Tag: daily drawing

Leaf of the Day: Asiatic Jasmine

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Last night it rained hard and heavy, hour after hour. This morning the sun came out and it was like a sweet balmy May morning in England. Spring is definitely jogging the elbow of those plants who are allowed a winter layoff here in Florida. Even the ones reduced to black slimy heaps by the big ugly freeze are showing new growth. Its very encouraging.
Trachelospermum asiaticum is the Latin name for this very well behaved creeping ground cover plant that is everywhere in the urban car parks, traffic islands and mall borders and after 3 weeks of pencil work I am trying some pen and ink.
This was done on Bristol board with a technical pen, not my favourite surface or pen… but I am very out of practice and cannot remember when I last did a careful study in pen and ink. My normal style with a pen is much sketchier, using a crow quill dip pen which has a less regular but more expressive line. This is much more to my taste but maybe not so good for botanical work. I will just have to practice and try a few more combinations of paper and pen
A word about Michaels
I am hoping to try another study of this little plant with the crow quill nib and Indian ink which will mean a trip to Michaels the big chain craft store just across the easy road. This is crafter heaven, spoilt only by the overpowering smell of dried flowers and the soporific muzak. Customers glide serenely up and down the displays, wafted on a cloud of artificial jasmine and mesmerised by soupy saxophone love songs. Its like being encased in a huge bubble of niceness and is sometimes hard to break the surface tension and escape back to the mean streets of Winter Park.
However it is fascinating to see their changing displays. The last lingering Christmas baskets have been wheeled away and the aisles are ablaze with Valentine reds and even an Easter chick has crept onto the shelves….and of course I am the very first in line with my 40% discount coupon!..
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Asiatic Jasmine



Technical pen on Bristol Board



Crow Quill nib and Indian ink on Bristol Board.
A bit more expressive but not so accurate!

Leaf of the Day: Bauhinia or Butterfly Tree

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On the nearby charmingly named Gay Rd is a small retirement complex and this lovely tree must bring delight to whichever lucky resident has an adjacent room. I am presuming, from this leaf, that it is the Bauhinia purpurea: Purple Orchid-Tree
This genus of tree was named to honor the work of the Bauhini brothers, 16th century Swiss botanists and herbalists who each wrote extensively on horticulture and the use of plants.
There are many varieties of Bauhinia and in India, the Apta, as it is known, is celebrated both in myth and for its medical uses especially in ayurvedic medicine. In legend, the tree was showered with gold during a fight between Kuba the god of wealth and King Raghu. I think that is a very beautiful image and one of the observances of festival of Dussehra is the exchange of Apta leaves as a symbol of a gift of gold.

Leaf Description
This beautiful leaf is bi-lobed, so really made up of twin leaflets, joined in the middle and I have seen other examples that are more deeply divided. The interesting shape also earns it the name butterfly tree or more prosaically, cow’s foot. I have a proper botanical description of these leaves from the AgroForestryTree Database
“Leaves have minute stipules 1-2 mm, early caducous; petiole puberulous to glabrous, 3-4 cm; lamina broadly ovate to circular, often broader than long, 6-16 cm diameter; 11-13 nerved; tips of lobes broadly rounded, base cordate; upper surface glabrous, lower glaucous but glabrous when fully grown”

Taxonomy
And I am learning more about the taxonomy of plants too.. so here, for the scholarly, from the USA Department of Agriculture is the correct classification for the lovely butterfly tree.
Kingdom: Plantae ( plants)
Subkingdom: Trachebionta (Vascular plants)
Superdivision: Spermatophyta (Seed plants)
Division: Magnoliophyta (Flowering plants)
Class: Magnoliopsida (Dicotyledons)
Subclass: Rosidae
Order: Fabales
Family: Fabaceae (pea)
Genus: Bauhinia
Species: Bauhinia purpurea (butterfly tree)

There is so much to learn and understand… what joy!____________________________________________

The Butterfly Tree

Leaf of the Day: Chinese Holly, a glabrous leaf.

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As I left the supermarket this morning, a little white dog, who was enthusiastically sniffing the planted borders of the car park, sprang up in the air like a rocket, yelped and fled back to his owner. I wanted to investigate and thought it just might be the extremely venomous and to-be-avoided-at-all-costs, diamond backed rattle snake. I took a rather tentative look as today, of course, I had forgotten to bring with me my professional snake tongs and sack. Thankfully there was no snake but an aggressive and very ferocious Chinese Holly bush which resisted my attempts to snatch a leaf with grim determination.
However here are 3 leaves, gathered at some personal cost as this low lying dense and prickly shrub has leaves of steel with needle like sharp points which stick out all directions and directly in to your flesh.

My plan for the leaf chart will have to wait for a day or two but this holly is a very good example of a leaf with a glabrous surface .. yes… glabrous means smooth and in botanical terms is the opposite to pubescent which of course means hairy! There are many different grades of hairiness and I look forward to my first samples of floccose, strigose and villous leaves.

Sitting on my drawing table these funny leaves looked like bizarre and aggressive insects. Their Latin name is ilex cornuta.. ‘cornuta’ meaning horned, very appropriate.
My aim here is to show the top surface as smooth and shiny, the underside as duller and paler. I have not exaggerated the spines.
For those wishing to hear the name beautifully said in Italian go here!!!!! I am finding some more and exciting audio clips to add occasionally so stay tuned.
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Chinese Holly

Leaf of the Day: Firecracker and Tornados

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Yesterday evening a storm swept over Winter Park bringing with it ominous warnings from the weather man of possible “tornadic” activity. The rain was torrential and we had a spectacular display of thunder and lightening, so it’s quite apt that today’s leaf ( if you can spot one ) is from the Firecracker bush.

This untidy plant, russelia equisetiformis, flops over and through the railings near the pool and I have hesitated to draw it before as I couldn’t find the leaves. Well they are there.. but very tiny and referred to in one book as ‘scale like’. At regular intervals along the main stem there are 5 little leaves arranged in a whorled formation. 5 stems radiate from the leaf bases and these in turn bear two or three of the brilliant red tubular flowers which give this bush its name. My sample here was somewhat bedraggled after the storm and the plant is not looking its best, but new growth is starting with a very upright, thicker new main stem and with more pronounced leaves.

Tomorrow I am planning another leaf chart. I am keen to explore the word.. glabrescent; ie becoming glabrous in age.. I am sure you are too!
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Firecracker Bush

Leaf of the Day: Sacred Bamboo

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I used to grow Sacred Bamboo or Nandina in my little garden in Deal in England. It had lovely winter orangy red colours in the foliage with cheerful red berries and delicate little flowers. The plant has a light and airy feel about it, but does not really look much like bamboo and is not related..although I did read somewhere that it was used in the manufacture of chop sticks. This one is, again, from the varied borders round the apartment. I am going to venture further very soon.

This is one leaf. A compound bipinnate leaf. I have yet to do the “leaf composition chart”.. but its comforting to know I have a sample of the bipinnate variety!
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Sacred Bamboo

Leaf of the Day: Long Leaf Pine Needles

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I am trying to get the full set of leaf shapes and this is an example of an acicluar, or needle shaped leaf. I was waiting for the bus on Denning Road this morning and saw these fallen pine needles scattered around the pavement. I noticed that all of them came in sets of three, joined together at the end, and were incredibly long and beautiful. I think this is the Long Leaf Pine, Pinus palustris.

Pine needles are used here in America to make some wonderful baskets. I do so admire the American love and respect for craft at its highest level.
Teri Thompson , a Florida artist has some beautiful baskets here

However, these 12 inch long slender needles would not fit on my 9 x 9 inch sketch book so I have had to move onto the 14 x 17 inch one. Now this poses the problem of scanning, as my basic scanner/printer is only A4. I had to scan this one in two sections but the glass bed of the scanner is slightly lower than its surround which means that anything near the edge tends to be sightly out of focus. Pencil drawings are very difficult to reproduce well, even with professional equipment and I may have to photograph the larger ones now… does anyone have any hints?
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Long Leaf Pine

Leaf of the Day: Baby Red Romaine..unfinished

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The weather here has returned to cold and rainy. Temperatures have slipped from 80F to 60 F. It’s miserable. I didn’t even go out today. So Leaf of the Day was gathered from the plastic bag of salad that has been languishing in the fridge since Saturday. It was also late in the afternoon. This was a mistake.

Here’s why..
1 Wilt.. It was difficult to decide how to draw this pretty little red leaf as they are very curvy and curl in on themselves so I just laid it down as you see. However within five minutes this already sad leaf started to flop so its outline and its contours changed very quickly.
2 Light.. It was light when I started but got dark within an hour so all the shadows changed

In the end I abandoned it…there are lessons to be learnt about planning, timing, lighting and the condition of your model!

The “Romaine” in its name refers to “Roman” and it was mentioned in the fascinating Elizabethan book “The Gardeners Labyrinth” compiled by Thomas Hill 1563.. It was the first gardening book to be published in England. I particularly like his appeal for “soft and gentle” weeding. There is a short article with illustrations from Glasgow University here and some very interesting facts about Salad Greens in this excellent article from Colonial Williamsburg’s history site here which also cites Hill’s referal to “Romane” lettuce.
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Baby Red Romaine

Leaf of the Day: Creeping Fig

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Today´s drawing is a little piece of the creeping fig which is enthusiastically climbing the walls of the apartment complex. It has a very interesting habit of pushing out side shoots almost at right angles which creates a pretty, delicate tracery against the cream painted walls
It clings onto surfaces with little wiry adventitious roots and also makes its own glue, just to be on the safe side. Its willingness to quickly creep, cover, twine and wind itself around almost anything makes it very useful and adaptable for covering ugly structures and it can ably adapt itself to more indulgent artistic projects.

Here in Orlando is it finds full employment, softening concrete road bridges, reducing traffic noise and, as you would expect, has a starring role at the theme parks.
These wonderful ears were created by Topiary Joe. Go to his fantastic website here to get some inspiration for that 15 ft sculpture you have been longing to erect in the garden.

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Creeping Fig

Leaves of the day: Shape charts

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After 2 weeks of daily drawings of leaves, I have made a couple of charts. There is a whole new fascinating language to learn when you are trying to describe plants, even just leaves! Try,’runcinate’, ‘lyrate’, ‘reniform’, and ‘obcordate’ just for starters. The simple shapes presented a good opportunity to add some colour as a sort of “greens” colour chart. They are mostly prepared greens, Winsor and Newton or Daler Rowney, with some beautiful Sennelier colours too. Its such good practice to make colour charts. Only through repeated use you will eventually recognise colours and be able to match colours and mix correctly. Its also very therapeutic activity… hours have drifted by today. As displacement activities go this is definitely more productive than mall wandering.
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Shape and Colour charts

Leaf Venation

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This little chart shows the different types of venation. Sufferers from varicose veins look away.

I adapted this from another chart. It plays about with colour, a bit of brush control and, in most of them, painting negative spaces.
At this stage I am really wondering if I will be able to paint as finely as I will need to for future assignments on the course. Practise and stronger glasses I think.

As always, I am attracted to the patterns here and can see many posibilitites for design and painting ideas.