"28 Years" - Year #26

For general information about this 22"x30" colored pencil drawing, see this blog post.
For more information about the flower symbolism I used (Years 15-28) and life events that led me to select those particular flowers, see this blog post.

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My 26th year is depicted with symbols of lettuce and lavender.

• Lettuce: symbol of never giving up
• Lavender: symbol of purity, silence, caution, serenity, calmness, devotion, virtue, wishes coming true, grown-up femininity, refinement, grace, elegance, delicateness, and preciousness

First, I drew outlines of the plants on black paper:

These are the two botanical illustrations I looked at for reference while I drew (I do not own these images; I found them on Google):

Once I had the outlines in place, I started lightly sketching in the plants, beginning with the sprigs of lavender.

I added more color and detail to the lettuce in the background first, since I knew it would take more time. It was hard to add too much detail to the curling leaves, since the lavender was in front of it compositionally.

Then I colored in the lavender. I ended up making it a little lighter in color than I'd initially planned, so that it would be differentiable enough from the background lettuce. When it was just purple/blue without the white highlights, it blended in too much with the red shades of the red leaf lettuce.

Here is the whole drawing so far. Just two more sections to go - my 27th and 28th years!