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

 

The Herb Garden

This past spring I spent an enjoyable couple months working on a project for Mary from TheWhiteCottageCo.  The design she had envisioned was a pillow with 3 herb plants in a row as well as smaller pillows illustrated with each individual herb.  It was so much fun working on this with her. She was so nice to work with.  They turned out great!  It's so gratifying to see my drawings made into something that people can use and enjoy everyday. (You can see the pillows HERE if you like...as well as many other lovely things Mary  has in her shop.)

Another reason I enjoyed this so much is because herbs are one of my favorite things.  From growing them in the herb garden behind our house~

to preserving them by drying, freezing or in herb vinegars and, of course, using them in tasty recipes.  I have many books I go to for inspiration, with well-worn covers torn and pages stained by ingredients used in the herbal recipes within.  Two of my favorites are The Pleasure of Herbs by Phyllis Shaudys and my favorite from the very beginning, Herbs Through the Seasons at Caprilands by Adelma Simmons. 

So, this all got me thinking.  Why don't I do something a little different and combine my love of art, gardening, cooking and herbs and feature each of the plants I had drawn in the next 3 articles? I am by no means an "expert", I just would like to share a little about my drawing process as well as some info on how I grow, preserve and cook with these wonders of nature that give us so much pleasure. 

I hope you will enjoy! 

 

 

New Projects

                                         

        I have been thinking about adding more items to my shop featuring some of my botanical art. I've decided on flour sack tea towels for a start. Having a love for baking and cooking and also being a big fan of fine teas, teatime, tea parties...then there's gardening and botanical art, well, this seemed like a perfect fit for me. Canvastry.com  has done a great job with the colors, definition of detail along with a nice quality fabric. They have been tested and they machine wash and dry very well. There are also no problems with ironing. 

    

     In doing some research I've found there are many uses for flour sack towels~

           

          -They are lint free so they're great for drying glassware and dishes.

          -A gift of bread or baked goods would look lovely wrapped in a floral towel featuring the recipient's favorite flower.

         

         -So pretty lining a tea tray for afternoon tea

     Well, you get the idea. I'm sure you can think of many other uses as well. 

      I will be adding more items to join these towels in my Etsy shop TwigsAndPetals in the near future. Coasters and pillow covers are coming soon~   

  

Cotton branch drawing inspired by a childhood memory

A memory I have as a young girl is of a cotton boll Dad brought home one evening. I don't remember where he got it or of anything ever being said about it but I remember it being kept in a drawer below our hall closet. It was in a plastic bag and I would get it out from time to time to touch it and be totally amazed at how it much it resembled the cotton balls from the drug store. Living in the north never seeing cotton branches before it was such an unusual, fascinating wonder to this little girl. 

Fast forward to 2 years ago while I was shopping with a friend. We were in the home decor section and there before me was a display with container after container of imitation cotton branches, literally cotton balls on sticks. ;) Well, I thought I must make this my next project. 

So, I went to Etsy and, of course, I found a vendor called SouthernNature who sold cotton branches--the real thing! Not surprising because you can find everything on the internet these days, you know. 

In the photo above you can see the model, graphite studies in my sketchbook and detail of the colored pencil drawing. Such beautiful fluffiness and the structure of the opened seed case made a lovely contrast. 

When we think of cotton we think "white". But a closer look at the boll in its natural form shows many colors. I used a variety of pinks, purples and yellows as well. 

It was a very enjoyable project. And here is the final work with cotton branches I used for reference~

Drawing a favorite rose ~ adding color

The process is getting a little easier now that the desired composition is decided upon and drawn with detail and everything is transferred to the "good paper".  Now the fun part -- adding color.  

As you can see, I have cut out a rough outline of the rose in a sheet of tracing paper. I have learned that sometimes the color will travel in the process of drawing. And if I would get a crumb of colored pencil on the paper and rub over it accidentally it is very hard to erase. So this helps a bunch so that won't happen and the white of the surrounding paper will stay clean.

The colors I will be using have been chosen in my preliminary sketches and I will be using my color notes (upper right photo).  

I first use a medium shade pink to map in the shadows (left). This gives me sort of a map to follow. Then I follow with the darkest shades in the shadows slowly, with a light touch and sharp pencils, adding color layer by layer. 

I am mostly using FC Polychromos pencils with Process Red from Prismacolor and Lyra Rembrandt Rose madder lake.

 

Drawing a favorite rose ~ sketching and color notes

Once I've chosen the flower and leaves I want to draw, I use a floral water tube to keep it hydrated and attach it to a clamp to keep the specimen upright. I have to work fast with these first steps because roses tend to wilt and lose their petals quickly. I also take many close up photographs to use after the flower fades.

First of all, I drew a detailed sketch - from the live specimen as long as was possible. I took measurements using a tool called a divider in order to make a life-sized rendering.

It was helpful to use a single petal as a guide while I worked out my color combinations. I also tried to replicate the fine details of the petal.

Here is the complete page of preliminary sketches and materials I used to make them. I have also added a detailed sketch of a single leaf. I like to draw a sphere with the lightest to the darkest shades for each color of the piece. It is helpful to make a chart of the colors and the order in which they are used. I've found that it eliminates a lot of frustration and time in creating the finished piece when I do this.

Next time, I'll show you how I transfer the drawing to the "good paper". 

 

 

Old-Fashioned Peonies

One of the most beautiful of the old-fashioned garden flowers is the peony (Paeonia officinalis). With its lovely scent and form, it is one of my favorites and I always wish that its blooming season would last a little longer. I was given this particular plant by a dear friend whose home had a collection of flowers and plants planted by previous owners through the years. This was one of them. Really no idea of who or when, but I like to think about the first gardener who planted and saw this lovely pink flower bloom for the first time. 

I thought I would share how this drawing came to be, from plant to sketches to finished colored pencil painting.

First of all, I like to make a few sketches and note the color mixes I will use to get the accurate colors of the plant. You can see here that I have made a couple detailed drawings of certain areas of my specimen.

Along with my sketches I almost always take photographs of the flowers before I start to work because, as you see here, they tend to wilt, move and drop their petals. I draw my working sketch on a piece of acid free tracing paper. It is easy to erase as I work out the composition.

After I transfer my drawing to the "good paper" (here I have used Fabriano Artistico) I use my color notes when I begin to use colored pencil. I am using Faber Castell Polychromos and a few Prismacolor colored pencils.

To keep the white of the paper clean, I make a cut-out of tracing paper to surround my drawing as I work. This protects the paper from a stray crumb from a bright pink colored pencil--something that is very difficult to erase.

To get a smooth, rich color it takes many layers with a light touch from pencils which I constantly keep sharpened to a very sharp point.

Petals are finished!

Beginning to build color on leaves, stems and bud.

Finished drawing!

This piece is available as note cards and as a fine art reproduction as well.

Click Here to visit my Etsy shop to purchase.