"28 Years" - Year #4

For general information about this 22"x30" colored pencil drawing, see this blog post.
For more information about the flower symbolism I used (Years 1-14) and life events that led me to select those particular flowers, see this blog post.

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My fourth floral arrangement consists of aloe and anemone.

• Aloe: symbol of healing, protection, affection, grief, and luck
• Anemone: symbol of fading hope, anticipation, protection against evil, luck, and having been forsaken

First I sketched out the plants in the designated space.

Here are the two botanical illustrations I used as inspiration (I don't own either of these images; I found them on Google):

I lightly sketched in the pink and red forms of the aloe and anemone plants, then lightly sketched in the green for the anemone's leaves.

I used red and green to lightly sketch in the aloe leaves next.

Once the flowers were all in place, I started to fill in the dimension. I colored in the anemone blooms with several shades of pink, and colored in the anemone's leaves with green, leaving some thin "lines" of the black background showing through for details on the leaves.

Then I colored in the aloe plant with several shades of red and green. Here is the final drawing:

4/28ths down, 24 more to go!

"28 Years" - Year #3

For general information about this 22"x30" colored pencil drawing, see this blog post.
For more information about the flower symbolism I used (Years 1-14) and life events that led me to select those particular flowers, see this blog post.

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My third floral arrangement (symbolizing the third year of my life, the year that I was two years old), is made up of aster and white lilac.

• Aster: symbol of patience, elegance, daintiness, protection (through the eyes of God), and wistful hindsight (a desire that things had happened differently)
• White Lilac: symbol of the joy of youth, youthful confidence, purity, and innocence

I drew the two flowers in graphite pencils to sketch out the composition. Then I started drawing in the stems with green colored pencils.

Here are the botanical illustrations I looked at in creating this composition (I do not own these two images; I found them on Google):

I colored in the leaves of the aster (the greenery on the left side) as well as the leaves of the white lilac (in the right side), using slightly different colored pencils to differentiate the two.

Then I started filling in the big pink aster flower.

I lightly sketched in the white lilac blooms, then erased the extra graphite pencil lines. Then I filled the white lilac in with (you guessed it) white pencil. Other colors were added on top of the white (blue, pink, yellow) to show shadows and different petals. Even something that is called "white" is not 100% white if you look closely.

And now Year #3 is also complete! Here is the whole drawing so far, 3/28ths of the way done:

"28 Years" - Year #2

For general information about this 22"x30" colored pencil drawing, see this blog post.
For more information about the flower symbolism I used (Years 1-14) and life events that led me to select those particular flowers, see this blog post.

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My second "mini bouquet" consists of holly and daisy.

• Holly: symbol of hope, domestic happiness, defense/protection (especially re: protecting little girls from evil spirits), and Christmastime
• Daisy: symbol of innocence, hope, cheerfulness, and childhood

First, I drew an outline with graphite pencil, in the grid rectangle next to Year #1.

These are the botanical illustrations I used as source material (I do not own these images; I found them on Google):

I started by drawing the holly berries. I chose to draw the berries instead of the flowers of the holly plant, because the berries are more recognizable. I used four different shades of pink/red for the little berries, to make sure they had appropriate highlights, mid-tones, and shadows for peak three-dimensionality.

Then I used four shades of green/yellow, and a black colored pencil, to fill in the leaves and stem of the holly branch.

Then it was time to add in the bunch of daisies. I sketched them in lightly with white and yellow first.

Then I added more layers of white and yellow to make them "pop" against the black background. I also added some orange to the yellow centers, where there were orange shadows.

Here is the final "Year 2" arrangement:

I am now 2/28ths of the way finished with this drawing (or 1/14th, for those who like reducing their fractions). Still a lot to go!

"28 Years" - Year #1

For general information about this 22"x30" colored pencil drawing, see this blog post.
For more information about the flower symbolism I used (Years 1-14) and life events that led me to select those particular flowers, see this blog post.

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My first "mini bouquet" for this new drawing is going to use the flowers plumeria & Queen Anne's lace.

• Plumeria: symbol of life/birth, new beginnings, creation, positivity, perfection, charm, beauty, grace, and springtime
• Queen Anne's Lace: symbol of sanctuary/haven, delicateness/fragility, and complexity

First, I drew the grid in pencil, to mark where each of the 28 bouquets would go (one for each of my 28 years). I made four rows of seven columns.

Then I drew a rough sketch in graphite pencil of what I wanted the combination of plumeria and Queen Anne's lace to look like.

These are the botanical illustrations I looked at while I was drawing.

I do not own these two images; I found them on Google. Usually I do not like to do this - use other people's images as source material for my artwork - because I like the idea of my artwork being totally my own, and also I don't want to get in trouble over potential copyright issues. But for this drawing, I needed images that showed specific, botanical characteristics of the plants I wanted to use, so that it would be clear for each year what the plant was (and therefore, what the symbolism was). And I simply did not have the resources for all these different plants without getting on the Internet and finding some.

A lot of times artists do this - "copy" someone else's images by redrawing them. It's not considered plagiarism - it's "appropriation" or "pastiche." It's inspired by someone else's work, or uses elements of their work without using the entire image. I figured it would be fine for me to do for this particular large 22"x30" drawing because I was going to be 1) combining two different illustrations into a new composition, using elements of each type of flower but not the entire drawing, and 2) further combining all 28 of these 2-plant bouquets into a larger piece.

It's essentially like when you were writing a research paper in school, and the teacher asked you to find sources, list them in the bibliography, reorganize everything you'd researched into something "new" (even if it was made up of different parts that were, on their own, not new), and rewrite the other person's ideas in your own words.

Once I had my rough outline, I began filling it in. I started with the leaves of the plumeria, using two different green colored pencils to get the variations in shade.

I filled in the rest of the leaves, the brown stem, and a rough sketch of the plumeria, focusing on which parts of the plant had lighter white petals and which had darker pink petals.

At this point, I added in the Queen Anne's lace, so that I could ensure the plumeria wouldn't overpower the thin green stems of the Queen Anne's lace. I wanted to mark these in place before I finished the plumeria flower in the background.

Once the Queen Anne's lace was drawn and colored in with greens and whites, I returned to the plumeria to add the finishing touches to the petals.

Here is the finished piece:

This is only 1/28th of the entire drawing, but it's a good start! Year 1, in the upper left corner, is now complete. 27 more years to go!