Amaryllis - a pencil drawing

 

Each winter we buy an Amaryllis bulb so we can have (with some luck) a beautiful flower at Christmas. Sometimes earlier, sometimes later and sometimes not at all, when there are no flowers growing from the bulb. This winter we were lucky, the bulb had some beautiful flowers in white with some pink lines and I made some reference pictures.

Now, two months later, I made this drawing, using one of the reference pictures. As the flower was white, I selected a sheet of tinted cardboard in a beautiful colour and started drawing, using the white pencil for the outlines ant the first details. 

Where the petals overlap, I used less white, allowing the colour of the cardboard to shine through for the shadow colour. The green in the heart of the flower was added, the shades of pink were drawn in and I started to create the right shades of white, pink, green and the shadows to create the flower. Of course the stamens and pistil were added as well.

The second flower was drawn after that, but I did not add all details to make it less important than the first. The stem and some leaves also had to be there to prevent the flowers from 'floating'. These are also not as detailed as the flower facing the viewer.

To protect it all a light spray of fixative was used.

Making a picture of the drawing was a challenge this time. The dark background reflects all light sources so I had to find a place in my home without a dominant light source (not close to a window that meant for me). This picture of my drawing is the best I could get today.

The information about the materials I have used, the size of the drawing and its availability can all be found in my Tumblr blog.

If you are interested in my work, please contact me.