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!

"Ambition" Colored Pencil Drawing

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

Hollyhock flowers symbolize many things including "ambition," which I chose to use for the title of this 8"x10" colored pencil drawing. I used Prismacolor brand pencils and Canson Mi-Tientes red paper, as well as a source photograph of hollyhock I printed from Google, to draw this piece.

This first picture shows me collecting my supplies. In the upper right you can see the printout of hollyhock I used for reference as I drew.

I made a quick linear outline for how I wanted the flowers placed on the paper.

Then I started lightly coloring in the flowers and leaves.

Once I had that initial layer in place, I started going back through and adding more detail and dimension. I started with the green stems and leaves, which I suspected might be a little tricky to get the shading how I wanted it, given that I was drawing on red paper and green and red are complementary colors. I had to make sure to choose an appropriate green so that it would both show up against the red, and not cause too much visual vibration where it touched red/where the red paper showed through.

Then I went through and added more color, detail, and dimension to the flowers. There are a few different colors of hollyhock in this drawing.

And here's the finished piece! Close-up views show quite a bit of the texture of the Canson Mi-Tientes paper, which I think gives it a nice, rich, artistic quality.

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