This is flower is a wild canna lily, others names include Indian shot, African arrowroot or edible canna. There is a range of colours and forms of this species. Lucidcentral.org state that wild canna or Canna indica is very similar to the garden cannas (Canna x generalis and Canna x orchiodes). I believe this specimen belongs to the wild canna species because of the relatively narrow petals.
I love the red and orange in the flower against the dark purple stem. The seed heads are so textured and alien. I gifted this drawing to my great aunt for Christmas.
I love working with warm colours, and this was another flower that was poking out someone's back fence in the park where I walk the dog. I suspected that is was a weed, and this was later confirmed by a friend. Despite it being an invasive species introduced from South Africa, the flower form is intriguing. As the little green berries ripen they turn black, leading to the common name of the mickey mouse plant (Ochna serrulata).
I did this one for my mum as a present. Roses (Rosa spp.) remind me of her because she carefully tended many fabulous, deliciously smelling, roses in our garden when we were growing up.
I tried all the pinks I had to try and get the right colour, who would think pink would be so varied. The whorl arrangement of the petals was the trickiest part of this drawing especially in the tightly packed centre.
This is one piece from the flower of an 'African tulip tree' Spathodea companulata.
These Eucalyptus gum-nuts I found on the ground are an excellent example of simple shapes in nature. When you break it down it is just a bunch of spheres attached to cylindrical stems. The best part about drawing these where that they were already dry and don't wilt like fresh plant cuttings, so it was blue-tacked to my desk for weeks until I got around to colouring.
Here is my second sunflower (Helianthus Annuus) drawing. For this one I decided to get a bit more scientific and draw more detail of some of the components of the sunflower head in a cross section and more detailed close-ups of the disc florets that are in the centre of the head.
The stigma of the disc floret was fascinating with its two delicate dark purple loops, one of which loops backwards and the other forwards. I didn't draw the details, but the ray florets also have all the reproductive parts. Each floret turns into a sunflower seed.
The Calla Lily is my first experiment with using watercolour for botanical drawing. I completed this painting at a 'Wired Open Labs' workshop in May run by artist Jesse Rose Ford. It was a great workshop and perfect for all skill levels. I believe she does many workshops across the countryside if you want to look her up.
It was great learning how to use watercolours properly, but for now I am sticking with pencil. Maybe I will revisit using this medium in the future.
I cut most of my flower specimens for drawing so I can set them up on my desk with selective lighting. After finishing the line drawing and taking photos I often pull the whole thing apart to get a look at the flower, fruit or seed anatomy. However, no plants were harmed for this this orchid drawing, I'm sure my Aunty would not have been impressed if I snipped off her prize blooms.
I worked off a photo for this one as I was on holidays with no time to sit and do all the measurements. I love the dark venation in the flowers and how the flowers look like they are growling at you with their little mouths.
