"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 4

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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The initial sketch of my "Religion Bouquet" drawing is complete on the 19"x25" black Canson Mi-Teintes paper - which means it's time to start going through and building up layers of color and detail, flower by flower.

Today's post is going to show the first six flowers that I worked on during this second go-round, starting with the ti leaves at the top. For these large ti leaves, I used three shades of red and five shades of green:

Just to the left of these, I worked on the bunch of cattails. I used two brown colored pencils, three green pencils, yellow, and cream:

To the right of the ti leaves is a sprig of enchanter's nightshade, an herb with tiny white blooms. I used a light green pencil, white, brown, red, and a pink colored pencil for this plant:

Back on the left side of the bouquet, I used three shades of green, three shades of purple, one pink, one magenta, one blue-violet, and one cream pencil to color in the violets:

Below the violets, I'd sketched in a bunch of plumeria. I colored these in with dark green, bright green, white, cream, yellow, orange, and brown:

And for this quartet of black-eyed susans, I used black, pumpkin orange, orange, yellow, cream, white, and bright green colored pencils:

Here's what the entire drawing looks like so far, with the first six completed. You can also see in this picture where the rest of the flowers are sketched in lightly, ready and waiting for more color to help them stand out against the black paper.

Check back again soon for more posts - and more pictures!

"Religious Bouquet (Stronger Together)" - In Progress 3

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 last blog post looked at the first twelve flowers - and this one will look at the last twelve. Once all 24 are lightly drawn in like this, the next step is to go back through and add more layers, building up colors and details.

I started this second half of the sketch with the holly plant:

At the very top of the bouquet is a cluster of green and red ti leaves:

On either side of the ti leaves, filling out the top, are brown cattails and the whiteish-red enchanter's nightshade herb:

Going back down along the right and left sides, I added purple colored violet flowers and purple tulips:

Below the violets, I drew a bunch of yellow-white plumeria:

And underneath the tulips, a bunch of red lychnis:

Continuing down the left side is the red amaranthus (aka love lies bleeding) plant, and a pair of purple irises:

On the right side, I filled in the rest of the drawing with several purple orchids and white jasmine flowers:

Here is the layout for the entire drawing:

As you can see, all of the flowers are in place - but from a distance especially they are too lightly drawn to stand out much from the black paper. Next I will go back through one-by-one and add more color to each flower.

Below is the quick sketch on newsprint (the plan I worked from), and the start of the black paper drawing (the final piece):

"Race Bouquet (Stronger Together)" - Finished

My latest 19"x25" colored pencil drawing is now complete! Titled, "Race Bouquet (Stronger Together)," it is part of a series of six planned drawings of bouquets that showcase the richness and beauty that can come from a variety of plants, representing humans of different subgroups under a broad category. "Race Bouquet" uses a wide range of flowers available in "skin tone shades" to demonstrate different races of people living and working side by side, in harmony, to create a beautiful, multicultural community.

Here is the completed drawing, along with the 31 colored pencils I used:

Here are some detail pics of the bouquet:

And some extreme close-up shots, showing the texture of the paper through the colored pencil:

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 more about the meaning behind this drawing or the specific symbolism of each flower, visit this blog post.

To see "the making of" photos of this drawing, visit these other blog posts:

• 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 astilbe, cattail, gladiolus, protea, freesia, and amaranthus plants ("In Progress 4")
• Adding detail and dimension to the gerbera daisy, jasmine, ti leaf, carnations, peony, and chrysanthemums ("In Progress 5")
• Adding detail and dimension to the tulips, dahlia, orchids, roses, chocolate sunflower, and succulent ("In Progress 6")
• Adding detail and dimension to the peruvian lilies, coneflowers, asters, hibiscus, lotus, and cherry blossoms ("In Progress 7")