Add a splash of colour

As far as my flower-theme goes this is one of my first drawings in colour. I wanted to maintain the linear way of shading that I used in my previous black & white drawings.

Materials I used are bistre and Stabilo woody 3 in 1 pencils. These can also be used as watercolour pencils. Because the lines are too bulky for the result I was going for I used them as a paint. I dipped my wet brush onto the pencil until it had infused enough colour to paint with.

The flowers you see here are tulips. Just like the orchids I did before, after blooming they turned into complete different creatures.

Time to move out of the sketchbook

Then it got time to move out of the sketchbook and into the open.

Because I use Indian ink (and bistre) I like using Saunders Waterford watercolour paper. Even when the package says ‘white’ it has a creamy colour and very little grain, the latter making it perfect for detailed work.

The orchids bellow have had their blooming time and have completely dried out. The shapes they take on are very beautiful to me. Like I said before, they take on a different persona. Blooming they were all looking pretty much the same, now they are their own person.

More orchids...

During a whole month I drew (apart from a few exceptions) nothing but orchids. I was getting more and more into the details. Disappearing into the flower or drawing(?) reaching a very comfortable almost meditative state of being.

My sketchbook was starting to fill up with these wonderful creatures.

Start again!

Do you know that moment where you want to start drawing but you just can’t? I was at that moment March 2013. To overcome this problem I decided to draw what was close to me or what was literally near to me.
The orchids on my windowsill were about to bloom so I tried drawing these. I love flowers but never took the time to draw them, I thought it would bore me. From the moment I started those first lines I was hooked, I couldn’t stop!
The idea to draw the orchids throughout their blooming period came to mind. Orchids tend to bloom for very long periods of time so next to orchids I started to draw tulips, sunflowers, hollyhocks…
Doing this I noticed that I enjoyed one moment most: when a flower starts to dry out, becomes translucent in a way and takes on a whole different persona.