Showing posts with label process of creating botanical illustration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label process of creating botanical illustration. Show all posts

Thursday, December 2, 2021

Buttonbush, VNPS 2022 Plant of the Year

Buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis), watercolor, 14"h x 10"w.


Here's my illustration of the Virginia Native Plant Society (VNPS) Plant of the Year for 2022--its common name is Buttonbush, the botanical name Cephalantus occidentalis. It's a shrub that can reach eight to ten feet in height and equal width, which loves wetlands. The "buttons" are actually clusters of tiny flowers arranged in a ball around. After the corollas and pistils fall, they leave behind seed pods which turn a reddish color and release their seeds in the fall. Many birds love to eat the seeds.

 It took many steps to achieve the final illustration you see above. I first sketched a flowering branch in my studio from material I collected in the field--it was much too hot to sketch outdoors for any length of time during the summer doldrums of July.

 

First pencil sketch, 10"h x 8"w

I waited until mid September to visit the plants again when they were setting seed--the seed pods turn a reddish brown color as they ripen, and I wanted to include this stage in my painting. At this time, the weather was a bit more conducive to outdoor sketching, so my next sketch was done on site on a very small sketchbook (my photo of it is awful, apologies).

 

Buttonbush seed pod sketch, 7"h x 5"w

Next I had to figure out how to combine the two sketches to create a composition that would show both stages. The problem was that the sketches were of different sizes--to save time I scanned both sketches, increasing the size of the seed pod sketch and decreasing somewhat the size of the sketch of the flowers and buds, until I had both drawings at similar size. Then I combined the sketches, making some corrections, and inked the drawing for tracing.

 

Ink drawing for tracing.

After tracing my drawing onto the watercolor paper, I was ready to start painting. I started with the flowers and buds, added a few leaves, then put some color on the seed pods and more leaves. As usual, I forgot to take more early and in-between photos of my progress, but here is what I managed to document.

 

Buttonbush - stage 1

Buttonbush - stage 2

Buttonbush - stage 3

I'm looking forward to seeing the brochure that will be published by VNPS with my illustration and our botanist's remarks.