Flower Attribute Notecards - Blue & Green Set

As mentioned, I have several new notecard variety packs available in my Etsy shop, including new designs from my "Flower Attribute" series. Today's blog post is featuring the "Blue & Green" set, which includes scans from the 10 colored pencil drawings I've completed on blue or green paper.

The ten designs included in this notecard set are:

• Flight (Birds of Paradise) on blue paper
• Playfulness (Hyacinth) on blue paper
• Immortality (Acanthus) on blue paper
• Whimsy (Carnation) on blue paper
• Creativity (Dahlia) on blue paper
• Faith (Iris) on blue paper
• Hope (Button Poms) on green paper
• Transformation (King Protea) on green paper
• Wealth (Astroemeria) on green paper
• Luck (Bells of Ireland) on green 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!

"Flight" Colored Pencil Drawing

You can purchase this finished drawing here in my Etsy shop.

After finishing "Ambition" and "Fertility" (two 8x10" colored pencil drawings of flowers on red paper, which I wrote about on this blog here and here), I continued with my symbolic floral colored pencil series - this time creating two drawings on blue paper. I called the first of these blue drawings "Flight" - after the symbolism of the birds of paradise flower.

In this first photo, you can see my collection of Prismacolor colored pencils (separated into "warm colors" and "cool colors"), the source photograph I found on Google images of a birds of paradise flower, and my piece of blue Canson Mi-Tientes paper.

As usual, I started with a light sketch of the flower, getting the colors and shapes blocked off so I would be able to see the composition as a whole.

Once that initial layer was complete, I started adding more layers of color, as well as details and dimensionality.

Here is the final drawing:

Because this drawing is only of one single birds of paradise flower (rather than a collection of many pomegranate flowers or hollyhock, which I used for the compositions in "Fertility" and "Ambition" respectively), and because of the unique nature of this particular species, this drawing takes on a more abstract feel than my other drawings so far in this series. I could have included a whole bunch of birds of paradise, but I felt that a single flower better captured the symbolism of "flight" - by featuring only one flower, you can really see the detail of the colors, lines, and shapes, which gives it that majestic feeling of a bird about to take flight.

The other drawing I recently completed on blue paper is titled "Playfulness" - and it's the subject of the next blog post I'll write. :)

You can purchase this finished drawing here in my Etsy shop.

"Religion Bouquet (Stronger Together)" - Finished

I've finished another of my 19"x25" colored pencil drawings in this "Stronger Together" series! I have two more planned - Class and Ability. (If you're interested, you can check out the other three I've completed: Race - at this blog post, Gender - at this one, or Sexuality - at this post.)

This newly completed one is called "Religion Bouquet." The two-dozen flowers I chose for this bouquet are all symbolically used or associated with a modern or ancient religion (including Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Wicca, various Native American religions, and/or Greek/Roman mythology), or else symbolize Atheism, Humanism, or Science, to be inclusive of non-religious people who are often left out of discussions on religious tolerance.

Here is the finished drawing, which uses a general yellow-purple-red-white color scheme, with hints of oranges and greens:

And here is the original plan, sketched out on newsprint, next to the final drawing on black paper:

I used 28 different colored pencils, ranging from warm reds, oranges, and browns, to cool purples, blues, and greens, as well as sunny yellows and high-contrast white and black.

This is not yet available for sale, but I will probably list it (and the others to-come in this series) in my Etsy shop at the end of the year.

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To read about religious discrimination, and why I think it persists in being a problem in the United States, I invite you to read this blog post. I've also recently written posts on the Separation of Church and State and a call for secularism, as well as a post in defense of Atheism, which you can read at the links above.

To read about the idea behind this colored pencil drawing and an explanation for the symbolism of the specific flowers used, check out this post.

To see "the making of" photos of this drawing, please visit these:

• Preliminary sketches ("In Progress 1")
• Drawing and lightly coloring in the first 12 flowers ("In Progress 2")
• Drawing and lightly coloring in the last 12 flowers ("In Progress 3")
• Adding detail and dimension to the ti leaves, cattails, enchanter's nightshade, violets, plumeria, and black-eyed susans ("In Progress 4")
• Adding detail and dimension to the holly, tulips, lychnis, morning glories, pomegranate, and acanthus ("In Progress 5")
• Adding detail and dimension to the amaranthus, birds of paradise, orchids, irises, lilies, and zinnia ("In Progress 6")
• Adding detail and dimension to the lotus, daffodils, gladiolus, sage, jasmine, and roses ("In Progress 7")

"Religion Bouquet (Stronger Together)" - In Progress 6

To read about religious discrimination and why tolerance of people of all religions (and non-religions) is so important, visit this blog post.

To read about the religious symbolism of the 24 flowers used in this drawing, go back to this blog post.

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My drawing is now halfway complete! Today's post will outline the next six flowers I worked on, as I continued to go through the bouquet flower-by-flower.

This amaranthus (love lies bleeding) is on the left side of the bouquet, underneath the plumeria. I used two shades of green for the leaves, and pink, cream, and two shades of red for the flowers:

In the middle of the bouquet, just under the pomegranante, is this vibrant display of birds of paradise. I used nearly every color of the rainbow for this one - magenta, red, orange, white, yellow, green, dark green, blue, and two purple pencils:

These orchids were colored in with blue-violet, red-violet, magenta, lavender gray, pink, red, and dark red:

Back on the other side, I added color and detail to the purple irises with white, lavender, purple, magenta, brown, yellow, green, blue, and black pencils:

Next to the irises, I drew this white lily, surrounded by small lily buds. I used white, orange, yellow, black, and two green colored pencils:

The eighteenth flower in this bouquet are these orange zinnia. I used white, black, magenta, orange, and yellow, as well as two shades of green for the stems:

Only six more flowers, and the glass vase, to finish up before this 19"x25" is complete!

"Religion Bouquet (Stronger Together)" - In Progress 2

To read about religious discrimination and why tolerance of people of all religions (and non-religions) is so important, visit this blog post.

To read about the religious symbolism of the 24 flowers used in this drawing, go back to this blog post.

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In my last post, I showed the composition plan I developed for the next 19"x25" colored pencil drawing in my "Stronger Together" series. Now that the newsprint sketch is complete, I can move on to sketching out the placement and general colors of each flower onto the black paper. Then, once the entire drawing is lightly drawn in, I'll go back through and add more layers of color and detail, to really help each flower pop against the black paper.

Today's blog post will show how I sketched in the first dozen flowers onto the black paper.

In the last three drawings I did in this series, I started either at the top of the bouquet, or in the center, and then worked by way outward from there - but because I was getting concerned that the last few flowers at the bottom of the bouquet were getting a little squashed (as I ran out of room to fit them and a vase at the bottom of the drawing) in the other drawings, I decided to switch it up this time and start at the bottom first.

I drew a graphite outline of the four flowers at the bottom, as well as the vase. Then, I colored them in and erased the outline.

Red zinnia:

Yellow daffodil:

Purple sage:

And red roses:

Next, I drew in a purple lotus, centered above the daffodils and sage:

Above that, a bunch of birds of paradise flowers:

To the left of those, I added a white lily:

And to the right of the birds of paradise, a stalk of yellow gladiolus:

Rising up on either side of the birds of paradise flowers are a purple group of morning glories and a stalk of purple and white acanthus:

Filling out the middle is a large pomegranate flower, with two budding pomegranate fruits.

And to the upper-left of that is a trio of yellow black-eyed susans.

Those are the first twelve flowers. There are still some more to add to the top of this bouquet, as well as several on both the left and right sides to fill it out. Check back soon for more "in progress" photos!