"A single pink peony"8" x 11" coloured pencil on Arches Hot Press paper
Dull grey days in winter tend to be the time when I to sit and look through all the flower reference photographs I took in the last year during visits to Kew and Wisley and on various travels. I seem to find that if you fill the frame with the subject and have good natural light, the colour coming through in the image produced is fairly close to the original. Of course I'd love to be drawing the original but then I'd love for the weather to be like May as well!
I don't think you would believe just how many pink coloured pencils I had out for this one in my attempt to capture the right pink shade - there are lots of quite subtle colour changes and I still don't think I've got it quite right. However I very much prefer the Polychromos, Pablo and Lyra Rembrandt coloured pencils for doing flowers - they produce a much cleaner finish. Links to the brand sites for these are on my squidoo lens for coloured pencils.
I had a little bit of a search for peony sites as I love peonies and came up with the ones in the links list below. Sadly the UK one seems to be having major problems with its website - but the Canadian one is well worth a visit.
The first of the 2007 Royal Horticultural Society London Flower Shows start on 16-17 January with 'Winter Fragrance'. This will include an exhibition of botanical paintings.
Links:
- Making A Mark: Single Peony
- Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
- American Peony Society
- The Canadian Peony Society
- RHS London Flower Shows 2007Royal Horticultural Halls, Greycoat Street, London SW1
- Exhibition of botanical art at RHS shows
you've caught the light through the petals beautifully, and the delicacy. I love the colour changes and the colourful shadows.
ReplyDeleteA breath of summer in this. Just lovely. The colours are beautiful. I envy those with the ability to render flowers. All mine come out resembling dog's faces!
ReplyDeleteI'd love to see this one IRL, Katherine. The colours look beautiful and as usual your pencil technique fascinates me. I'm mad about peonies too. We didn't see many in Sydney (outside expensive florist shops), so I'm really excited that I will able to have some in pots this year.
ReplyDeleteThis is beautiful, Katherine. I'm not normally a flower person, but the color palette on this is striking and you've nailed the depth.
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