The Herb Garden - Basil

Basil (Ocimum basilicum)

Basil is a favorite herb both for it's beautiful, fragrant leaves and for it's many uses. It is a symbol of "good wishes" according to the language of plants and flowers of the Victorian era. It grows very well here and is very easy for me to start from seed. You want to plant it in a sunny spot and keep it watered but not soggy. I have grown it in a pot on my kitchen windowsill and it does fairly well. Just enough to give us a taste of summer in the dead of winter. 

I have grown 2 varieties of basil this summer. The Genovese, a sweet basil with a strong aromatic flavor. It's great for using in pesto, that wonderful pasta sauce with olive oil, garlic, chopped walnuts or pine nuts and parmesan cheese. Other summertime treats we enjoy when there is an abundance of basil and tomatoes to be harvested are Caprese salad and Bruschetta. You can find the recipes for these dishes with many variations online and in cookbooks dedicated to cooking with herbs. 

Another basil in the garden this year is Dark Opal. It's a beautiful dark red-violet in color with pink flowers that makes a wonderful herbal vinegar. I love it on a green salad with olive oil and a pinch of salt.

So, that's a little background on why I enjoy this herb so much. A great plant to spend time with and draw. 

(First, I must say, this is really not a complete "step by step", I'm just sharing a few notes on how I came to the finished drawing. Maybe more detailed process posts will be something to think about in the future.)

I decided on a bunch of 3 stalks for the composition - one facing upward, one toward me and one facing away showing the underside of the leaves. I learned a lot about mixing greens in these drawings. Basil was the brightest of the three. First, I started mapping in the shadows with FC (Faber-Castell Polychromos) Permanent green olive. Then impressed some FC Cream in the larger veins to help resist color in these areas.

I applied a layer of FC Earth green yellowish next and then started darkening the shadows with FC Red violet and FC Chrome oxide green. I use these two colors a lot for my dark green shadows. I believe I used small amounts of FC Dark sepia and FC Dark indigo as well.  

I added a bit of FC Light yellow ochre on the tips of a couple of the leaves and highlights to give some variation as my specimen showed. Also a little FC Sky blue added to the backs of the leaves that were turned away from me. 

There were quite a few layers of these colors, as always in my work, and this is the finished piece.

The next herb featured in this series will be Rosemary, the herb for remembrance.

You may visit my Etsy shop if you like for note cards of the 3 herb designs.  

And, the project that started it all, pillows from TheWhiteCottageCo.

The Herb Garden Assortment
2 each of 3 designs