White Rose

Last Friday I showed my students how to make a white flower with coloured pencils. Normally I would prefer to use watercolour as a base for white flowers. It's just more delicate. But it can be done in coloured pencil. The most difficult part is not to use outlines to show the flower but only shadows and colour. This is what I made for them when I demonstrated how to do that. It's a tiny (1 inch) tiny rose. White with a hint of pink.

The image here is a bit enlarged and I wasn't able to get the sharpness, smoothness and the colours right but it's close.
As you can see there are no outlines at all. The darkest shadows are at the overlaps of the petals and are quite strong. Also there's a good amount of shading under the stamens. That shading makes them pop up from the flower.
The biggest reason I don't like to make white flowers with coloured pencil is that there aren't so many subtle, very light coloured pencils. Caran d'Ache Luminance pencils however have a nice range of very light colours, almost whites... So I was happy this time I could use their Buff Titanium for the creamy centre. If you compare it to the cream pencils of Faber-Castell and Prismacolor it is whiter, less yellow. And sometimes it's just that tiny bit that will make the difference.

Rose Hips in Coloured Pencil

TUTORIAL

This is a long tutorial, many steps but since I know many of you have difficulty to understand the process, I thought it's better to share every little step I took in creating this drawing. Enjoy :)

Materials

Every twig with rose hips is different of course so only use this list of colours as a guide. Of course you can use my list but I strongly suggest you have a good look at your own rose hips to see what colours will be best for you.
This list is not complete. I used a lot of different other colours for smaller details. It is wise to get as much different colours so you have large range to pick from.

• Coloured Pencils:

Faber-Castell
234 Cold Grey VI
235 Cold Grey V
141 Delft Blue
278 Chrome Oxide Green
175 Dark Sepia
126 Permanent Carmine
223 Deep Red
121 Pale Geranium Lake
113 Light Orange
171 Light Green
168 Earth Green Yellowish

Prismacolor
1067 Cool Grey 90%
996 Grape
1095 Black Raspberry
925 Crimson Lake
923 Scarlet Lake
937 Tuscan Red
917 Sunburst Yellow
940 Sand
938 White
1026 Greyed Lavender
1087 Powder Blue

Yes, I use a lot of colours, I know :P

• Graphite pencils: HB, B, 2H, and the hardest you can get (I have 10H)
• Tracing paper
• Lyra Splender Blender (or another colourless pencil blender)
• Electric Eraser (like Sakura)
• kneadable eraser
• Embossing stylus, the thinnest you can get with a rounded tip. I use the Pergamano 0,5 10031.
• Low tack Frisket Film (you just need a small piece of that)
• Sketchbook/Sketching paper
• A sheet of HP watercolour paper. I use Fabriano 5. Any brand is good as long as it’s white and HP (which is very smooth). Don’t use Bristol because that will smudge too fast.
• A very good sharpener for your pencils.
• Fine sandpaper for sharpening the pencils.
• Eraser shield is optional

Step 1: Line Drawing

First of all you make a drawing of the twig in your sketchbook. Once you’re happy with it, make sure to erase all the sketch lines and mistakes, leaving a clean line drawing.
Now you trace this and transfer it on to your watercolour paper. Be very careful not to press your pencil too hard in the paper (this is very important!). Go over the graphite transfer lines with a very hard and pointed pencil (and don’t press too hard!!!). Draw very light, just enough to see the lines. Use your kneadable eraser to clean the paper, removing all the graphite powder from the tracing.

Step 2: White highlights

Before you start colouring anything you have to put the highlights in. I mean the very, very lightest parts. For now we'll call it white. The larger white reflections you can do with a white coloured pencil. I prefer to use my PC 938 because it is more "fat" than the Faber-Castell white. The tiny little spots of white or small light coloured light you want to save can be marked by using the embossing stylus. You press a little dimple in the paper so the next layers of colours won't reach that paper and stay white.

Step 3: Tonal Base

Now take the Faber-Castell greys and start putting in the shadows. Don’t press too hard. Make your shadows darker by taking a darker grey, not by pressing harder. Work gentle with small movements. Make small overlapping ellipses. Always use a sharp point, so often use your sharpener or sandpaper. Don’t push the greys too far into your drawing. Be sure to soften the edges to the white so you get a nice fade.

Step 4: Darkest shadow colours

Now squint your eyes and try to see only colours. What is the basic red, what is the colour in the darkest parts, what colours do you detect in the lighter parts. The parts that aren’t ripened entirely might be more green or orange. Make some colour studies on a scrap piece of paper. Layer some colours to see the effect.
Now start with the darkest colour for the shadows. Don’t pick a darker version of the base colour, don’t pick dark red. Pick something that glows through the red. I used Faber-Castell (FC) 141 Delft Blue and FC 278 Chrome Oxide Green. Again, add a very thin layer and don’t press too hard. Always a sharp point and gentle, gentle, gentle...

Step 5: First Colour

Take the colour you see all over the hips (the main colour). For me it was FC 126 Permanent Carmine. Put a soft layer of this red all over the hips where you can see that colour. Of course not on the white parts and not in the parts where it has a totally different colour.
As you can see I did the same with the twig, using FC 278 Chrome Oxide Green and FC 175 Dark Sepia in the shadows and FC 171 Light Green as the main colour.


Step 6: Deepen the colours

Have a look at the hips and look what colours you see “hidden” in the main red colour. I can see some orange glowing through the red in the lighter parts. Other parts have some blueish purple, I also see some browner reds. Put the right colour in those parts. In the image you can see I’ve added the FC 113 Light Orange. Still you’re not pressing the layers. Don’t forget to sharpen your pencils and work with small gentle movements. Don’t concentrate on details yet.

Step 7: Deepen the shadows

This is when I will make the shadows darker. I used a bit more FC 278 Chrome Oxide Green and Prismacolor (PC) 1095 Black Raspberry. I go really dark in the shadows and almost black where there are overlaps. Be sure you don’t go too dark near the edges.

Step 8: Deepen Reds

Take all your reds and layer your reds until you are happy with the colour. Try to use the FC pencils first and the PC last. When you feel good about it you can start using a bit more pressure to blend the colours together. Also put a layer of red over the shadows.

Step 9: Going Back To The Shadows

You might notice that the shadows got a bit weakened by the reds. So go back there and add again more colour. I used more PC 1095 Black Raspberry and in some parts a bit of FC 175 Dark Sepia and also PC 996 Grape.
The shadows in the rose hips closest to the viewer are darker. This is where I used more Black Raspberry. The hips further away have more Grape. This because it’s a cooler and a bit lighter colour. It’s a bit of aerial perspective.

Step 10: Blend the Reds

Now start blending all red layers with red coloured pencils. What I mean by that is that now you can start using more pressure to get a paint like effect and mix all the colours of the previous layers together. I love to use my Prismacolor pencils for this because the colours are just a bit deeper and stronger than the Faber-Castell pencils.
Be very careful not to go in the white parts. And even in this stage... keep your points sharp!

Step 11: The highlights

 

Now it is time to add the highlights. I used the PC 938 White. Be very careful to work from the white part to the red colour. Clean your pencil point every time it has been into the red and you want to go back into the white again. I also use the white with some pressure over the reds around the highlights as well.

Step 12: Reflected Light

After the highlights I take my PC Powder blue or a light cool grey or a greyed Lavender, what ever looks best, and add the reflected light in the shadows and around the shadow edge. Use a very sharp point and do this carefully. You want a sharp edge.
Now use the blender pencil all over the hips (but avoiding the white). If you feel the colours turned a bit dull you can lift it by adding a bit of red over it.

Step 13: Details

Finally you can concentrate on the details. You will probably see that some tiny embossed highlight points are gone or nearly gone. You can still see the tiny dents but the blending might have pushed some colour in. You can lift this by using some low tack Frisket film and your embossing tool. See the photos to see the magic happen.

You can use the Frisket film or your electric eraser to lift colour from the parts where “nasty brown bits” are. Small damages, beasty bites and things like that. These not so perfect parts give a lot of charm to the hips and make them more alive.

Peel some of the paper off the film and lay it over the part where you need to lift the colour. DON’T stick the film on the drawing!!!!

Take your stylus and make a tiny dot where the highlight should have been. You can also add a few new highlights like this if you feel it needs more white spots or lines.

Step 14: Sharpening the Lines

The drawing will look best if your lines are clean and sharp. On the other hand you don’t want it to be too sharp and crisp.
Most important is to have very, very sharp points on your pencils. It helps if you use a harder pencil than the Prismacolor pencils. Faber-Castell is hard but there is also the Prismacolor Verithin range. Very hard and very useful. The only problem is that you can only get it in the US.

Work from the “inside” of the drawing (see photo).

Finally you can use the hardest graphite pencil you can get (I have a 10H) and make a crisp line on the edge of your drawing. The reason why you need a hard pencil for this is that it gives a very thin line (use the sandpaper to make it dangerously sharp) but it hardly gives you a grey line.

Don’t overdo this crisp lining. Use it on tiny details, thin lines and very carefully along the stalks and stems. If you do too much or use a line that is too dark (too soft pencil) it will look artificial.

At the end, clean the paper with the kneadable eraser. Large boo-boos you can remove with the electric eraser (use an eraser shield if you need to do that near the drawing).

Finally

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and that it all made sense, helped you and made you (more) enthusiastic about making botanical art with coloured pencils.

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I'm a bad blogger

I know... I really should post more often than I do but I keep postponing it like I do with so many have-to-do-things. Times have been incredibly busy. I'm working every day now that Bertus is going to school. I've worked hard on the bulb project for next year's exhibition. If you missed that, I blogged about that here. I made many sketches of the Ornithogalum and I'll do that later this year (after autumn).

I'm really hard working on a huge painting of the Spanish Bluebells. I like that one a lot.

I made a painting of the Arisaema fargesii rhizome. Now I'm waiting for it to grow and hopefully flower so I can do the rest. I also did a few other species of Arisaema rhizomes. They have such a funny shape and the different textures are really nice to paint.

The Narcissus didn't flower, oddly enough. But I can't say I'm very sad about that. I don't like Narcissus that much and above all it was a double one. Not my taste really.

In the meantime I did a little study of Rosa moyesii 'Geranium' Trying to do the first layers of the petals wet in wet. It worked. So perhaps I'll try it more often, now that I know it's not that difficult. Also I'm painting some tiny rosebuds on vellum now. That is a lot of fun because it is fast result and the colours stay so brilliant. It's not finished yet but here's how it looks so far.

Other news is that I sold my Nectaroscordum painting last week at the annual group exhibition of the Dutch Society of Botanical Artists. I also sold a little painting of the black tulip 'Queen of Night'. A really fun flower to paint and not as hard as it looks. Really it's not!

I'm working now, besides the painting, on a new website. It will again contain a webshop where you can buy prints and cards and probably some originals. Also a big portfolio.
Even more exciting news is that my coloured pencil drawing of Polygonatum was published in the summer issue of "De Tuin, exclusief". I'm really proud of that since I think it's the most beautiful garden magazine.

 

I probably did draw and paint a couple of other things but these up here were the most interesting. I'll post the buds on vellum when it's finished. And that really should be soon ;))

Hips

I finally managed to finish something again. And it was about time too. For the first time I painted rose hips with my watercolours. I already did hips in graphite, coloured pencils and even with pen & ink. But never watercolour. The Botanical Artists forum on Facebook has a bunch of very active and motivating members and when one starts to paint apples, we all start to paint apples. When one mentions she wants to paint hips I too want to paint hips.... It's fun though, to see all the different approaches to the same subject.

For the first time. And it was nice work. I really enjoyed doing it. I chose the tiny hips of Rosa 'Francis E. Lester'. This rose blooms with many clouds of small flowers during the summer and gets an enormous amount of orange hips in Autumn.

This is on Lanaquarelle HP, paper size 4"x 6".

Autumn

I love Autumn. But then again, I suppose all botanical artists love autumn. So much going on, so many beautiful colours, not to mention all the fruits and seeds...
In my previous post you could read I'm working a bit more with watercolours now. Also trying out some things to combine the coloured pencils and watercolours. Valerie Oxley told us that it shouldn't matter how we come to a good result, as long as we get a good result. I got to experiment with that when I made a watercolour of the rose hips of one of my roses, Rosa moyesii 'Geranium'.

I started to make a watercolour of it. But in the end I wasn't totally happy with the way it looked. I worked a bit too much in the red and it got a bit grainy and muddy. I remembered what Valerie told us and thought 'why not'.
I got some coloured pencils out and saved the painting. It looks much better now and I'm glad I did what I did.

Next I tried to make a painting of a rose hip I picked from my Rosa glauca. That didn't work. AT ALL. It was hopeless, even my pencils couldn't make that one better. So this time I made the rose hip again, now using only coloured pencils. Sometimes things just don't go as you plan it I guess. But it doesn't matter... as long as you get a nice result in the end.

Now I need to think about what to make next... it's autumn and there's so much choice...

Rosa glauca

The last two days I was working on a drawing of one of my favourite roses. Rosa glauca. It's a botanical rose with small pink flowers. The leaves are spectacular: grey green with a bit of dark red in the veins and stems. In the autumn the rose has a lot of dark red hips. It's wonderful. I made a drawing of the hips two years ago. I will probably do another one this year or next year since I've sold the first.

The rose is flowering only for a very short period and I had to work fast for this drawing. This morning yesterday's flower had dropped it's petals. I'm happy with the flower and I think the pink resembles the true colour very well. Also the buds and the stem (or branch) are very good I think. The leaves however are a bit of a problem. I don't like doing leaves and the colour of these leaves is very difficult. I managed to draw two leaves and I hope the pink of the flower and the red of the branch will distract the attention from the leaves a bit.

Oh, and about the rose... it's called Rosa glauca, which means Red-leaved rose. The front of the leaf is grey- green but the backside of the leaf is a bit reddish. The veins are red too. It is a species of rose native to the mountains of central and southern Europe.

Rose 'Heritage'

I have this wonderful rose on my table. I'm drawing another rose at the moment but this one has such a wonderful smell...

Roses

I love roses. I haven't counted my roses but I have a few in my garden. Shall I name them? Oh well, why not :~)

There is of course 'New Dawn'. That's the first rose I ever bought. Strong and survives everything (hot summers, hard pruning, dry grounds, shadow gardens). And she is still very nice.
Rosa Glauca, I mentioned her in an earlier post. One of my favorites. Nice foliage, lovely small pink flowers, beautiful hips in autumn and winter.
I've also mentioned 'Heritage' before. This is one of three Austin roses I have. The other two are 'Abraham Darby' and 'the Squire'.

'Abraham Darby' (photo above) is a beauty and has a great scent. 'the Squire' (which is no longer available I think) is a difficult one. The colour is very deep dark red, almost black sometimes. It smells wonderful, but it hardly has any leaves, it has a lot of thorns and it just looks like it's going to die any moment. Not a very happy rose.
Is that it? Nooooo! I'm just getting started. I also have a lady called 'Mme. Alfred Carrière'.

Actually I have two of her. Perfect climber, flowers all summer long and very healthy green foliage.
Another strong and beautiful climber is 'Lykkefund', maybe this is my favorite. Lot of small creamy white flowers with warm yellow centres. It has no thorns but it has very nice orange rose hips in the autumn. Oh, and very nice scented too!

But... I have also 'Moonlight'. Maybe that's my favorite...

The young foliage is red, so are the new branches. Later on the foliage gets dark green, not too big and looks very healthy. The flowers are very nice too. Creamy white. Lightly scented. But the foliage.... just wonderful!
Then there is 'Desprez a Fleur Jaunes'. Sadly this one doesn't seem to like it very much in my garden. It hardly gets any flowers and it looks a bit ill to me. Maybe I should try it somewhere else.
'Paul's Scarlet Climber' is in my front garden. Since two years a blackbird nests in it. Very wise decision to nest in that rose with our cat Murkje wandering about. This rose is... Scarlet, how did you guess? Not a good colour for the back garden but very good for the front.
Finally there is Rosa moyesii 'Geranium' in the front garden. Very fine feathery leaves, beautiful red flowers and big orange bottle shaped hips.
I said finally but I remember now that there are two more roses in my garden. They both belonged to my grandfather. They are both pink and both have very large flowers. My grandfather liked roses like that. And I must admit that they look like roses should: like roses ;~D

I think that's it. If I've counted correctly that makes 13 different kinds of roses. Maybe there are even more, I guess there are...

The first stages

As I said, I've been drawing my bark with coloured pencil. It's not finished yet, Bertus won't let me draw. But when he's asleep in the afternoon, I have a few hours to draw a little. And after dinner there is also an hour left for me to draw. And here are the results of the first stages of the drawing. It's a difficult piece of bark with all these flakes. But that's what makes it interesting. First I have to draw the basic outlines of the hole thing. I added also some obvious shadow parts so I wouldn't get lost while I was drawing.


The second thing I did was to add more shadows and add more colour in the shadow parts. This will give it more depth then just a simple gray layer.

After finishing most of the shadow parts I started in one corner to layer colours and blend them together. Added more details to it.

And that's where I am right now. Hopefully I can do a bit more today, although it is very warm today. We're playing outside most of the time today. It's okay to sit in the shadow under the trees and Bertus can play with water there.

Veronicastrum virginicum 'Diana' is a smaller variety of my Veronicastrums. While the other, taller ones have barely any flowers left, this white beauty is just starting to bloom. It is standing in a spot where is more shadow. I guess that's the reason why.

Another thing I noticed today is my Rosa Glauca. She thinks that it's almost autumn so it seems. The rose hips are starting to turn red and dark, the leaves are turning yellow.

It's all going so fast in this dry and hot weather... Thankfully an other rose thinks it's springtime. 'Moonlight' is getting a lot of red young, fresh shoots and leaves. Beautiful to see it when the sun is shining through.