Colour charts and a red nasturtium ....

Im studying Natural History Illustration by correspondance, which is great in terms of flexability but a tad dangerous for the ol procrastination and general delaying of the inevitable. I was doing ok until we hit watercolours, and therefore some colour theory.  My usual painting technique involves seeing what colours I have and making the best of them. For the course we had to buy specific colours and then ensued very specific colour mixing charts, eek! I was afeared of them somewhat, being more comfortable in black and white. So 3 months (I know) and several attempts later, theyre finally done!

Now I can move on to the assessment excercise in colour. So first up is a tonal master drawing and then a colour sketch, which basically maps out all the ingredients, with a swatch of each colour mixed. That gets sent in for comments and then I can proceed to add watercolours to master drawing. It all seemed very anal to me at first, but having completed half of the process i can see the sense to it now. Any mess ups are made on the colour sketch, not the original drawing.

So I chose a red nasturtium, Tropaeolum majus to be more formal. Its the first flower from the seedlings I pinched off someones front garden, it was so abounding in them I doubt anyone even noticed. Its symbolic of my struggle to get vegies and herbs going in seaside environs which is actually coming along this spring! Still, a very proud mother, hence the illustration.

 Spring blessings to southerners, and happy growing wherever on the planet you find yourself!