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Monday, August 29, 2011

Pressing and Drawing

I am and herb and California native plant enthusiast. To learn about these herbs and plants I have read books, gone on nature walks, photographed plants, eaten things I foraged for in the wild, taken classes, and grown specimens, but I have not drawn. Drawing is a fantastic way to learn about pretty much anything because you have to take time when looking at something and observing every interconnecting detail.

I love details, but I'm not so great at the drawing part. I have been practicing and starting out with easy to draw plants that are mainly long, thing, and have little to no flowers or leaves on them. My friends that draw or paint say to me that it takes practice (though after seeing their beautiful work it is hard to imagine the practicing part). But they're right. I wasn't always a good cook, but then I practiced and got better. I can make some decent Jewelry now, and I practice that. But for some reason drawing has never been something I thought to practice at. I always assumed people who could draw were born with the gift. I'm not sure how I came about that assumption, but I decided that I would draw to learn plants, and in doing so eventually become better at drawing.

Chives and Flowers
The chives went to seed, so I tried to draw a chive flower. The other two flowers were two I picked from the garden because I wanted to press them in my notebook. I just thought they might look nice pressed.

Lavender
And lastly here is some lovely Lavender that is making my notebook smell fantastic. I took the most time on this drawing, and am pretty happy with how it came out.

I'm curious; there are a lot of crafters out there in the blogging world and I was wondering what it is that you have been trying to learn or practice lately?


6 comments:

cb said...

i love that you are pressing them and drawing them! plant illustrations are my favorite and i always look out for these books where ever i go. i am always practicing on my sewing and i can see the vast improvements which makes me sooooo happy!
xo,
cb

Anonymous said...

that is such a good point that you get to know something by drawing it. so true! I love your project! - Beth Shephard

Anonymous said...

I love your plant drawings! They look elegant how you photographed them with the real-life specimens. Let's get together and draw!

Let It Be Raw said...

Let's paint!

Devin McCutchen said...

These are among my favorite of your new projects. They seem inspired by turn-of-the-century botany samples, like the ones I've seen at the Berkeley Herbarium.

Let It Be Raw said...

Thanks, Dev. I will have to go there and check it out.

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