New sketches

One of the things I miss the most about traditional cameras, is finding that old roll of film in the back of a draw somewhere. You used to take it to the chemist to be developed and you'd never know what the photos would be of. It could be some years old shot of your parents or a blurry snapshot of a holiday that you'd long forgotten about. Digital cameras are amazing for all their capabilities but they also enable you to delete the blurred photos or the ones with Mum's head cut off. We seem to miss out an element of fun when we upload our digital images and go through them. I try to upload all the images on mine as soon as I've taken them, they all go into a folder and then are deleted from the camera to make room for more. But I rarely delete images if they aren't quite right. I may not use them but they are all there in the folder.

I make it a habit to go through the folder from the start now and again. I nearly always find something that I'd forgotten about, a day or a moment and it's nice to be reminded of them. This happened yesterday, when I stumbled across a photo from last summer, of one of the blooms from our rapidly growing honeysuckle bush. It's right next to the kitchen window and in the summer when it's in full bloom, it smells heavenly. 

The buds are such a deep shade of pink, almost a fuchsia but when they open out they are a soft pink and cream. The honeysuckle flowers attract bumblebees, butterflies and moths while the berries are very popular with bullfinches, warblers and thrushes. 

I tried to recreate the central part of this particular bloom with oil pastels, watercolours, charcoal and coloured pencils. I really like the shape that I have developed from this initial photo and it's been interesting to see how the different colours have affected the finished image. I think my favourite drawing has to be the oil pastel one in the top left hand side of the page. The depth of the red combined with the purple gives it such a vibrancy.

I have started to put more information into my sketches and sketch book, making note of what medium I'm using, obviously but being very careful to note the colour and the number of the shade as well. This was very helpful when I attempted to do two versions of the honeysuckle leaves, in water soluble pencil and coloured pencils. I used the same numbered pencils from both sets but the water soluble pencils (when altered with water) gave a softer and less concentrated colour and texture.

This was applied to the DMC floss card that I put together as well.

There are over 180 species of Honeysuckle and they range from stocky evergreen bushes to vigorous climbers. They are a common species in hedgerows and are a great addition to any wildlife garden. We all know about the rapidly disappearing hedgerows but how many of us actually know about the variety of plants that make a vibrant and living hedgerow? I never even considered that honeysuckle might be one of those plants.

I still don't have a firm idea for my theme book but I'm adding hedgerows to the ever growing list. Think of the textures!