Flower Attribute Notecards - Red & Yellow Set

 I have several new notecard variety packs available in my Etsy shop, including new designs from my "Flower Attribute" series. This is the series I've been working on for 4 years now, naming each 8"x10" drawing with a single word attribute to describe the symbolism of the flower that is the subject matter of the drawing. These drawings are done in colored pencil, on black, gray, tan, yellow, red, blue, or green colored paper.

As with much of my artwork, I've been scanning each drawing as I go along, so the digital scans would be ready to print on notecards. And finally I've actually used those scans, created those notecard designs, packaged them in pre-selected notecard sets, and added them to my Etsy shop!

Today's blog post is featuring the "Red & Yellow" notecard set, which includes scans from the 8 colored pencil drawings I've completed on red or yellow paper.

The eight designs included in this notecard set are:

• Ambition (Hollyhock) on red paper
• Fertility (Pomegranate) on red paper
• Fame (Trumpet Flower) on red paper
• Vitality (Zinnia) on red paper
• Nourishment (Sunflower) on yellow paper
• Enthusiasm (Bouvardia) on yellow paper
• Jealousy (Marigold) on yellow paper
• Energy (Cattails) on yellow paper

Love the style of these notecards, but wish you could swap out a few for other floral designs I have? I also have a U-Pick listing where you can mix-and-match among all my floral colored pencil design and color options and build the perfect stationery set for your preferences!

Flower Attributes Series - Update

More than two years ago, I posted that I was starting a series of 8"x10" colored pencil drawings of flowers. Each drawing would be of a different plant or flower species and be horizontal in orientation; their titles would be a single word: one of the attributes given to that flower - a word that someone had, once upon a time, decided that flower would symbolize.

I'd made 3 drawings in 2017 before deciding to expand it into a larger series. These first 3 drawings were:

• "Endurance" (Succulents)

• "Anticipation" (Anemone)

• "Shame" (Peony)

At this point I stopped, did a bit of research, and made a list of which flowers I might want to include in this series, what colored paper I would use for that drawing (out of the stock I had - red, green, blue, yellow, gray, tan, and black), and what title I would give it. Since many flowers have multiple attributes that they symbolize, and many flowers mean similar things, I wanted to make sure I was choosing different titles for each drawing. The list grew to be a total of 69 planned drawings (including the 3 I'd already done).

That was at the beginning of 2018. In the two and a half years since then, I've completed 30 more drawings from that list, 24 which I've already posted here, each with their own blog posts:

• "Ambition" (Hollyhock)

• "Fertility" (Pomegranate)

• "Flight" (Birds of Paradise)

• "Playfulness" (Pink Hyacinth)

• "Prophecy" (Heliotrope)

• "Loyalty" (Daisy)

• "Nourishment" (Sunflower)

• "Enthusiasm" (Bouvardia)

• "Hope" (Button Pom)

• "Transformation" (Protea)

• "Constancy" (Bluebell)

• "Strength" (Ginger)

• "Resentment" (Petunia)

• "Justice" (Black Eyed Susan)

• "Whimsy" (Purple Carnation)

• "Immortality" (Acanthus)

• "Fame" (Trumpet Flower)

• "Vitality" (Zinnia)

• "Balance" (Enchanter's Nightshade)

• "Modesty" (Violet)

• "Fragility" (Azalea)

• "Union" (Myrtle)

• "Wealth" (Alstroemeria)

• "Luck" (Bells of Ireland)

I've also completed another 6 drawings so far this year, which I haven't had a chance to post on this blog yet (look for those posts coming soon)!

I still have a long way to go before I finish all 69, but now that I've completed almost half of them (33 out of 69), I thought it would be a good time to check in and see how they look as a group altogether. I'm loving this series, and excited to see what they all look like together at the end!

"Vitality" Colored Pencil Drawing

Like my previous blog post, this piece of artwork is also an 8"x10" colored pencil drawing on red paper. I used Canson Mi-Teintes paper, and Prismacolor pencils. The flowers in this drawing are zinnia, and the drawing is titled "Vitality," after what zinnia symbolize.

In this first picture, you can see the images I printed off the internet to use as source photos, as well as the blank red paper ready to go.

I started by lightly sketching in the highlights of the zinnia petals. (Because the paper I was drawing on was red, I would mostly be focusing on the highlights and shadows, and letting the red paper work as the mid-tones.) After those were in place, I lightly sketched in some green leaves in the background, as well.

Then I went through petal by petal and added dimension. I used cream and yellow to get a nice, bright highlight, and used black, brown, and dark purple colored pencils for shadows. When needed, I used a red colored pencil (which was almost exactly the same color as the paper) to blend everything together.

I added some leaves in the background (not adding too much detail there, since the zinnia was the focal point), and then another tiny zinnia in the corner.

Here's the finished drawing: