Botanical illustrations from the last week of april. I’ve used watercolour paper and raw sienna ink with dip pen and brush.

Wisteria buds

The little common daisy (Bellis perennis)

Carex nigra

Marble oak galls

Created by the wasp Andricus kollari, oak galls were once used to make iron gall ink. The
tannin contained by the oak interacts with the ferrous sulfate resulting in a blue-black colour. Arabic gum is added for ink consistency.

Morel mushroom (Morchella esculenta)

I love this type of journaling, it force you to concentrate in one plant per day. Some days a sketch can take one hour, on others, four. But when I think it’s done, it’s done, I don’t work on it anymore. The next day is about other discoveries both in botany and art. I also try with every new project, as you probably noticed, to use different materials and even different methods. The evening before the Bellis perennis drawing I was studying the clean, simple hatches in Raffaelo’s Four Figures and that reflected in my drawing.
Next week… magnolias.