, I love you so.
Here's what I've been working on the past couple days. I'm calling it Small Kingdoms, in reference to this Mary Oliver poem.
Sleeping in the Forest
I thought the earth remembered me, she took me back so tenderly, arranging her dark skirts, her pockets full of lichens and seeds. I slept as never before, a stone on the river bed, nothing between me and the white fire of the stars but my thoughts, and they floated light as moths among the branches of the perfect trees. All night I heard the small kingdoms breathing around me, the insects, and the birds who do their work in the darkness. All night I rose and fell, as if in water, grappling with a luminous doom. By morning I had vanished at least a dozen times into something better.
I did not base it on this poem; this image came to me independently of outside influence. I happened across the poem a few days into the drawing and they seemed to be related to one another. I can't tell if the drawing is done or not.
Here are the rest of my finals from botanical illustration. From left to right, they are Albuca longipes (watercolor), a cluster of as-yet-unidentified mushrooms (Micron pens), and purple columbine (watercolor and graphite pencil). The albuca and the mushrooms are not 100% done but I like the way they're looking at this stage.
Oh my dear patient followers. I have been up to my eyeballs in finals for about a month (don't give me that look, one of them at least was a REALLY big deal). Here is a multi-part reward for being so wonderful and still following me even though I'm neglectful: the step-by-step process of this botanical plate, which was one of my finals for my botanical illustration class. The captions describe what step is shown in each photo, but for those of you on mobile (which I don't think shows captions), here it is in list form. <3
- Finished pen and ink white pine cone with all my other specimens, when they were still fresh, laid out on the page so I could start thinking about how I wanted to arrange them. I could not have done this step if I hadn't decided to draw everything at actual size.
- My larch sprig with cone and illustration.
- The lacebark pine cone, sweet gum seed ball, and dawn redwood cone and my sketches of them.
- The coast redwood frond and cone, with illustration.
- The next two photos show the step where I trace the value study illustration using a blue-leaded pencil. In the next step (not pictured, sorry), I use this tracing and a piece of transfer paper to transfer the drawing onto the plate. I used blue lead in the last step so that, when I trace over it to make the transfer with a regular graphite pencil, I can easily see which parts I've already done.
- All my blue tracings, arranged (and rearranged, again and again) on the plate, trying to find the right spot for them.
- The very final final!
So much more to come! I'll try and spread it out so as not to overwhelm any innocent feeds.
<3
Trying out different compositions. It's really hard to get a sense of the balance of the piece with the blue tracings; they're so insubstantial.
What I'm painting today. Am I crazy to try to paint this plant? I think probably.