I started this drawing in early July 2018, took a rather long break from it, and then picked it up again in late August, finishing it in early September. It's one of my "symbolism" drawings, where the title is a single word describing the symbolism of the flower being drawn, and the first such drawing I did on cadmium yellow Canson Mi-Tientes paper.
Earlier in 2018, I was in the habit of doing two of these drawings back-to-back, both on the same color of paper. (See: "Ambition" and "Fertility" on red paper, "Flight" and "Playfulness" on blue paper, and "Loyalty" and "Prophecy" on gray paper.) I had planned to do the same thing here, drawing "Nourishment" on yellow, and then "Enthusiasm" soon after. Instead, this "Nourishment" drawing took a lot longer than anticipated, and I couldn't even bring myself to start "Enthusiasm" for awhile. Wanting to continue the tradition of at least posting two same-colored-paper drawings in consecutive blog posts (even if they weren't consecutive artworks), I postponed posting "Nourishment" until I finally finished "Enthusiasm" as well.
I'm not entirely sure why it took me so long to complete these drawings, other than I got distracted with life and my heart just wasn't in art at all for awhile. I have a long list of these "symbolism" drawings all planned out and ready to go - a list of the flowers I intend to draw, the corresponding title, and the colored paper I plan to use for them - and in early July, "Nourishment" just happened to be next on my list.
I found a picture of sunflowers to use as a reference, and started lightly sketching in the yellow petals and brown centers.
And then, after about 10 minutes of work, I stopped.
When I started "Nourishment," I wasn't yet pregnant - but was hoping to be soon. I had a lot on my mind. If I had completed "Nourishment" in the time frame I usually do, it would've likely been complete long before I knew I was pregnant; instead, I procrastinated and stalled and got distracted, and for 7.5 weeks, this drawing sat around in this barely-started state. During that time, we started trying to conceive, and found out I was pregnant on August 10. We started telling people the news, and I made plans for my pregnancy. I didn't get back to this drawing until August 27 - at which point a drawing titled "Nourishment" seemed to be laden with so much more meaning. It felt like such an apt drawing to work on, while my body was busy nourishing a growing baby-to-be. It took me a few more days to finish, working on it a little bit at a time (for I was still not quite in the mood to focus on art), and I finally finished it on September 2.
First, I finished lightly sketching in the plants by adding in light green leaves.
Then, I started going in and adding depth and detail. I darkened the brown centers, and lightened the yellow petals with white and yellow colored pencils.
Then I darkened the leaves somewhat (though not adding much more dimension/detail to them, since I wanted the focus to be on the sunflowers themselves), and darkened the brown centers yet again, to heighten the contrast of the sunflowers.
The above picture is the completed drawing, complete with signature. Here are some close-up shots of the final drawing, below:
Five days after I finished this drawing I learned that I was having a missed miscarriage; six days after that, on September 13, I had my D&C. I understandably wasn't in the mood to create much art for awhile after that (for an entirely different reason than before) - and I especially wasn't gung-ho about starting the next symbolic floral drawing on my list, which was titled "Enthusiasm." I eventually worked on some other projects during that time instead, but I still kept putting off "Enthusiasm"... In January, I finally started and finished that second colored pencil drawing on yellow paper, which is why I'm posting "Nourishment" today. "Enthusiasm" will be the next post.
Earlier in 2018, I was in the habit of doing two of these drawings back-to-back, both on the same color of paper. (See: "Ambition" and "Fertility" on red paper, "Flight" and "Playfulness" on blue paper, and "Loyalty" and "Prophecy" on gray paper.) I had planned to do the same thing here, drawing "Nourishment" on yellow, and then "Enthusiasm" soon after. Instead, this "Nourishment" drawing took a lot longer than anticipated, and I couldn't even bring myself to start "Enthusiasm" for awhile. Wanting to continue the tradition of at least posting two same-colored-paper drawings in consecutive blog posts (even if they weren't consecutive artworks), I postponed posting "Nourishment" until I finally finished "Enthusiasm" as well.
I'm not entirely sure why it took me so long to complete these drawings, other than I got distracted with life and my heart just wasn't in art at all for awhile. I have a long list of these "symbolism" drawings all planned out and ready to go - a list of the flowers I intend to draw, the corresponding title, and the colored paper I plan to use for them - and in early July, "Nourishment" just happened to be next on my list.
I found a picture of sunflowers to use as a reference, and started lightly sketching in the yellow petals and brown centers.
And then, after about 10 minutes of work, I stopped.
When I started "Nourishment," I wasn't yet pregnant - but was hoping to be soon. I had a lot on my mind. If I had completed "Nourishment" in the time frame I usually do, it would've likely been complete long before I knew I was pregnant; instead, I procrastinated and stalled and got distracted, and for 7.5 weeks, this drawing sat around in this barely-started state. During that time, we started trying to conceive, and found out I was pregnant on August 10. We started telling people the news, and I made plans for my pregnancy. I didn't get back to this drawing until August 27 - at which point a drawing titled "Nourishment" seemed to be laden with so much more meaning. It felt like such an apt drawing to work on, while my body was busy nourishing a growing baby-to-be. It took me a few more days to finish, working on it a little bit at a time (for I was still not quite in the mood to focus on art), and I finally finished it on September 2.
First, I finished lightly sketching in the plants by adding in light green leaves.
Then, I started going in and adding depth and detail. I darkened the brown centers, and lightened the yellow petals with white and yellow colored pencils.
Then I darkened the leaves somewhat (though not adding much more dimension/detail to them, since I wanted the focus to be on the sunflowers themselves), and darkened the brown centers yet again, to heighten the contrast of the sunflowers.
The above picture is the completed drawing, complete with signature. Here are some close-up shots of the final drawing, below:
Five days after I finished this drawing I learned that I was having a missed miscarriage; six days after that, on September 13, I had my D&C. I understandably wasn't in the mood to create much art for awhile after that (for an entirely different reason than before) - and I especially wasn't gung-ho about starting the next symbolic floral drawing on my list, which was titled "Enthusiasm." I eventually worked on some other projects during that time instead, but I still kept putting off "Enthusiasm"... In January, I finally started and finished that second colored pencil drawing on yellow paper, which is why I'm posting "Nourishment" today. "Enthusiasm" will be the next post.
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