plants – Tahlia Paige

Initial Drawings

Using some of my research photos, I created a few initial drawing pages based on the first hand images I put together.

To start I wanted to use one of my favourite media, I thought this would help me work on form and shape and encourage me to produce something really nice first, to get me excited about the project. I think if I just went straight into acrylic paints, or lino, something I am not as practiced in, I may feel discouraged with the results if they do not turn as well as I think these pages did.

I like the use of the patterns in the leaves, I think they work quite well because of the range of patterns used. Some of the lines in the leaves too are placed to show a bend or a sense of depth to the leaf, this works better when the leaf is folded or something as it then has two layers to it.

I decided to experiment on watercolour, as it is quite a soft media that can produce some nice results. Combining this with the fineliner pens too is nice because it then produces this more graphic representation of the subject, which I think works well. I think some things here look better than others. I think working in a realistic watercolour style is difficult and something I need to work on more as I do not think the results of this worked as well as it could have.

I took a couple of my printed research photos here and decided to work directly from these on the double page spread, I worked using the colour scheme I wanted to work in with these bright watercolour paints and fineliner. I think these designs have worked well but I need to expand a little more, I think coloured pencils would be a nice next step to try a sense of realism then moving into more exciting experiments, such as bleach and lino, as I find interesting motifs within my research pictures and carry on trying them out in various techniques.

Research in my Own Garden

Living in the countryside has its perks, one of which being the large garden we have, full of a variety of different plants, trees and even wildlife. I spent some time walking around slowly, down every hedgerow and round every tree, seeing what different plants I could find that I had not seen before, that would suit my research.

My garden provided a lot of different varieties of plants and flowers as well, and plenty of blossom on the tress, it is a good time to be taking photos now I think especially with the good weather as well. I plan to use these in my book to create some interesting experiments from it.

Local Roadsides

Bringing my research back up to the present, with the current restrictions I cannot go far, but what I do regularly is go to a local farm to collect eggs from the box outside the gate, so I took some photos here and on the way back.

I found a good variety of plants on the roadside, a number of different wild flowers and plants, all of which are very different and I think would look good as motifs in the patterns. I think this is something that would work well especially with the ferns and larger leaves. These will be good reference photos to use for some mark-making in my sketchbook.

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