Beautiful Pest

Invasive species can be beautiful. One example: the butterfly moth (Paysandisia archon), a stowaway in shipments of palms going from its native Argentina to the European mainland. Now thousands of them are happily devouring palm trees from the inside out all along the Mediterranean. But despite their voracious appetite for trees, they are lovely to draw.

 

The camellias have arrived

It’s camellia season on the Gulf Coast and big, showy blossoms are everywhere. Unlike the azalea’s brief explosion of riotous color followed by ten months of weedy-looking shrubbery, the camellia’s glossy greenery looks robust year round. Some varieties bloom for months and can survive, essentially neglected, for centuries.

But I like them because they are such fun to draw. Simple or heavily ruffled, their flowers range from snowy white to delicate pink to intense crimson — or speckled and spattered combinations of these colors. And their crepe texture is perfect for colored pencil. Here’s a recent preliminary drawing using a dark umber Prismacolor pencil:

And here’s the same drawing, with layers of color added. I used five colors in addition to the umber “foundation drawing” :  Crimson, Cream, Chartreuse, Canary Yellow and Dark Green:

Did you know…

…”Nar” is the Old Norse word for corpse. These whales are named for their mottled resemblance to drowned sailors. A bit of cetacean trivia for your day!

Pencil Overdrawing

On a steamy Alabama evening a few years ago, I saw something desperately flopping on the pavement in front of the local grocery store. At first I thought it was a small bird, but when it suddenly looped into the air I saw that it was an enormous moth. It struggled upward, scissoring the air with its wings, and then — to my surprise — it flew right in through my open truck window and landed awkwardly on the seat beside me.

This wondrous visitor was Antherea polyphemus, the largest moth in North America and one of a gorgeous retinue of silkworm moths whose beauty rivals that of any butterfly. With no functioning mouth parts, they live only about four days after emerging from their silken cocoons. My polyphemus moth friend appeared to be at the end of his short lifespan. He was missing a leg and a generous wedge of one wing, evidence of a harrowing escape from a hungry bird or the jaws of a gecko.

I let him rest on the seat during the drive home. He died somewhere along the miles of country road and so, after unloading the groceries, I placed the moth gently on my drawing table and sketched the graceful arc and lush patterns of those huge wings. A few weeks later, the sketch became the inspiration for a set of fairy wings:

Few artists use the technique, but pencil overdrawing (drawing the shading and details over a thin, flat layer of watercolor) is perfect for the subtle patterns and textures of a moth’s wing. You build the layers slowly and gradually, barely touching the paper with strokes as light as a moth, and the drawing becomes a deeply relaxing process.

We used pencil overdrawing in this week’s Draw Paint Letter email video lesson. If you like to draw, but are intimidated by realistic watercolor, it’s a good way to get your feet wet (so to speak).

Happy drawing,

Val

Ink + Brush = Appaloosa

For decades, I have loved the lively illustration work of that master of historical illustration, Victor Ambrus. And so it was Ambrus — and his lovely smudges and splatters — I had in mind when producing this demo for the online class, Draw Horses and Ponies. And when the technique includes lots of round inky droplets, the spots on an appaloosa seem like the natural place to go. I have experimented with fancier brushes, but this sort of serendipitous messiness seems to work best with a 50-cent chip brush from the hardware store.

Butterfly buffet

Out early with Atticus and the grandbeagle, we took the dogs’ favorite route along the shore of Mobile Bay. The bluffs were alive with monarchs and gulf fritillaries feeding on native lantana, the brilliant orange of their wings so close to the color of the blooms that at first glance it seemed that the flowers themselves were breaking loose to rise in the cool morning air.

(This gulf fritillary, however, sketched in a local garden center and then painted in gouache and colored pencil, was snacking on verbena.)

Tutorial: Tips on drawing animal eyes

Tags

tutorial

Blooming

Sketchbook: Cloudy, with a chance of rain

Tags

art, dogs, drawing, gardening, illustration, journals

From the studio: My 2008 Holiday Print

Tags

angel, art, Christmas, fairy, illustration, inspiration, peace, print, Solstice, Val Webb, watercolor

Dear Illustrated Garden readers,

Wishing you peace, here’s my Holiday Print for 2008. She’s painted in watercolor and gouache, and will arrive nicely matted and backed with acid-free museum stock. This is an annual edition of 100, and each piece is numbered, signed and also bears a remarque (a tiny just-for-you original sketch, drawn on the print next to the signature). Matted dimensions are 10×12 inches.

In thanks for a year of friendship and good gardening advice, I’m making my holiday print available to my blog readers for $20 + $3 postage. (International postage will be based on location.)  Let me know if you would like a special message added with your remarque.

To request a print, email me:   studio@valwebb.com

Val