Sketchbook – Orchid with Colored Pencils

Intro

On Mother’s Day I was fortunate enough to receive this beautiful orchid from my daughters. It was totally unexpected as I’ve never owned an orchid before.

I decided to do a sketchbook drawing of this orchid as it had such an interesting form.

Border

I drew a border around the page and with the 2H pencil sketched out the main lines of the orchid.

This is called a waterfall orchid and it’s actually supported with a plastic structure to keep its delicate shape.

I positioned the pot slightly to the left so I could have the full cascade of the waterfall petals of the orchid in the top part of the page.

I then went over it with a Sakura Pigma Micron 0.3mm black pen and firmed up the lines.

Next, I erased all the pencil marks and ran over the page with a kneadable eraser to lift up all the loose graphite.

Colored Pencils

Actually I chose a selection of colours of coloured pencils from my pencil stash.

I’m using the Faber Castell polychromos crayons and the colours are middle purple, pink rose Carmine pink madder lake, dark Naples ochre, olive green yellowish and chromium green opaque.

The main colours for this drawing are the pink of the flower with the yellow centre and the green of the leaves on the stem.

I started with the lightest pink, pink madder lake and drew some light lines coming out from the centre of the large petals.

I then took the next deeper pink and filled in the blobs that really look like a face. I do not know the names of these parts of the plant.

Finally, I took the darkest pink to do the two sort of horn bits that are sticking out which is where I understand that the insects land when they’re collecting the pollen and nectar.

I then turned my attention to the leaves and using the two shades of green I coloured them in trying to put the darker shade on the lower side of the leaves or the underside of any shaded areas.

The Pot

The pot is interesting with diamond shapes in it shown in the way it caught the light.

I just wanted to give an idea of the shape and not give all the detail, so I used a beige pen here.

I continued building up the petals working from the center outwards adding more depth of colour on some of the closeups you could see that the one bloom was facing the other way and therefore it was much darker behind then the petals that are shown at the front.

I drew a horizontal line to stabilize the plant on some kind of surface and shaded in the table with pinks and I shaded the background in a light beige.

Plant Meaning

I have a fabulous book called The Secret Language of Flowers by Samantha Gray which I use when I’m looking at my flower meanings.

It turns out that orchid has several meanings of which some are beauty, mature charm, love, refinement, thoughtfulness and many children.

On the left hand page I drew a box and wrote the plant name and chose one of the meanings which was beauty as I felt it was the strongest meaning for this specimen.

Signing the Artwork

I put my art initials AHA for Alison Hazel Art in the bottom right-hand corner in the same pen I used for the black lines.

Finally, I dated it with May 2022.

Completed Artwork

I’m really happy with how this sketch came out.

I learned that there are quite a lot of intricacies within the flower itself.

Also on the one bloom on the top left for some reason I only had four petals on it and at the last moment I added the fifth petal as I realized it was missing.

I continued to add depth of colour from the pink on the underlying petals to make them recede so that the two main petals, which were lighter, could come forward.

I’m really very happy the way this sketch came out and it’s a great addition to my sketchbook.

• Sketch one or two blooms. You will probably need some greens and then perhaps two or three of the main colour in crayons.
• Start with a pencil sketch make sure you have a border and make sure you have a horizon.
• Colour in your plant until you’re happy with it.
• This should be a fun project.
• If possible, find out the meaning of the flowers which you have drawn and write a note on the left hand page.

Sharing

You can share your completed artworks with the #ahasketchbook so we can all see what you have drawn.

Thank you so much for being with me today.

Warmly,

Alison

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