Caran d'Ache Pablo Series Colored Pencils

I use Caran d'Ache Supracolor II Soft series colored pencils a lot. Their rich colors come out easily perhaps because they are watercolor pencils. Today I'm finishing up a sand verbena drawing with some new Pablo series pencils. The colors are elegant but the pencil itself feels harder than Faber-Castell. I have very light hands so I have to press more when drawing. It also means that I have to build up more layers to obtain the desired value. One good thing about Pablo series being harder is that they stay sharp a bit longer than Supracolor series. Overall I like the series and it will take me another drawing or two before I decide whether I love it or not.

May The Bb Power Be With You!

Ellie

Interesting Shapes

Look around, have you noticed all the interesting shapes that you can find on plants? Even on one plant there are: tube (stem), cone (blossom), cup (calyx), sphere (bud), just to name a few. And no two plants/flowers/leaves/petals....is exactly identical! It makes me dizzy already just to imagine how many different pieces of rose petals are in the whole world.
Good thing is that most of the time, we only need to relax and appreciate the beauty of plants with all our senses without digging into the botanical facts of them.
This is a composition drawing consists of (top to bottom): clivia bud, dried island ironwood leaf, and candle plant (Senecio articulatus). I loved the fun, almost comic look of them all together and wanted to present a playful composition.
I hope you find some playful plant shapes around you today, too!

Some closeups:


About this artwork:
Original size: 9" x 12"
Paper: Strathmore Bristol 300 Series smooth surface (on the bloc cover it says for "pen and ink", I accidentally used it for graphite. The result is surprisingly fine, almost like a plate print. It has become my favorite graphite paper since.)
Pencil: Staedtler Mars Lumograph graphite pencil 2H

May The Bb Power Be With You,
Ellie

Island Manzanita: Flower and Apple

Arctostaphylos insularis
Family: Ericaceae
Genus: Arctostaphylos
Species: A. insularis

Island manzanita is endemic to Santa Cruz Island of Channel Islands of California.
In late December of 2014, I was commissioned to do 2 series of pen and ink drawings of native plants on Channel Islands. During the 2 month span of the first project, the island manzanita trees in the Channel Islands Native Garden changed a few phases already: budding, flowering, bearing apples. The young apples have this refreshing green that is hard to replicate. The bell shape flowers are white under a coat of peachy pink hue. It was a delight to just look at the rich colors shown on such a little branch.

A closeup of the flowers and apples:

Manzanita was widely used by Chumash Indians. In a very interesting book Living Wild written by Alicia Funk and Karin Kaufman, the two ladies introduce a few ways to enjoy manzanita: manzanita blossom jelly, manzanita crackers, manzanita muffins...etc. I haven't had a chance to try the recipes, but it's definitely on my bucket list to experiment in a near future!

Alicia Funk's The Living Wild Project website: www.livingwild.org
You can find their book Living Wild online or try with your local botanic garden. I found my copy at the gift shop of Santa Barbara Botanic Garden.

About this artwork:
Original size: 4"x 6"
Paper: Fabriano Hot Press 140 Lb
Colored pencils: Faber-Castell and Caran d'Ache

May The Bb Power Be With You,
Ellie

White Sapote

Casimiroa edulis
Family: Rutaceae
Genus: Casimiroa
Species: C. edulis

Conejo Valley Botanic Garden has a rare fruit area showcases several kinds of sapote trees. White sapote is native to eastern Mexico, Central America, and south to Costa Rica. The fruit is averagely about the same or slightly bigger than an apple. Like avocado, you have to pick the fruit when it's green, wait for a few days until it is ripe and soft. I always tell people who;s not familiar with the fruit that it tastes custardy and creamy. It's actually similar to atemoya (a hybrid of sugarapple and cherimoya).

This is a colored pencil drawing I made in the early winter of 2014. Of course, after being my model for 3 days, this sweet and delicious sapote was eaten! The luxury of being a botanical artist is that you get to eat your models sometimes! (Of course it's not fun when I work on a poison oak illustration recently...)

Here is a closeup of the stem part:

About this artwork:
Original size: 11" x 14"
Paper: Fabriano Hot Press 140 Lb.
Colored pencils: Faber-Castell and Caran d'Ache

May The Bb Power Be With You,
Ellie

Ceanothus gloriosus

Ceanothus gloriosus J.T Howell
Family: Rhamnaceae
Genus: Ceanothus
Species: C. gloriosus

A quick sketch with ink pen and watercolor.
Ceanothus gloriosus is endemic to California. Some people call the genus California Lilac. Generally they are 0.5 to 3 meters tall and burst crazily with white or purplish blue clusters of flowers in spring.

This may be the last ceanothus blossom of this year at the native plant garden of Channel Island National Park. When spring comes, there are so many flowers to draw and to paint! But this year I'm very distracted and couldn't spend too much time to study the ceanothus bushes in the CINP garden. I will have to wait for another 11 months to see the striking blue blooming again.

The most interesting part of the this ceanothus is the color of the flower. It's a purplish blue and kind of tricky to capture it right.

May The Bb Power Be With You,
Ellie

Beach Strawberry (Fragaria chiloensis)

Fragaria chiloensis
Family: Rosaceae
Genus: Fragaria
Species: F. chiloensis

You may see them labeled as "Pacific Beach Strawberry". This is not a native plant to the U.S, but is a common ground cover in coastal areas. I bought a 5" pot beach strawberry at Santa Barbara Botanical Garden last October. It started to bear berries in mid-March. The tiny berries are about 1/4 inch (0.5 cm) in diameter and are covered with achenes. The flavor is a bit tangy and very different from commercial strawberries. I really look forward to seeing it taking over the bare patch of my backyard!
The sketch is done with ink pen and watercolor.

May The Bb Power Be With You,
Ellie