Nature is surprising me all the time. Today I wanted to sketch something, but I don’t have any living plant now (I have a pine cone, but maybe later…). So I was browsing my photos and I hit on the Echium vulgare. 


The name of this plant is very interesting. Unfortunately I have no idea how it’s called in english. Echium vulgare is in latin, and in polish it’s called żmijowiec zwyczajny. The first word – żmijowiec – comes from the name of the snake, in english it’s an adder. And zwyczajny means ordinary, common. When I was drawing it with an ink I was wondering how it is called like that. And suddenly I realised, that there is one stamen that comes from the flower and looks like a tongue of the adder! I also read, that in the past this plant was used against adder’s bites. Interesting!

Now I know a little bit more about the Echium vulgare. I wanted to paint it and keep it simple. I decided, again, to use an ink to draw an outline. I made the outer lines a little bit thicker. It reminds me paintings of one of my favourite artist – Alfons Mucha (I love art nouveau). I used mainly Ultramarine Blue PB29 and Winsor Violet PV23 on the flowers.

Here you can see the stamen that comes from the flower and looks like an adder’s tongue.

I have to admit that I love this kind of sketching! Ink, a nib pen and watercolors! I love it! I feel very comfortable when I sketch this way.