Natural dyes

I've been interested for a while in making natural dyes derived from the plants on my property.  After spending the morning sketching artemesia leaves, this afternoon I set out to collect some plant material for dyeing.

Here are the things I chose, with most of the stems removed.  (In retrospect, there were some cases in which I think I should have been more diligent about removing the smallest stems.)

After steeping and straining, here are the dyes I ended up with at the end of the process:

It was surprising to see what colors emerged.  The mint was disappointing: I was hoping for a greener color, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised given the color of fresh mint tea.  The bignonia flowers were also a letdown: I thought they'd yield a pretty red.  I surprise myself by liking the brightest colors the best: the red-leafed Japanese maple, the purple viburnum berries and especially the bright orange wildflowers whose name I do not know.  Maybe I'm gravitating towards bright because of all the watercolors I've been mixing over the past couple of days and the realization that it's easy to tone down a color that starts out bright but I don't know whether it's possible to amp up something muddy.

Watercolor-tinted artemesia sketch

Here's what I made today: a sketch of some artemesia leaves, tinted with watercolors.

I enjoyed working with the watercolors again.  Their delicacy really appeals to me.  It was a challenge to figure out how to mix the colors I needed from only red, yellow and blue and I found it satisfying to be able to approximate the actual colors of the plant.

Martagon lily with watercolors

I took the leap and today tried coloring the same martagon lily that I worked on yesterday, this time with watercolor paint.

The brushwork definitely needs refining and, as you can see, I goofed and applied color to one of the spaces that's supposed to be empty between the petals but I enjoyed the challenge of working with this medium and I prefer the delicacy and gradual fading/blending of color it produces.  It's quite the challenge - in a good way!

Martagon lily with colored pencils

I tried again using colored pencils today on a drawing I did of a martagon lily flower.  I love the way the colors bring the flower to life, even if the texture produced by the pencils produces an effect that's much grainier than I'd like. 

Coloring the poppy pattern

Today was all about adding color to yesterday's sketch.  My verdict: very slow going and kind of boring.  Here's where I got it to by the end of the workday - not sure I'll continue and finish it.

Water soluble vs wax-based colored pencils...and a poppy pattern

I'm still playing around with colored pencils, trying to figure out whether I can get an effect I like using them.  Yesterday I tried wetting the water soluble ones that I'd been using.  Here's what some test shapes with looked like on three different kinds of paper:

Meh.  So I picked up some wax-based colored pencils and both a colorless blender and an odorless turpentine substitute to see if I could get a smoother finish. 

Different and more opaque but I'm still not as into the look as I'd hoped. 

I spent time this afternoon sketching a poppy pattern I liked from (yawn) a vintage cup and saucer.  Then I made some sample blends of different colors to see which pencils I might want to use to bring the sketch to life.

Shading and blending colors using colored pencils

Today I messed around some more with my colored pencils, focusing on shading evenly from dark to light and blending two (and three) colors together.  I sort of got lost in the moment of it, making different combinations and seeing which effects I like best.  I notice that I liked the browns blended with lighter, sweeter colors.

"Getting to know" my colored pencils

I want to learn how to add color to my drawings and have it look good.  I love the look of watercolors but am intimidated by them so I'm going to experiment with colored pencils for the time being.  I got a couple of books about colored pencil techniques from the library and one recommends "getting to know" your colored pencils by creating small swatches of each color, with as even a color application as possible.  I spent a couple of hours doing that today. 

It's amazing how challenging it is (or so I find it) to make the application even, but I guess that is one of those techniques essential to the medium that probably becomes easier with practice.  So I cued up some podcasts and colored away.

Scissors to practice drawing value

This morning I cut a lily from the garden to draw but got distracted by the pair of scissors and decided to draw them instead.  I know I need to start incorporating light and dark values into my drawings (and at some point, color) but am intimidated by how to do it.  This was an attempt.

More work on michauxia

On Monday and Tuesday I continued to work on the michauxia pattern.  First I made multiple photocopies of the two images I'd created so I could see the problems in alignment and spacing.  That led to me making a few shifts and changes.  I also tried ghosting in some of the trellis pattern's elements to get a sense of the relationship between the two patterns and see what I thought of the relative scale:

Then I began to draw the background "trellis" pattern full size.  It's taking a long time to do and frankly is a pretty boring process.  This is where I left is at the end of the day yesterday:

After finishing the page, the next task will be to draw the michauxia pattern on top of it, then erase the elements of the trellis that the michauxia overlap.  After that, I might ink it.  I still haven't decided how I might bring color into the work.

Today I'm taking a break from the michauxia.  There are some gorgeous lilies in full bloom in my roof garden right now so I decided to sketch some of those this morning.  I think I've learned my lesson that if I'm trying to do a pattern that repeats, follow the rules for making a repeat right from the start - don't start with a drawing that covers a complete page and then imagine you can tweak it from there!

A background for the michauxia

Today I tried adding a background pattern to the michauxia pattern I've been working on.  This was the initial pattern I came up with in my sketchbook:

I re-drew it in marker, to see if that would speed things up.  It did. 

Next I want to photocopy the michauxia because I'm nervous about messing up the original - or just not liking the result - when I try to combine the two patterns. 

Second day laying out the michauxia pattern

I changed courses a bit today and tried the pattern out on two 18x24" pieces of paper, making the repeat about 36"x24", which is just a bit bigger than most of the ones that I seem to favor.  The pattern doesn't quite work yet (the edges of the pattern won't line up as is) but I feel like I'm getting a better sense of how the pattern would look:

Examining it at the end of the day, it occurred to me that it might be fun to create a second, more geometric and smaller scale pattern to occupy the current white space in the background.  Food for thought.

Starting work on the michauxia pattern

Yesterday I started trying to make a pattern based on the michauxia I've been sketching.  The first order of business was getting all of the flowers to be approximately the same size:

Today I began playing with some possible layouts.  As always, it's slower going than I'd anticipated.  I wanted to work on a piece of paper that's 54" wide, since that's the most common width for a bolt of fabric, which is what I'd like the pattern to be used on primarily.  I really want the pattern to feel rich and varied, so I think I want each repeat to be the full width of a bolt.  Not sure I'm going to have the stamina to do also make each repeat at least a yard high...  Here are the results of my morning work session:

More michauxia

I'm continuing to draw michauxia campanuloides flowers.  Here are two from this morning.

I'm thinking about trying to make a pattern out of them, based on the idea of vertical stripes (with their stems creating the stripes).

Michauxia campanuloides

It's the name of a very rare short-lived perennial plant that I added to the garden late last May.  The shape of the flowers in the few photos I'd seen really intrigued me.  The plants just sat there all summer, neither getting larger nor flowering but this spring I saw that three of the 5 had survived and were putting up flower spikes.  They bloomed about a week ago and the flowers are indeed fascinating, if smaller than expected.  Here are three sketches I did of them: