gather ye rosebuds...

that poem came to mind, not because of this first image, but for what comes after...

i'm afraid i might be a one-hit wonder

remember my banana painting?

it came out much better than expected - i guess maybe i thought i might be alright at painting and sketching - i've had a bit of a comeuppance i think...

blow to the ego and all that

these little rosebuds are comfort food - a little reassurance that it's possible for me to draw and paint something i like

 what gave me grief today was this -

 the very kind lady at the flower shop down the street gave me a lovely bag stuffed full of flower petals

to practice painting with

 when i was working on it i couldn't figure it out - now i think i was busy trying to capture every little detail, every single nuance of colour

i ended up with a very blended blob

i've sharpened these images but not messed with colour saturation or contrast - the one above is closer to how it really looks than the one above it - that one is very washed out

below shows the image after i added a little detail with my trusty brown pigma pen

i'm addicted to them - have one in each size, in brown

a few other colours in random sizes, but all the browns

it's kind of like my embroidery - i never ever use black, always brown-black

{same with my mascara!}

weird huh?

i'm much happier with it since adding the pen but still...

 

 i think i need to capture the essence of the colours rather than the literal???

i was already to put my paints away when i decided i needed a little reassurance

so i sketched a row of rosebuds

quickly drawn, the pen lightly scratching the page - a hint of colour

 

i adore them - it's like they want to take flight

rose-bugs?

 i looked at a few images online and decided to define the shapes a little more - it's time to go back to botany school - i remember calyx but that's about it

the little leafy tendril things that encase the rosebuds - they needed to be a little more pronounced 

 i sketched a larger one, made it blue and added some creamy yellow, realizing too late they would make green

ah well, i don't mind it after all

poetic license...

finally, i deepened the pink of the first rosebud, intending to add the dark just at the base but it spread quickly and enveloped almost the whole bud

i like it anyway

i actually like them quite a lot

and if i may forever tarry, i think i'll be quite content if i've a paintbrush in one hand and a pencil in the other