Flower Attribute Notecards - Gray Set & Tan 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 two more of those sets - the "Gray" set, which includes scans from the six colored pencil drawings I've completed on gray paper as part of that series, and the "Tan" set, which includes 8 colored pencil drawings on tan paper (seven from this series, and the eighth titled "White Poinsettia," originally created as a holiday-themed notecard).

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The "Gray Paper" set:

The 6 designs included in this notecard set are:

• Prophecy (Heliotrope)
• Loyalty (Daisy)
• Balance (Enchanter's Nightshade)
• Modesty (Violet)
• Frigidity (Lithodora)
• Attachment (Delphinium)

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The "Tan Paper" set:

The 8 designs included in this notecard set are:

• White Poinsettia
• Anticipation (Anemone)
• Shame (Peony)
• Constancy (Bluebell)
• Strength (Ginger)
• Fragility (Azalea)
• Union (Myrtle)
• Folly (Geranium)

If "Folly" looks brand new to you - it's because it is! "Folly" is a recently 2021 drawing that I haven't even created the blog post for yet... look for that blog post next week!

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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!

"Balance" Colored Pencil Drawing

I completed this 8"x10" drawing at the end of 2019, before the birth of my baby. The flower is an herb called enchanter's nightshade, which stands for, among other things, balance, which is where the drawing's title comes from. I used toned gray Strathmore paper and Prismacolor brand colored pencils.

I started with a light sketch of the stalks, flowers, and leaves, to plan where they would go on the page.

Then I started going through and adding more color, contrast, detail, and dimension. There were little fuzzy "hairs" on the stalks that glowed white in the source photo I was referencing, so I made sure to leave a bit of space between the dark background and the stalks, to imply that fuzz out of the negative space.

The last part I added details to were the little white flowers, since I wanted to make sure to keep them as light colored as possible compared to the rest of the plant.

Here is the finished drawing: