Spring Has Sprung!

Recording new blossoms

A Friendly Hello!

Thanks to all my new subscribers! I am so happy you are here, so we can build a beautiful nature loving community together. Let’s share our knowledge and thoughts about art, life and anything nature related. Today I’m sharing a new drawing and some pics of the beautiful blossoms that appeared this week! xx

Serviceberry Tree Blossom

Finally mother nature has changed her attire from winter skeletons to fresh greens and white blossoms! This past week has been especially beautiful as trees burst into bloom displaying an abundance of delicate white blossoms. The combination of white blossoms with reddish and light green foliage, have injected the landscape with a joyful energy.

This time of year, you literally have to live in the moment, as spring marches on quickly. I often miss capturing these delicate blooms artistically; this year I was determined to study them closely with a sketch.

Lightly sketched subject in graphite first. One of my favorite places to work, especially on a sunny day, is in front of my kitchen window!

Bird’s eye view of my set up. I’m using a kenzan or flower frog in the small dish with a stem inserted. I also have a vase on the left with branches—which is the one I ended up using as my subject.

My Perpetual Journal serves as a wonderful format to record the blooming schedule from year to year. So after picking these serviceberry blossoms, I set to work in my perpetual journal. This time I thought I would experiment by using two different pen colors to record the beauty and structure of these tiny white flowers.

I drew the branch in a sepia pen color and the blossoms in a black. But, after doing so, I wasn’t completely happy with the strong contrast between the two pen colors and felt I had lost some of the blossom’s delicacy. Soooo I added a bit of sepia to the blossoms and also a touch of watercolor creating a more cohesive appearance, which I was happier with in the end. Finally, I added a very thin shadow which I felt really pulled the drawing together visually.

Sketch with two different colored pens, before I added sepia to the petals and a bit of watercolor.

Added a bit of sepia to the blossoms over the black pen. Also added a touch of watercolor and shadow to create more cohesion.

Close up

In the end I was happy I had experimented—-I sometimes tend to be more of a perfectionist with my drawings, so releasing that tendency was a stretch. I love my Perpetual Journal for that exact reason or any type of sketchbook. It leaves room for exploration and offers a place to play a bit. The newfound knowledge acquired from experimentation can be later transferred to more involved pieces of work.

Two page journal spread with last year’s sketch of forget-me-nots, which burst into bloom recently.

How about you? If you are a creative of any kind, do you like to experiment? Let me know in the comments below!

Happy Victoria Day Weekend to all my Canadian friends! I hope you are having a relaxing and enjoyable weekend! We have been blessed with a couple of beautiful days here in Nova Scotia.

Chat soon!

Debbie xx

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1. Supplies used:
Strathmore Mixed Media Sketchbook, Pigma Micron Black pen, Size 005, Copic Multiliner Sepia, Size 0.1, Staedtler Pencil HB, Artist Gum Eraser, Windsor and Newton Watercolor Set, Daniel Smith Watercolor Tube in Shadow Violet.

Subject: Allegheny serviceberry, Rosaceae Family, Flowers-Five white petals, narrowly oblong in shape