Thirty Day Vellum Challenge Concludes....feathers, bugs and a few old favourites

Having made a late start to the challenge on Sept 5th, I was a bit worried that it wasn't going to be possible to paint 30 small vellum works in the 25 remaining days in September but forged ahead regardless but as predicted fell short of the full 30. I posted the first 10 previously so here are the remaining 15 - in no particular order. These are quick snaps taken on the phone but I'll photograph them properly before uploading to my Etsy shop where they will be for sale. All are painted life size with the exception of the feathers (x1.5)

No 17. Peacock Feather, collected from the David Austin Garden back in July. I try to find one of the feathers every time I go there. The contrast from the glossy vibrant top compared to the downy base make this a great subject. It also has the tiny distinctive barbs which are tricky to paint at this size...W& N series 7 miniature, size 1 required! Colours winsor blue green shade and winsor green blue shade with some violet dioxazine. the feathery base is a mix of paynes grey and van dyke brown. I scratched away a few small highlights. This image is approx 4 x 3.5 inches.

It was a good opportunity for me to paint a few things that I might not normally have time for, such as feathers and insects.Feathers are great subjects because they are very ordered and smooth at the top but also have the light floaty base which is great to paint. Definitely a good exercise in painting texture!

Number 16 The first small  Peacock feather painted. It has a very iridescent tip and great colour. I added a little of the Daniel Smith iridescent paint but I don't think it really added that much. I also used some titanium white on the downy parts but wished I hadn't, again not needed.

No. 20 Another peacock feather, such a beautiful colour I don't think I do it justice, might try it again sometime I particularly like how the light catches one side of the feather and makes it so vibrant, whereas the other side appears quite dull until it's turned to the light and become this electric blue/ I used winsor blue green shade and prussian blue wit some winsor green ( blue shade). Both colours that I would almost never use in a botanical painting....with the exception of the Jade vine.

No. 19,  I love this very small peacock feather, it's not one that I would recognise from this beautiful bird. Its very delicate and floaty

No. 22. Small Pigeon feather from down the lane. I'd found  a dead bird at the roadside so collected a few of it's feathers. This is on natural vellum using titanium white over a mix of paynes grey and van dyke brown washes. Not sure if it works or not.

Insects are always fun to paint on vellum, so I added a couple from my daughters collection. I had intended to do more but had to spend a few days away unexpectedly.

No. 11 Gorgeous red beetle. The colours change in the light shimmering from red to green and making this very tricky. Vellum has to be the perfect surface to achieve these rich colours, shine and fine detail. Image is approx 2.5 x 2.5 inches

Another Flower beetle for day 12. The white spot are easily removed from vellum with a scalpel so much easier than using masking fluid on paper. I also added a touch of titanium white on the spots catching the light to make it brighter than the background vellum colour.

Of course I also painted some of the more usual subject material for a 30 day challenge and there's no better time for this than late summer/autumn here in the UK. I did want to avoid repeating too many of subjects previously painted so although the rose hips were tempting I gave them a miss this year but couldn't resist the acorns again.

I did this in one day but I'm claiming it as days 15-17 because there are 3. Again collected from the graveyard next to my flat. These are pretty tiny acorns which I thought really cute.

No. 23, A lichen encrusted branch on Natural vellum. I did this very quickly, maybe 90 minutes in total so it's less detailed but I quite like a less detailed finish on natural vellum.

No. 24, This old leaf was found in the lane and really was falling apart, there was no shine on it but I liked the holes and decay

No. 14 I discovered a patch of Arum fruits at the bottom of the lane which had been trampled on, so managed to rescue this one and paint it  before all the fruits fell off

Day 18 - this one was featured in last weeks post - along with a video of the painting process

Out of time! I made a start  on this honeysuckle fruit but have too many other things to do.... so that's all folks!

30 Paintings on Vellum in 30 Days

Haven't written a blog post for over almost a month and it's really bothering me! There's one in the offing about photographing artwork but it requires some use of the grey matter to finish it off, so here's s something about the new 30 Day Challenge in the meantime. It was initiated on the Botanical Artist's Facebook Group, and requires 30 small works to be completed during September. Over the past few years I've tried a few of these Challenges, here's a link to one that I actually completed in 2013, and wrote a daily blog for.
This time I wanted to try something different so have decided to do all 30 on vellum....it is do-able if I keep it simple!

Day 5-10 Violas on Kelmscott Vellum, size approx 8 x 6. I bought these little pots of flowers from the local DIY store and painted the whole sheet in one day because I was so behind. The palette included: Holbein Manganese Blue PB33 ( not the hue) with W & N Cobalt Violet and Quin Magenta. I love the way PB33 separates, it's really useful for high light value pale violet flowers, with both pink and blue  present. Also Violet Dioxazine. Lemon Yellow NT and Cadmium Yellow for the flower centres. The greens included Cobalt Violet, Lemon Yellow and permanent rose. 

 The Challenge started while I was away in Italy, where I visited the Venice Biennale, it's good to view a diverse range of art and the Biennale was certainly that! diversity definitely feeds the brain and upon my return I was was left playing 'catch-up' with the Challenge but definitely inspired to work.

I try to tie in this sort of challenge with other work, and these little studies are prefect for video examples for my new online Vellum Course which is underway with 5 great new students. Currently I'm also working on a large vellum painting of Roses on vellum so no doubt a few roses will probably feature here and there. Here's a little bud of Olivia Rose Austin, which was my 4th painting.

No 4. Olivia Rose Austin Bud. 5 x 3 inches on Kelmscott. Colours: Permanent Rose and Lemon Yellow n.t. for the pink with Cobalt Violet for the cool pink shades. A small amount of Permanent Carmine was also used to deepen the colour . The green mix is Cobalt Blue, Transparent Yellow and Permanent Rose. The stem Perm rose, Trans Yellow and Brown Madder

 The Blackberry studies are good as preparatory works for another painting, which is for a  competition, the final piece will be on a piece of mounted natural vellum though. This is more challenging than the Kelmscott but this piece is all good practice with the subject.

Day 1. Blackberry Study on Kelmscott, approx 7 x 5.5 inches. Love painting blackberries and working with dark colours. The black mix is Indanthrene Blue, Permanent Carmine and a very small amount of Trans Yellow. The bias of the mix is on the violet side. Where the fruit is more of a dark red colour, the quantity of Permanent  Carmine is increased. The red is Perm Carmine and Scarlet lake for the warmer red. Stems and all other parts are mixed from the same 4 colours. There is really mo need for lots of colours when a few will do and the use of the same colours created better harmony in a painting.

No. 3 This is a simple study of a single fruit and leaf but painted with Ivory Black. This is a very thick piece of vellum 6 x 2 inches. I quite like this effect and have been playing with it recently. It's all about getting the tone right before working with colour. It's also an approach that I teach as good practice in preparatory work.

Also completed on the first day was a simple single maple seed, not particularly well painted but very quickly completed.  I used the earth colours for this, it was a pretty lazy effort. In the 2013 Challenge a maple seed was the first subject and it seemed a good idea to repeat on vellum.

Maple seed on Kelmscott, 3 x 2.7  inches. I used some Manganese Blue on the shine. Thereafter Raw Umber wash, followed by building texture with Brown Madder and Van Dyke Brown, a small amount of Ultramarine Violet was added for the shadows. Lots of sweeping and drawing dry brush work here.

I've almost caught up! Maybe I'll even manage all 30. Ive plenty of vellum off - cuts so no excuses.

The Photographing artwork post will hopefully follow shortly.

The Sketchbook, Graveyard Studies, Day 21-30

Here is a selection of the final sketchbook drawings for the 30 day challenge, undertaken on days 21-30.  Drawn as preparatory work for my big 'doodle' style drawing and also as reference for a new painting on vellum. All are local wildflowers, I've completed 12 sketches to date using the graveyard next door for inspiration.

Day 21, Vetch, Vicia sepiens. Completely surrounds the grave of a woman named Kezia Beech, who died in 1877.

This post is actually more about the value of using the sketchbook and doing research but as always a bit of research grows 'arms and legs' and this place is really rather interesting.

The Checkley graveyard of St Mary' and All Saints has been my next door neighbour since moving in last November, I look out on to the gravestones from my painting window. Being neighbourly I now pop round on a regular basis, it's a beautiful place and full of flowers. During the last few weeks I've been sketching the plants and have become more interested in the history of the church too, it dates back to the 12th century,  it even has arrow sharpening marks in the buttresses, where the archers used to hang out! 

Detail, showing that it's a rough incomplete drawing with planning lines left in place and many notes

These are not polished or perfect drawings but merely studies to record information quickly - plants move on fast at this time of year so if I want to create two larger works using this theme its essential to get as much down in the sketchbook as possible.
All of the sketches will be used as reference for larger works, hopefully some will be completed this year but if not I'll return to it same time next year.
 
I like to 'get to know' the subjects by drawing them repeatedly in my sketchbook, this is a crucial part of understanding plants and builds knowledge about their biology and ecology. There is no better way of learning about plants than to draw them and makes notes in the field,  whilst referring to a good book of flora or ID guidebook.

There are many flowers! A grave full of forget-me-nots.The grave seems to creates a natural seed bed.

It's odd how certain plants are growing in fairly confined spaces of a particular grave, I suppose just as they do in the wild. Most plants seem to be native plants but I wonder if the have been put there deliberately or whether they just seeded from local populations.....I suspect the latter but actually have no idea.

Day 22. Forget-me-not ( Myosotis arvensis) A very apt flower for a graveyard. It grows all around the rectory too, I've seen these beautiful Orange tip butterflies amongst them and combined with some orange hawk weed, this would make a great collection for a painting. The blue and orange go perfectly together as complementary colours.  

Detail of Forget-me-not sketch page

There are lots and lots of wild garlic plants too! which smell extremely strong if bruised.

Day 25. Wild garlic, Allium ursinum

A mass of Alliums

Day 26 and 27 Alliums, I like them best before they open, papery spathes enclose the flowers which can bee seen trying to escape and there are little droplets of condensation inside!

Closer view, shows the flowers starting to escape!

 First of all I made a note of all the plants growing and made a positive identification using my old Bentham Flora Books and species guides. Most species are pretty simple but it's always good to double check and often I discover something that I didn't know.

I sill use the old Bentham and other old floras but have to be careful with these because of reclassification, so I also use other guides and more up to date floras, such as Stace. The graveyard species are all simple to identify but it's always worth double checking. Another great book for identifying features is the Cambridge Illustrated Glossary of Botanical Terms, which every botanical artist should have.

I've also been making a note of the graves or area where the plants grow. Noting the name of the occupant and taking a photograph, no idea why but it seems like the done thing!

The Grave of Elizabeth Ash, with its Spanish Blue Bells

Day 28 The Cuckoo flower, (Cardamine pratensis) is found throughout the graveyard. This is actually the reason that the orange tip butterfly is found here as it's the food plant for the species.  In folklore this plant is said to be sacred to the faries, it appears at the same time as the Cuckoo bird starts to sing in May. It's also thought to be very bad luck if picked and that's also why it's excluded from the May Day garlands.

I make drawings and extensive notes of all the key features for each plant and include basic colour notes and write notes using initial for the colours...saves space on a crowded page.

Day 29, British Bluebell, Hyacinthoides non-scripta

Bluebells in the shaded areas under the Yew trees. A mix of native British bluebell ( Hyacinthoides non- scripta) and Spanish (Hyacinthoides hispanica) bluebells and no doubt many hybrids between. It's fairly easy to tell the difference between the species, The native bluebell flowers has yellow pollen and the Spanish has blue pollen, and wider open flowers. It's not so easy to tell the hybrids. The Spanish bluebell is pushing the native ones out, so please don't pick the native ones.

The Graveyard some weeks ago, before the flowers started to appear....looking forward other plants appearing over the summer months.

That's the  end of the 30 day challenge, it run over the time limit but I got there in the end. I'll try to remember to add the remaining images once I've photographed them.

For anybody who is interested in sketchbooks, and is a member of ASBA ( American Society of Botanical Artists) I've also written a post on the Sketchbook Exchange Project for the June edition

On Earth there is no heaven but there are  pieces of it  

George Renard

Day 16 and 17, Plan, Experiment....Repeat

The good thing about this challenge is that it nurtures ideas for new work....one idea leads to another and so on.  Most ideas are cast aside, simply because they're not good but we need the bad ideas and regular work to come up with the better ones.....right?
Sometimes even the bad ideas return in another form. Not sure if these will, neither am I entirely sure what I was doing here but it was fun making paper surfaces and working with carbon, graphite, chalk and paper stumps...oh and of course more bulbs and seed- heads.

The beginning, working with carbon. It's a different type of finish great for smooth shiny areas and you can lay the basic form very quickly!

My first attempt with carbon, This paper surface was created using Gesso and paint....I was trying to make a surface that looks a bit like natural vellum and burnished it to make smooth when It was dry. It's not so bad, I used a marbling technique with a rigger and overlaid glazes, and even indented some veiny looking bits and also trashed the Daniel Smith Earthy dot card in the process!

Making a mess! textured coloured smooth base for the Carbon.... A kitchen sink approach!

 After the 'peaky' looking silver point in my last post, the dusky Wolff carbon pencils were an attractive prospect but I like the coloured background of the silverpoint, hence the paper experiment. I ground the carbon and applied with a brush and paper stump to model the general form. Then working with graphite and the carbon pencils before adding white French chalk for highlights. At this point I gave up and decided it was actually a load of rubbish and moved on to the iris seed head on paper.

The point of abandonment.....accept the fact that it's not really working and move on!

Carbon and graphite on Fabriano Artistico. Not sure why I worked this large. Thought it would be easier with carbon to work larger. It remains unfinished and I reverted to type and moved on to butterflies.

Both the Sketchbook Exchange Project or 30 Day Challenge have given me many ideas for new work and also a chance to reflect. And when I'm busy doing other types work I think about what I've done previously, I look for links or areas to develop sometimes. This carbon drawing of a bulb didn't quite work but I think it could. So I moved on to an iris seed-head on paper. It looks promising but the jury is still out on the carbon. The simple things in the Challenge seem to be pre-cursors or tasters for more complex ones.....like component parts. I used this approach to build up parts and ideas. One work I think about developing is the sketchbook page below but on a larger scale...... It tugs at my attention.

 

Complexity, my I've drawn all of these individually prior to this and want to develop it.

It's all gone a bit pear shaped with the 30 day challenge but there seems to be a purpose here. I had a super high pressure commission painting lots of complicated fruit compositions over the last two weeks,  so very little time for anything else. Working 15 hours each day to complete on time was draining but while I was doing this work I was still thinking about my own work up ahead and planning.... this is the important time leading up to new work. I've been thinking about a compositions for the look that I want to achieve for sometime. I've been observing habitats everywhere and the complex interactions between plants, it's not a conscious effort it's just something that people who paint and draw plants seem to do....eventually I home in on something. So my next focus will be the development of the sketchbook page approach and that's where I'm heading next. I love to work in black and white and love complex forms, it makes sense.

My favourite kind of subject, detailed graphite, complex pattern and texture!

 There are two types of compositional ideas that I favour, the simple floating subject and the complex with intertwining parts with overlaps, patterns or transparencyand.  I'm not really interested in too much in between, so look for interesting shapes and flowing  lines, movement and the interaction between objects, sometimes I like to 'order' them and at other times I like to go with the natural lines Neither is it necessarily about a particular plant initially but more to do with a particular feel or atmosphere. I think this idea will be my focus for the remaining days of the challenge....but after the carbon chaos a few colouful butterflies are in order first!

Day 7 and 8. Tulip Tree, Seed - Head in Watercolour and Graphite

Day 7 and 8, a mix of watercolour and graphite was used for these Tulip Tree seed- head studies. This was cheating a bit because I found an unfinished drawing in my old sketchbook and though it would be good to add a couple more. I'd found the seeds last year on my way through Germany and had forgotten about them....I found them in a box on top of the bookcase the other day! Think I'll post every other day now so as not to irritate you with my daily posts., Sorry  I forgot to take photos of the process, so just the finished pieces today. 

Day 7.  Dried Tulip Tree seed-head, Liriodendron tulipifera.  Graphite drawing on Stillman and Birn A4 smooth Zeta series sketchbook, such lovely sketchbook paper. The usual Faber Castell 9000 series pencils. I still believe these are the best pencils for the job. Grades H right up to 8B here for the darkest shadows. I could have made this darker all over but I'm out of time today. I must make an effort to take better photos! these are taken on an iphone!  

The complete page in the sketchbook, with the original drawing bottom left

 I have to confess that I'm struggling with time now. Really had intended to get out to paint some spring flowers but Ive got so much on this week! with a new composition course starting, a trip to the printer today,  because  I'm betting my butterflies and fritillarias made into prints:) and tomorrow it's off to London for the SBA show tomorrow...... Excuses excuses! oh and there's those fruit commissions (eek!)  But I always keep in mind one of  my favourite quotes from Francis Bacon: 

' Inspiration comes from regular work' 

Not sure if that's absolutely accurate as a quote because I read it on the toilet wall at the Hugh Lane Gallery, where is studio is now located in Dublin.  I'm not really very good with remembering quotes but it's good enough for me and regular work I will continue do!

Day 8 A colour version, maybe I'll add a flowering version at the top of the page later this year. I've had this in a box for a while yet remarkably the little leaf is still green. The colours: Transparent Yellow and Perylene Maroon, in various combinations for the rich golden colour. To warm it more I added Scarlet Lake.  Some Cerulean on the woody parts first for the shine followed by a warm brown mix same as the seed plus some Van Dyke Brown ( yes too lazy here today to mix ), which I also used on the seed head  and added in some Paynes Grey to darken and cool it off.. The seed head completely fell apart just as I finished it!  

Day 5, Cymbidium Orchid Flower

Finally a change of subject! and a change of brand for the materials. For day five I decided to do a quick sketchbook study of a Cymbidium orchid,  a single flower from a plant which is now nearing the end of flowering period, seemed a shame to miss painting at least a little part of it. This time working in Stillman & Birn Zeta series sketchbook and with a limited range of Schminke Horadam artist watercolours.

Cymbidium flower study, size 7 x 7 inches on the best of all sketchbook paper, Stillman & Birn.

I only ever painted an orchid once before, I think it was a Paphio, not so much into panting them but they are fascinating! They really are the glamorous 'cheats' in the world of pollination! Tricking unsuspecting insects and other animals into thinking they offer some attractive reward but actually over 1/3 of all orchids have nothing at all to give to insects, unlike most other flowers they don't do mutualism and waste none of their energy on giving nectar or pollen away to insects..... Clever eh!

I was never more interested in any subject in my life than this of Orchids 

Charles Darwin 1861

Detail showing the column with pollinium

These Cymbidiums and some other orchids have their pollen in a pollinia, these are sacs of pollen  housed at the tip of the column and covered by an anther cap. If you have an orchid such as a Phalenopsis or Cymbidium try touching the anther cap with a cotton bud or cocktail stick, the pollinia will easily be revealed and pulled away intact. But a word of warning, unfortunately the flowers job primary job is done once the pollinia is removed and it fades and dies very quickly once the pollinium is removed. When the curious insect enters the flower the whole pollinarium comes away sticks to the insect ( it's attachment is very sticky!).  It' is then carried to the next flower and facilitates cross pollination, as the curious animal persists in it's search for a reward! I tried to photograph the pollinarium ( below) but didn't make a great job, sorry. But hopefully you  get the idea.
    

 Pollinarium, showing the pollen sacs and sticky attachment which allows it to be carried by insects to the next flower. actual size is only around 2mm at the widest point.

Interesting as this story of pollination is - this post isn't really about orchid reproduction but I forgot to take photos of the painting process, so thought I'd add a bit of extra stuff!

Here's a brief summary of the painting process.

Centre page is a face-on view of the flower. The fairly straight forward symmetrical view is easily achieved by drawing a box using the height and width measurements of the flower, then by dividing it up into four quarters (draw a horizontal and vertical line through the centre). Finally plot the position of the petals by judging the angles of the petal positions....kind of like a clock face. All that's left is to add the outline by  measuring of the parts for accuracy.

Simple face-on view of flower, get the basic symmetry right and then make adjustments as necessary

  Thereafter the shade colour was added, which is my usual approach when painting light flowers. I'm not at all familiar with Schminke watercolours but have some pans so thought I'd give them a go. I used manganese violet and ultramarine finest for the shadow colour. For the 'yellow' areas on the petals I used titanium gold ochre. I wanted to reach for the W & N on a few occasions because I could think of easier options but stuck with it. They're fine to use although I've yet to learn about the particular properties and only have a limited colour range.

Adding the spots to a dampened surface gives soft edges.

I then added the basic hue for the petals,  which is almost 'fleshy' pink in colour.Vanadium yellow and vermilion plus a little of the ultramarine finest. For the cooler pinks I used ruby red in the mix.  The edges of the petals were faded and brown, brown madder an ultramarine was used here. For the dark spots on the labellum I used ruby red and brown madder with a tiny amount of ultramarine for the darker areas. To apply, I wet the area first and allowed it to part dry and dropped the colour on, this give the soft edge to the spots, but care has to be taken to have just the right amount of dampness or the spots will spread too much. Darker areas were added on top, the spots are actually slightly raised so the light catches the edge of them and a darker area can be added to the shaded side.
 A simple dissection in graphite and a few other parts were added (stigma, ovary, labellum and profile view).  Hopefully this gives a good overview of the morphology on this small study page.

Simple dissection

Orchids are really simple to dissect, because they are so fleshy and resistant to wilting, so if you've never dissected a flower before this is a good place to start but don't be surprised when it looks nothing like the standard 'plant parts' illustration often used in botanical painting classes!  

   

Day 3 Chasmanthe

No spare time today because I've been painting strawberries! but finally sat down at about 9pm to paint another of the bulbs from Amsterdam, well actually it's a corm. This time a South African, Chasmanthe. Not sure which one exactly but I think  it's known as the 'African Flag'. A member of the iris family, it's a large corm, about 10cm at the widest point, looks like Crocosmia to me but larger and flatter. It's definitely not the easiest subject when you're in a rush with much painting of negative space required in between the strands but I like the colour  and the look of it . It's good to paint really complicated things against the clock...right!?

Chasmanthe corm, size 14 x 17 0n Langton extra smooth HP. A tricky one to paint but at least the colours were pretty straight forward. Only 90 mins on this, so it's a bit rough around the edges! I do think it's good training to work quickly it speeds up thinking and prevents procrastination!

Lots of bulbs, corms and tubers at the Amsterdam flower market. I came home with a bag full and glad I photographed the labels otherwise I'd have had no idea what most of them were.

I like this corm, but in hindsight it could have done with a bit more time ( isn't that always the case though?). Again I made a rough sketch of the basic shape and got stuck in with a mix of raw sienna and burnt sienna with van dyke brown for the darker browns. I used cerulean blue on the shine on the right hand side ( light source side), and added some pyroll red to warm it up on the shade side and ultraviolet to cool it down in places and also for the shadows. I finished of with wash of gold ochre in places  I started by putting int he basic form but painting between some of the fibrous strands. I added the cerulean afterwards establishing this first stage, normally I'd do this first but was ahead of myself and distracted by the television!

Establishing the form first but by painting between some of the strands to get the basic shape in first.

This little painting exercise provided some light relief from the very complicated strawberry painting I'm working on at present.... I really don't like painting strawberries!  So it's back to them in the morning and  find doing little works like this stops me from getting too bogged down ( or stuck) with more complicated work.
No idea what day 4 will bring but it's likely to be night shift work!