Work vs. Spring

Here in the lower mountains of the Issaquah Alps, it's not really spring yet. This was our first week of sunny days and temperatures above the low forties, though, and it was painful to spend so many hours indoors.




In fact, I cut a few corners on my coursework this week, and while I wish I had some better work to show, in my defense: the peas are in. The French mignonette strawberries are in the cold frame. Half the world is sprouting.



I did manage to eke out a few pieces for class. This oakleaf hydrangea leaf in colored pencil represents one of the last hangers-on from my fall garden. I planted a little dwarf Hydrangea quercifolia last year (I seem to have lost the varietal name, but I'm still looking) and it's done well, well enough to leave me a leaf to draw, anyway.

Hydrangea quercifolia leaf, overwintered
Laura Allen, 2020

The leaf itself didn't last long once I plucked it. I had to work quickly, and not just because I wanted to get back to planting the new clematis. I used a light graphite underdrawing and then Prismacolor and Polychromos colored pencils. I did a light shadow layer first in slate blue, and then started working in earnest, section by section.



The petiole of this plant is quite hairy, and I wasn't sure how to render that in colored pencil. I think I did okay; I at least attained "fuzzy." I hear you can use an embossing tool, which leaves an indention in the paper that your colored pencil will skip over, but I haven't tried it.







Of the other work I did this week, I like this little American holly seedling best. On one of the sunny mornings this week, I took a stroll along our rudimentary trail through the woods. I always try to snip an overhanging branch here or pull up an encroacher there, and this little guy came up entire and intact.

I used watercolor and Micron pen, and he lived in my paint water between sessions.