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.
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.