Roselyn seeds logo, (featuring my Common blue butterfly)

I have also created the artwork for their Wildlife Garden seed mix, and am working on designs for their Meadow cranesbill, Corn chamomile, Borage, and Sunflower packets.

Seed packet designs completed for Roselyn seeds

Design constraints

When working for packaging, there are always things to consider as well as the depiction of a flower species.  In this case, it’s the position of the hole at the packet top (so it can hang up on a display unit), logos relating to the credentials of the seeds, and the name of the seeds along with the Roselyn Seeds logo.

Logos which appear on the left side of the seed packets

Initial thumbnail roughs

The first thing to do is share ideas with the client.  I often submit these thumbnail sketches as pencil drawings, but because colour is so crucial to this design, I roughly added colour to the images, using photoshop.  There were about six options submitted, and once we agree on one or two, the process of fine-tuning the design can begin.

Initial colour thumbnail roughs

Working up roughs

We decided on elements of  two of the colour roughs.  The next step is to decide on a more precise composition, establishing where the flower heads should be, and how zoomed into the meadow the viewer should be.

Working on initial pencil roughs

After feedback on this stage, I worked up a more detailed pencil rough, showing all the elements in the correct position.  We also decide which pollinators to use in the illustration, and where to place them.  The blue circle on the drawing below dictates the position of a honey bee.

Detailed pencil rough

Final pencil rough and layout

Once this gets the go-ahead, it’s time to draw it up in detail and to overlay the design constraints on top of the drawing.  This ensures that the artwork won’t bump into logos or text, and that the logo can still be seen clearly.  The details of the foliage in the background is added.

Final rough in layout

I do this with an acetate overlay.  I use this same overlay for all the designs, hence the wording not being correct.  It’s good enough to prove there will be no stark colour contrasts between flowers and leaves in critical parts of the layout.

Adding the background

I work from background to foreground when I illustrate.  This helps ensure the areas of highest contrast are right at the front, which gives a sense of depth to the illustration.  For more on illustrating landscapes, see my blogs on illustrating a coastal hay meadow and illustrating a water meadow landscape.

The sky is added first.  This is a very watery mix of Cerulean blue and Cobalt blue.  I extend it half way over the meadow so there will be a smoother transition between sky and plants.

At the base of the sky, while the paint is still wet, I add a very pale green wash.  This does not cover the main flowers, but unites all the other elements at the base of the design.

Adding foliage

Next, I outline the leaves.  This is a basic re-draw of each blade of grass and leaf, using a variety of greens.  I add details like veins and accurate leaf margins.  I’ll also put in some suggestions of shadow to give the leaves depth.

Detail of the foliage

The flowers are left as white paper, for now, but will receive similar treatment in due course.  The reason for doing the leaves and grass first and the flowers later is simple.  The flowers are more exciting and fun!

Illustration with background completed and foliage plotted in

Adding the insects

Before getting into the details and darker tones of the leaves and flowers, I add the insects.  This ensures I don’t paint over them by mistake, and that I can calibrate the tonality of the landscape and be certain they’ll show up.

Adding the bee pollinators to the illustration

Each of the seed packets features one or more common pollinators.  For this wildflower mix, we could take our pick from any number of bees, beetles, wasps and butterflies.  This is the Red-tailed bumblebee.

Adding flowers: Yellows

Next, I take on the flowers.  I do this colour by colour.  If you only have yellows on your palette, you’re far less likely to mix some random muddy colour by adding red or blue by mistake.  I delineate each petal, and then the centre of the flowers.  For the white flowers, it’s only the central area of each inflorescence that gets colour added.

Once this is done, I add a more dilute yellow top wash to the marigolds.  The corn chamomile and corn marigolds are more or less finished.

Painting the yellow flowers

Adding flowers: pinks and reds

I repeat the process for the pink Corncockle flowers.  These only have colour at the edges of the petals, the centres are white.  They’re one of my favourite meadow flowers, so I was glad they featured.

Adding the pink flowers

You can see I’ve started adding the red poppies too.  Paint water is changed and the palette is given a wipe, even between painting colours as similar as reds and pinks.  I also add the poppy stamens, making sure they’re a purple hue rather than plain black.

Illustration with Pink, red and yellow flowers completed.

Again, once the poppies have been painted, it’s time to get fresh painting water and to clean the palette.

Adding flowers: Blues

The Cornflowers are such a lovely shade of blue.  It’s a surprisingly easy colour to mix.  Just Cobalt blue and Opera rose.  I have practise in painting these, having done the Cornflower seed packet illustration eatrlier.  It’s useful being able to cross reference your work.

Blue cornflowers are added

A pale diluted blue is added to the top of the cornflower petals, and the central florets are picked out in a darker blue.

Finishing touches, and reflection

To make the colours of the flowers more intense, I add further glazes or top washes.  More distant flowers are kept paler to try and give a sense of depth.

As we need to leave the background behind where the words appear clear enough to allow text to be legible, there’s no scope for adding much in the way of tonal depth to the leaves and grass.  The result is a flattening of the illustration which I’m not entirely happy with.

The flower colours are correct, but because of the lack on nuance in the leaves, the illustration appears both slightly washed out and simultaneously super saturated.

Completed illustration

Illustration with Layout guides

The acid test is to lay the acetate with the design elements over the top of the completed illustration.  It’s a moment of truth, and I am always very relieved when no crucial element is overlapped by bright colour, and no important flower is obliterated by text or logos.

Completed illustration with design overlay

I like many elements of this illustration.  I’m fond of the bumble bee and the poppies.  The composition works.  But the disconnect between the tonality and saturation of the flowers, and the less shadowed leaves feels a little jarring.  This will be reduced once the illustration appears on the seed packet, some of the intensity of colour gets washed out in the printing process.

Other seed packet designs

The seed packet below is for a wildflower garden mix.  It features an idealised garden, complete with pollinators, a bee hive, and a well-visited bird table. (Not to mention a ridiculously clean shed).  I like the way this image works on the packet label.

Wildflower garden seed mix

Below are some of the individual species’ seed packets.  I think they show how the colours are slightly less saturated as a result of the printing process.

The ones I’m currently working on include borage (one of my favourite flowers) and the sunflower.  These seed packet designs are an ongoing job, and one I’m enjoying.

Meadow buttercup and Cornflower seed packet designs

Ox-eye daisy and Red campion seed packet designs.

Roselyn seeds haven’t yet rolled out these designs across all of their products, but will do so soon.  In the meantime, feel free to order their (excellent) wildflower seeds.  And maybe have a go at illustrating them yourself?

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Starting out and gathering reference

I decided what view I wanted to use first of all.  A curved bay with golden sands, cliffs and a distant house with turf-topped headlands.  Jersey, in the Channel Islands, has plenty of coastal gems like this to choose from.

Next, I gathered reference of the Thrift flower (Armeria maritima) up close, and of clumps of thrift heading into the distance.

Reference materials

Rough Illustration

Working on Fluid 100 hotpress watercolour paper,with a Pentel P205 mechanical pencil, I drew up the scene.  Landscape first, distant thrift next, and finally a few flowering heads which would be executed with botanical detail in the foreground.

Pencil rough

Jersey Post like to see colour roughs of each element in a postage stamp commission, so I worked into the colours using light watercolour.  I use Winsor and Newton watercolour pans and half pans, and adore my Winsor and Newton Series 7 paintbrushes (a number 2 handles bigger areas of colour, and a number 1 and 000 manage detail).

Colour rough

The trick with landscapes, which I admit are not my forte, is not to overwork them or go too dark.  Always, the most pronounced contrast will be in the near foreground.  This means you have to ensure distant elements (the house on the shore, the waves breaking on the beach) are softened.  I still struggle with this.

I provided jersey Post with the colour rough, and in a suggested layout.  This helps them to visualise the illustration in context.

Colour rough in layout

Working into the Final

Once approved, it was time to take the colour rough to final stage.

This involves adding a lot more detail, and making sure the thrift jumps out from the background.  There are several tricks I used here, some more successfully than others.

Flattening out the background

To ensure that the thrift flowers take centre stage, and hold the attention, you need to “knock-back” the other parts of the illustration.  I used a series of very pale watercolour washes.  These have two purposes; first, they dull any white areas in the landscape, allowing the whites in the flowers to glow more prominently.  Second, they add a soft colour unity to the background.  This tricks the eye into seeing the landscape as a whole, and as slightly separate to the thrift blooms in the foreground.

Pale background wash drying on the landscape (note the shine from the wet paint on the right of the painting)

I spent a long time fiddling with these layers of very pale transparent colour.  The bright pink colour of the distant thrift made it impossible to simply put a clean blue or green wash over everything.  Those pinks still needed to glow, but not to jump out at you.  This means you have to balance the wash.  Blue enough to unite and knock back the landscape, not so blue that it makes the distant thrift purple.

Likewise, the structure of the composition meant the thrift in the immediate foreground was flanked and backed by more thrift.  Separating these elements without compromising the pink of the flowers was really hard.  Darkening behind the focus flowers is needed, but the risk of messing up the flowers behind them is high.  Go slowly, and build up layers of colour.  Re-appraise as you progress.

A few pale blue (Landscape components) and pale pink (background thrift) washes later, and I’d done most of what was possible.

Adding Detail

Another way to make the foreground jump out at you is to get really crisp and clear detail in the flowers at the front of the illustration.  Higher contrast is required, as is botanical accuracy.  Luckily, I’ve done sketchbook illustrations of thrift in the past.  These are vital when it comes to figuring out the anatomy of the globe-like flowering-heads.  I also refer to the excellent line drawings of Stella Ross-Craig.

There’s been a lot of illustrating of maritime species recently, so the Thrift I completed for Field Studies Council’s leaflet on Sea-side flowers was helpful too.

Thrift Armeria maritmum completed for FSC

As always, at this point in the process there are lots of moments of panic.  It doesn’t feel like it’s coming together right.  The flowers look blurry, mucky, anatomically wrong.  How on earth to get the stamens (which are pale) to show up?  Each of these challenges has to be calmly worked through.

Thrift flower detail with detail picked out and stamens added

It’s always a fine balance between over-working an illustration (which kills it and sucks the life and brightness from it) and getting enough crisp detail in there.  I used a touch of white gouache to bring the stamens out.  A pale top-wash of a ridiculoulsy bright pink (Doctor Martin’s Hydrous inks) helped make the petals glow.

Completed illustration with reference and Doctor Martin’s ink just visible on the right.

Finishing the Thrift Landscape

Eventually you reach a point where you accept that it’s good enough.  It’s a funny thing, even now, having been a professional illustrator for 25 years, I’m always slightly disappointed that the illustration on the page is never as good as the one my mind had conjured up.  I think this is common with everyone who tries their hand at creating art, whether professional or a beginner.

Completed illustration, drying in the sun

Often it’s a good idea to go and have a swift cup of tea when you think you’re done.  When you return, you see the illustration in a slightly new light, and generally a more favourable one.  Which is lucky!

Conclusion

Using a wide array of illustration techniques allowed me to complete this landscape.  Watercolour washes, ensuring contrast and fine detail were right in the foreground, tiny details in gouache…  When I saw it in context, on the presentation pack, I was really pleased.  The design team at Jersey Post did a brilliant job with the lettering and layout.

I made a film of the later stages in completing this illustration, and you can hear me talking through these challenges and trying different approaches.

The post Jersey Post: Illustrating Thrift appeared first on Lizzie Harper.

Illustrating stamps

Each stamp issue involves illustrating six stamps, a presentation pack, an envelope for the First Day Cover, and a date stamp.  This is the sixth series of stamps I’ve done for Jersey Post, so I’m used to the sizes and the exacting nature of the work.

Coastal Flowers: Stamps

The six species chosen for the stamps were all beauties.  One of the main challenges with illustrations for postage stamps is to make sure the composition works.  You need to leave room for the queen’s head (the Gudgeon), and the name of the species illustrated in both English and Latin in the bottom right hand corner.

Common Centaury stamp

Seaside Daisy stamp

The illustrations are all completed far larger than the reproduction size, and to an identical format.  It may not sound that hard, but cramming very differently shaped plants into the same layout, without making them look odd or crushed, is tricky.

Sea Rocket stamp

Sea-holly Stamp

Another challenge is that each flower requires a background.  This needs to echo the plant habitat, and be clear, but unobtrusive.  Sand is easy enough; an ochre colour with splatterings from a toothbrush.  With shingle, each pebble needs illustrating.  If the plant grows on coastal grassland, you need to show the grass without distracting from the focus of the illustration.

Yellow Horned-poppy stamp

Rough Star-Thistle stamp

You also have to keep in mind that the illustration will be reduced to 3cm x 2.5cm.  Anything too complicated will cease to register clearly.  Of all these six designs, the one which suffered most from reduction at reproduction is the Rough Star thistle.  It still reads, but the composition was a little too complicated for the final size of the stamp.

The photo below shows me illustrating the poppy, and gives an idea of the size of the original artwork.

Illustrating the Yellow Horned-Poppy

Coastal Flowers: First Day Cover

The illustration for the first day cover (FDC) appears on the corner of an envelope.  This envelope has the whole series of stamps poppped onto it, which are franked and sent out to collectors and post offices.

One of my favourite seaside flowers featured here, Sea stock Matthiola incana.

It’s such a delicate flower, with the barely-mauve petals, and the soft blue-green leaves.

It’s interesting to note that lots of coastal plants have blueish, hairless, and waxy leaves.  Please check out my blog on salt-tolerant plants (Halophytes) for more on this. !! LINK!!

The format for this illustration is far freer.  It simply needs to look classy in the corner of the envelope, and not get in the way of the six stamps or the text.

FDC envelope featuring Sea Stock

Coastal Flowers: Presentation Pack

The presentation pack featured a cliff view with Thrift.  I’ve recently written a blog on the processes and challenges involved in completing this illustration which I’ll publish soon, and made a film of me working on the image.

Again, the original is larger than the reproduced illustration, although less than with the stamps artworks.

This presentation pack can be stored in a ring binder, and has the series of six mint stamps within it.

Coastal Flowers: Date stamp

The last component of this “Post and Go” stamp issue is the date stamp.  This is what gets printed on top of the stamps on the first day cover, and echoes the theme of the issue.  I chose the Yellow Horned-poppy for the date stamp as it was the clearest and simplest of the flowers.  More than any other element of the stamp design process, the date stamp needs to be extremely simple, and it’s vital that it doesn’t obscure the stamps it’ll be franking.

This one made me laugh a bit.  Initially I submitted an illustration of the flower with its seed pod.  Then the designer and I had a re-think – there’s just something a little too potentially rude about the image.  I revised it and took out the seed case, and this is the illustration used for the final.

Artwork for date stamp, with then without seed pod.

Conclusion

The Jersey Post Coastal Flowers issue was such a fun project to work on, I really enjoy working with Jersey Post.  I’m pleased with the designers who’ve done good things with the text and presentation pack.  I love the species which were chosen and it also tied in with coastal flowers I was illustrating for Field Studies Council, so I had all my maritime flora reference to hand.  It inspired me to research and write a blog on salt-loving plants, the Halophytes.

I hope Jersey Post will continue to use me as an illustrator on their stamp issues.  The work is exacting and enjoyable, the pay is good, and you never know what theme the next issue will focus on!

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A recent commission to illustrate a hay meadow landscape down on the coast of Devon was a wonderful job.  The client is North Devon Area of Natural Beauty (NDAONB) and the illustration will be used on an interpretation board on site.

Currently, the area is scrub land; it’s over-grazed and needs managing for wildflowers and wildlife.  Which is where my illustration comes in.  Based closely on the present view across Bentham bay, my task was to illustrate an idealised hay meadow full of wild flowers and animals.  In amongst there are a few unusual species (such as the Brown Carder Bee Bombus humilis) which NDAONB are rightly proud of and keen to encourage.

Although the area may never look as extreme as my illustration, with careful management NDAONB have good reason to believe a healthy and vibrant hay meadow community is only a few years away.

Pencil Rough

As always, the first step is to put together all the elements in a composition which flows.  This often involves using birds in the sky as framing devices, and making sure longer grasses remain on the edges, encouraging your eye to move across the landscape.

From the thumbnail, I work up a much more detailed pencil rough, starting with the background landscape, then plotting in the animals, and finally filling the spaces between with appropraite wild flower species.

I always send client annotated pencil roughs to ensure every species they wanted to include has been accounted for.

Annotated Pencil Rough of Bentham Coastal Hay Meadow Landscape

Painting the Landscape

Once I get the go-ahead, I begin by adding the sky.  This is a very wet wash that covers the entire sheet of paper except for the animals in the foreground.  It helps unite the painting.

Next, I paint the background landscape, keeping the colours pale and the contrast limited.  This ensures that when completed the animals grab your attention, and there’s a feeling of depth to the hay meadow landscape.  This part of the illustration doesn’t really get noticed when it’s complete, but it often takes longer than the details of the plants and animals.

I also pop in the tractor (compete with a grumpy farmer).  I love painting slightly unusual things, and the tractor and hay bales were a lot of fun.

The sky and background normally take about a day; working on the shrubs and trees will take at least another full working day.

Illustrating the Hay meadow flora

Now come the wild flowers.  I work from left to right so I avoid leaning on completed work.  I also lean on a big sheet of paper so that the unpainted area remains clean as I paint.

The flowers in this hay meadow include clover, common orchid, yellow rattle (an indicator of healthy meadow land), rest harrow, bedstraw, knapweed, milk thistle, various grass species, buttercup, tormentil, and ox-eye daisy.  I was lucky enough to visit the Bentham meadow site so could add species I found growing there to the existing plant list.

Work in Progress: Painting the wild flowers

Close up of the illustration showing the blues in the Clover leaves and the pink Restharrow flowers

I love this stage, how the white spaces where the animals will go start to pop out at you.  One of my friends described it as looking like a sticker-book, waiting for a child to pop the right colourful sticker onto the right line drawing.

Getting there: Working into the leaves

I tend to paint the leaves first, then treat myself to the brightly coloured flowers.  You can see this in the photo above, the yellow flowers are completed but the pinks, purples and reds await my ministrations.

Some plants are trickier than others; the Yellow rattle (unpainted, left hand side) has pale leaves and chalky yellow petals.  It also has very pale green calyx flushed crimson.  Yellow rattle often gets left until last.

This is a similar view, but the Self heal and Yellow rattle have been added.

Adding the flowers on a large landscape like this (60 cm across) takes a couple of days.

Adding the animals to the Hay Meadow landscape

Once the flowers and foliage are in I re-visit them with some dark purples and blues, picking out the shadows and trying to add depth to the undergrowth.  This stage takes a long time and involves a lot of getting very close, then standing well back from the illustration.

I love this stage of a landscape illustration,  It’s like being a child in a sweet shop.  Only the animals left to paint in, and they are FUN.

As with the plants, I tend to work from left to right.  I’ll also do any animals in the sky first.  Getting the edges of a bird or butterfly wrong can spell disaster as it’s much harder to hide mistakes in a clean blue sky than it is to fudge and fix amongst swathes of leaves and flowers.

Hay Meadow Landscape with background and wild flowers completed.

Birds and Butterflies in the sky

The kestrel will be a familiar motif to those of you who read my blogs regularly, as will the lark.  I have used the same reference and position for these species over and over again, mostly in these landscapes.  You can find this Kestrel (flipped) in my Malham cove landscape, and the lark appears in my BBC Wildlife magazine Hay meadow cross-section.   It also appears (flipped) in my illustration of a Hen harrier hunting red grouse.

There are several repeated animals that come up, I do a good line in repeating swallows and I’m pretty sure the Large Skipper has featured before (possibly in that same BBC Wildlife Hay meadow).  My philosophy is, “why change it if it works?”.  However, I digress.

Kestrel Falco tinnunculus

Adding Animals at Ground level

Moving from left to right, down at ground level we have the Rock Pipit and Large Skipper done and dusted.  The bank vole was made easier as I have a specimen in my freezer (for more on this habit of hanging onto road kill and prizes from cats, please look at my Youtube video: Birds, Bugs and Bodies in the Freezer).  This means colour matching the fur is much easier.

My dear friend costumier Wendy Harrup gave me an old Victorian butterfly cabinet, so getting the colours right on the lepidopteran specimens is so much better than it used to be.  Working from photos and illustrations is helpful if you can’t access a specimen (see my blog for more on this), but having the actual plant or animal there in front of you is infinitely preferable.  It’s so much easier!

Here’s the Peacock butterfly, Aglais io, much enlarged.

I illustrate butterflies by leaving their wing veins as white til near the end.  A top wash knocks the veins back and adds structure and depth to the wing form.

The main focus of the whole illustration is the big female Holly Blue.  She needs to be good, or the entire illustration will fail.  I take my time with the centre-stage species, and spend longer on them than on the other animals.  Building up the black wing edges with lots of tiny brush strokes is always rewarding and helps to make her feel clean and crisp.

Holly blue Celastrina argiolus butterfly

It took nearly two days working on the animals to get to this stage.

The homeward stretch

At this point I start counting down how many animals I have left to paint, and postulating as to when the illustration might be completed.  I thought it would take two more days from this point, but it went smoothly and was complete in one.

Animals on the left remain to be “coloured in”.  I start with the Brown Carder bee, then move onto the Great Bush Cricket and the male Holly Blue.

Brown carder bee Bombus humilis, Great Bush Cricket Tettigonia viridissima, and male Holly Blue Celastrina argiolus

One of the effects I love about these hay meadow landscapes is that animals who are  well camouflaged in life become equally well disguised in an illustration.  The cricket seems to disappear in the grass and leaves.

A couple more butterflies are added without mishap, and the Wood mouse is completed (and slightly wide eyed).

Wood mouse Apodemus sylvaticus

The final animal to add is the Stonechat Saxicola rubicola.  I properly love these birds.  When I walk along the coast in Pembrokeshire, they’re always in evidence.  They flutter from gorse bush to gorse bush, chittering and flittering.  I find them most endearing, and very beautiful.  Painting them is lovely, and mixing that rich brick red is always a joy (especially after so much green and blue!).

Balancing Reds in the composition

In this illustration, the Stonechat is really important structurally.  The red on his chest needs to be there to draw the eye across the page, and balance out the red tractor and the Peacock butterfly.  All these things have to be considered at the thumb nail stage.  Unfortunately there’s a slight disconnect between the crimson of the tractor and Peacock butterfly, and our Stonechat.  Adding a tiny bit of crimson to his chest and eye helps, but it doesn’t quite swing it.

Were I to repeat this illustration, I’d make certain there was another crimson flower or animal firmly on the right hand side of the painting.  You can see where I’ve tried to balance the crimson by adding it to the inner petals on the small milk thistle below his tail, and to the stems of the self heal plant.  There’s a lot of this trickery that goes on in these landscapes; hopefully it’s subtle enough for the viewer not to notice.

Detail of the completed Stonechat, Saxicola rubicola

Finishing up

The final touches involve mixing up some more purple and blue, and tweaking the darkest areas of shadow.  I also make a far more dilute mauve and add the shadows to the landscape, below the trees.  You can decide what time of day the illustration is at this point – I tend to go for a late afternoon with the shadows just starting to lengthen.  3.30pm-ish.

Next, I cut the landscape free from the board it was stretched on, wrap it as best I can, and take it to my wonderful local printers to be scanned.  Then it’s just a matter of invoicing the client (who has paid and claims to be delighted – phew), and adding this landscape to the list of unframed original illustrations I have available for sale.  This one is £275 (unframed), about 60 cm x 40 cm, and is ready for immediate dispatch if you fancy it!

The post Illustrating a Coastal Hay Meadow Landscape appeared first on Lizzie Harper.

Telling these plants apart can be a real headache, but I’m going to give it a go, and share my thoughts.  I’m more than happy to be corrected in the comments section below!

Cotoneasters are really common,  They’re a mainstay of municipal planting and can be found in car parks, round council offices, as well as in people’s gardens.  I found 4 different species in Hay on Wye town car park, very convenient!  That’s nothing though, there are over 100 species which are routinely used in the UK for ornamental and landscape planting.  No wonder telling them apart can be troublesome.

They’re low-growing shrubs with shiny leaves and distinctive red berries.  They have no thorns, and the margins of the leaves are smooth and un-toothed. Leaves grow alternately. Flowers are white or pale pink, have five petals, and grow in small clusters.

These plants are invasive species because they can take over native habitats, such as limestone cliffs (Wall cotoneaster) and heathland.  They can form thickets which shade out native species.  Some of the displaced species are really quite rare.  The seeds of Cotoneasters are viable, so may be spread by birds.  Many species are becoming natuaralised across a wide range of habitats.

It should be noted that cotoneaster berries can be toxic to humans.

Below are five species of this ubiquitous plant, alongside their tell-tale species traits.

Entire-leaved Cotoneaster, C. integrifolius

Wall Cotoneaster     C. horizontalis

Wall cotoneaster is probably one of the commonest species.  It’s grown as hedges, and attracts swathes of pollinators when flowering.  The growth habit is very distinctive, lateral branches come off a central woody stem and are more or less parallel to one another.  It’s a herring-bone pattern that’s clear at any time of year.

Leaves are shiny on top and almost hairless below.  They have a distinct murconate or pointed tip.  The hairs which are present are sparse and large.  They’re 0.6 – 1.2cm long.

Flowers are pink, have white anthers are solitary.

Berries are orange red, shiny, with a puckered 5-pointed scar.  They’re borne on very short stalks.

Himalayan Cotoneaster      C. simonsii

This species grows as an erect shrub, with deciduous leaves.

The leaves are oval and shiny green on top.  They’re 1.5 – 3 cm long, and the underside bears a scattering of hairs.  They sometimes look like they have a pale margin.

Flowers are pink and in clusters of up to four flowers.  Anthers are white.

The berry is orange-red and rather oblong or ovoid.  These fruits are 8-11 mm long and borne in clusters of 4 to 10 berries.  They have 2-3 mm long stalks.  The literature seems to be in some disagreement about whether or not the berries have hairs at the top and base of the berries.  I left them off my illustration.

Small-leaved Cotoneaster    C. microphyllus

This is another common one.  It grows in low-lying evergreen shrubs, and spreads.

The leaves are glossy above, with felted hairy undersides.  They’re white-grey below, and the hairs grow parallel to the surface.

Pink flowers grow in groups of us to 5.  They can be told apart from other Cotoneasters because the anthers are purple or black.

Berries are scarlet or crimson and spheres of 5-9 mm.  They appear singly or in pairs, on short stalks of 2 mm or less.

Hollyberry Cotoneaster      C. bullatus

Hollyberry Cotoneaster is a large, deciduous shrub.

Leaves are rather different from other species.  They’re larger (50 – 128 mm), and have distinctive indented and deep veins.  Unlike other species, they’re a matte green on top.  The underside of the leaf is paler and has hairs along the central vein.

The flowers are small, and pale pink. They may look deeper pink in bud. They’re are borne in clusters of up to 20 flowers.  Anthers are white.

Berries colour readily to a vivid red, and are slightly squared.  They’re bigger than in many other species, 8.5–10.5 mm.  These are borne in clusters of up to 10 berries, and have a clear stalk.  On close inspection, the berries are slightly hairy at the top and on the stalk.

(Info on this species comes mainly from the Flora of New Zealand site)

Entire-leaved Cotoneaster     C. integrifolius

This plant grows in a markedly prostrate and spreading way, flattened in planes that can cover walls.  It’s an evergreen, and you’ll see its berries and dark green leaves through the winter.

Leaves are a glossy dark green, and tend to widen above the middle.  They’re often folded, and their length is greater than 2x the width.  The leaves are tightly crowded along the branch, each one is 12–25 mm long.  They often grow in distinctive rosettes, and have stalks of no more than 2.5mm long.  The underside is hairy or wooly, and pale.; hairs are short, stiff and lie close to the leaf surface.

Flowers are white and borne singly.  They have red or purplish anthers.

The berries are a give-away with this species.  Not only are they very round, but they’re matte.  A lovely crimson shade, with no bright shine makes them distinctive.  They almost have a bloom on them.  They’re 7-9 mm in size.

Can you tell that this is the species I did most work with?  It was such a relief to find a species I felt certain about to illustrate!

Conclusion

I hope this rather heavy-handed comparison helps you to tell some of these species apart.  Add to the confusion the fact thet Cotoneasters seem to hybridize sometimes, and it;s a real mix.  Now I definitely feel confident about the herring bone Wall cotoneaster, and the matte-berried Enitre-leaved cotoneaster.  So I’ll probably be sticking to those two for now!

My main source of reference for this blog is The Field Guide to Invasive Plants and Animals in Britain by Olaf Booy, Max Wade, and Helen Roy.  It’s a great book, if a little depressing.  The RHS also has information on different Cotoneasters, with an eye for the garden.  The Flora of New Zealand website is very good on the botanical details of the different cotoneasters.  However, the definitive work on Cotoneasters is the BSBI plant crib.  It can be a little turgid, however, and I found it tricky to see clear differences between species in some cases (probably because I’m not a botanist).

For a few more of my blogs on telling species apart, take a look at my webpage.

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I was recently commissioned to complete a large natural history natural science watercolour illustration of a landscape.  Woodstock is a water meadow habitat; the illustration would feature my wildlife and botanical illustrations of the species there.   This illustration will be used on an interpretation panel, and was a challenge and a joy to create.

Linda Francis is a designer friend I’ve worked with before, so I was more than happy to take on this job for The Wychwood Project and Woodstock Town Council.

There are to be two interpretation panels.  One will have archeology information and is to be illustrated by another illustrator (Jennie Anderson).  Mine is to focus on the wildlife and plants.

Working on the pencil rough

My approach to these animal-rich landscapes is always the same – piece it together like a landscape jigsaw. (Here’s a link to other blogs on a similar theme; Malham Cove and Hartslock landscape).

I was lucky enough to have a rough that Jennie had already worked up; this simplified things enormously.

thumbnail illustration by Jennie Anderson

I worked from this to plot in all the required elements.  There are a lot of invasive species involved in this landscape, from plants to crayfish, and we were keen to show the impact (positive and negative) these species can have on the habitats they inhabit.  For example, the American signal crayfish outcompetes and even predates on the native White clawed crayfish; whereas the Water soldier can provide shelter to aquatic invertebrates.

Once I found my references, I placed the animals on the page as pencil line drawings.

Woodstock rough: Placing the animals on the page

This illustration is quite an odd size, very large, and long and thin.  This was to prove a challenge when it came to stretching the paper as the paper itself was only 1cm wider than the finished painting, but it also meant I had to ensure the plants worked extra hard to keep the composition flowing across the page – water weed needed to carry your eye across the pond, and willow branches had to take the viewer from one side of the landscape to the other.

Woodstock rough (annotated)

Once drawn up, I provide the client with a clear and an annotated version of the rough and wait for feedback.  In this case we introduced a different scene for the crayfish, but otherwise made very few changes.

Painting the background landscape

First step (after stretching the paper with the thinnest imaginable margin under the gummed tape, then having to stretch it all over again!) was to cover the whole sheet with a pale blue wash.  This was followed with a pale ochre wash over everything except the elements right at the front of the illustration.  This means only the parts of the painting closest to you will have bright contrast provided by the untouched pure white of the paper below.  All other parts of the landscape are slightly muted by these blue and ochre washes. Next comes the long business of painting in the distant landscape and trees in very pale watercolour.  They require enough detail to seem convincing of distance and species.

Illustrating the vegetation and plant species

Then, with colour becoming more intense and saturated as I paint toward the front of the illustration, I work into the plants and water margin vegetation.  This process takes a really long time, but isn’t tough, just somewhat repetitive.

Painting in the plants and vegetation

The end result is a landscape with animal-shaped jigsaw pieces missing.  From now on it gets really fun to work on!  Below you can see the spaces where (starting on the right, and spiralling in) the otter, dragonfly, swallow, kingfisher, perch, lesser diving beetle, and crayfish pair will slot in.

Illustration of water meadow waiting for the animal species to be slotted in like jigsaw pieces

Adding animals: Peacock butterfly

I was so happy working on the Peacock butterfly, they’re stunning insects so it was a joy to get lost in the intensity of colour and contrast with a tiny Winsor & Newton series 7 sable brush.  I worked into each colour in turn, and inevitably the work gets easier as more of the colours are plotted in.

Working on the Peacock butterfly

The dark areas of the upper wings were the last to be painted in.

Woodstock landscape detail: Peacock butterfly

Illustrating the animals: Birds on the left hand side of the landscape

Keeping to the left hand side of the illustration (I’m right handed, so I lean on a sheet of paper laid across the right hand side of any work, hence I always work across the page from left to right to avoid damaging completed areas of the painting) I painted in the Grey heron and a bit more tonality in the marginal vegetation.

Grey Heron in the landscape

Here’s a close up of the heron, you can see that because it’s in the distance I’ve kept the contrast and colours muted.

Heron illustration with muted colours

The next jigsaw piece to complete was the Kingfisher.  The jewel-like colours on this bird make it a joy to paint, but also a challenge.  If the blue and orange overlap you’re left with a muddy brown (and a very non-kingfisher-like) mess.

water meadow landscape detail: Kingfisher

The Moorhen was next, with its distinctive bright yellow legs and sombre plumage.

water meadow landscape detail: Moorhen

Painting the underwater scene

Moving across the page, the next area needing work was the underwater scene.  I added more to the water itself, then worked into the Perch.  Fish are tricky as you want to avoid painting each individual scale, but need to give some suggestion of the texture of the animal.  This fish is also in the middle distance so I had to keep the contrast and intensity of colour limited.

Under water detail: Perch (again, muted colours to imply the fish is a little way back from the viewer)

The lesser diving beetle followed; this animal was simple as it is pale yellow with darker mottled marking on top.

Under water detail: Lesser diving beetle.

Illustrating the Crayfish predation vignette

Most of the underwater scene is done, and I have to face up to the not inconsiderable challenge of painting the Signal crayfish predation on its smaller British white-clawed cousin.

Water meadow landscape in progress: Next up, the pair of fighting crayfish!

In truth, this part of the illustration had been troubling me as the potential to mess it up was enormous.  I had to make the species look different from each other, but also ensure that the drama of the situation was clear. Luckily, some purple drop shadows helped hold this vignette together.

Underwater detail of Signal crayfish predating on the white clawed crayfish

The underwater part of the illustration was now finished and I breathed a sigh of relief.

Woodstock water meadow: Underwater area completed

Painting a bat, a dragonfly, a swallow in flight…and an otter

Next up were the tiny mayflies and the Pipistrelle bat.  The challenge here was to ensure the bat looked like it was about to eat the mayflies, and that the mayflies were both clear and obviously in front of the hunting bat.

Detail: Pipistrelle bat with mayfly

Over on the left hand side of the illustration there was an area of water soldiers that needed touching up, then a Broad bodied chaser dragonfly and some pond skaters to paint in.

Detail: Broad bodied chaser dragonfly on Water soldier

The swallow against the willow tree (I love the shape of these distinctive old pollarded trees) was a swift “colouring-in” job as it’s mostly white except for that stunning flash of scarlet on the chin.

Woodstock detail: Pollarded willow and swallow in flight

The last animal to be painted in is the otter.  I never enjoy painting these wonderful mammals, they have a tendency to look like dogs, and somehow I have a block when it comes to the shape of their muzzles and skulls.  In this case the head went ok, but I got the colour of the fur terribly wrong, leaving the otter a bright orange hue.  Judicious use of the opposite colour on the colour-wheel (greens and purples) knocked the colour balance to an acceptable shade of brown, but it was a challenge.  Whiskers and the eyes were the last bit to be added.

Woodstock water meadow detail: Otter and White-tailed bumble bee

Adding depth by adding shadows

Finally, with all the elements of the illustration painted in I worked into the shadows and areas of dark in the water.  It’s always easier to do this once the whole illustration is finished.

And there we go, the whole painting is finished and ready for scanning!  It was a real challenge because of the scale of the illustration and because I was working on a watercolour paper I’m not accustomed to (Arches HP).  However, I’m satisfied with the result; in fact there are some bits I’m really pleased with (the butterfly, distant fish, pollarded willow trees, and the moorhen).  It was a lovely job for the start of the summer, and I loved the 2 weeks I spent on it.  Can’t wait to see it in context as an information board soon!

Finished Woodstock Water Landscape Illustration

The post Illustrating a Water Meadow Landscape appeared first on Lizzie Harper.

Although I am able to paint landscapes it’s not something I ever feel confident or complacent about.  Illustrating the dramatic cliffs at Malham were no exception.

Pencil rough

The first step was to get a decent pencil rough drawn up.  This involved putting the birds within the landscape.  I used a light projector (the Designmaster II) to help draw up the landscape (from photo reference), and then to get the birds to scale.  The projector allows you to enlarge or shrink images, which is incredibly useful.

Annotated pencil rough of Malham Cove with bird species (and plants) commonly seen there.

Once the pencil rough was accepted, I could begin to paint the landscape.  First, I had to add some low lying plants.

Painting the landscape: Cliff and trees

I began by covering the entire page (a large area – these landscapes are 120cm x 60cm!) with a blue wash, “sky”.  This is a deeper hue at the top of the page.  I use tissue to lift the colour from some areas, leaving clouds.  Bringing the pale blue over everything except for the closest foreground means that these elements jump out at the viewer, it helps unify the rest of the painting.

Next I plotted in the cliffs, using a very pale greyish blue wash on the areas of shadow.  Much of the cliff face I left untouched – it was already pale blue from the wash used to paint the sky.  Adding pale purple to give depth to the shadows came next.  I painted the distant trees using a variety of greens, all very watery.  Keeping most of the areas of detail on the right hand side of each tree gives the suggestion of a light source.

Malham Cove illustration in progress

Painting the landscape: Turf and grass

Next up is the expanse of turf which doesn’t take nearly as long as you might think.  I add a series of green washes, getting more saturated and yellower as you move to the foreground.  Likewise, the amount of detail increases as you come towards the foreground.  Individual grasses are painted in the closest foreground area.

The stones in the stream get painted too – a variety of yellowish and greenish greys (all the stone near Malham is predominatly limestone), just in the shadows of each boulder.

Painting the landscape: the stream

Malham Cove illustration in progress

The next stage is to get some of the water painted in, which is terrifying.  In order to make an area look like water you need to preserve plenty of white, but at the same time paint the glittering vivid blue-green shadows found in any Yorkshire beck.  I tend to put down a dark greenish brown first, then the same colour again mixed with some prussian blue, and finally another layer of very pale cerelean blue.  I make sure all my brush strokes are tiny, and all are horizontal.  Darkest areas are those abutting the land, or features in the water.  I also put a pale grey unifying wash on the boulders in the stream, and picked out a few of the darker shadows on the stones with a watery purple wash.

Malham Cove illustration in progress

Adding depth to the landscape

At this point the landscape begins to look like a jigsaw, with the birds and flowers needing to be painted in, like the missing pieces.

More depth is added to the grass and plants in the foreground, and the trunk of the tree the woodpecker is perched on gets painted.

Adding the birds

My favourite part of the process comes next, when I breathe a sigh of relief.  I get to start painting the birds.  Woodpeckers and wagtails appear in their painted landscape.

I also get the flowers painted.  I keep the most detail for the plants closest to the front of the painting.

Here’s a detail of the Green woodpecker on the floor which also shows my approach to the flowers at the bird’s feet.

Painting the birds in the sky

Next up are the birds in the sky, the kestrel and the peregrine.  The Peregrine first.  (I prefer to lean on the space where the kestrel will appear instead of on a finished illustration.  I always rest my painting hand on a sheet of paper to protect the painting or paper underneath.)

Peregrine detail, flying in front of Malham Cove

Then the Kestrel.  Lots of blues and browns, and yellow ochre on the areas of white feathers.

Finishing up

The final thing to do is to empahsize the darks and lights in the foreground.  I do this by adding purple and blue washes to the shadows.

Finished natural history illustration of Malham cove and associated bird species.

Some details

Here’s another couple of details of the birds.

Green woodpecker on a tree

Here’s a detail of the Grey wagtail (which also shows my approach to painting water, and where I’ve popped in the bright cadmium yellow of the Wagtail chest into the reflections in the watre).

Grey wagtail in front of Malham Cove.

Due to the massive size of this landscape, it was a tough job.  However, it was hugely enjoyable, and the sense of relief when I got it completed without having messed it all up was enormous!

For more step by step landscapes, have a look at my Hartslock nature reserve blog.

The post Landscape Illustration: Malham Cove appeared first on Lizzie Harper.

 The Glanwye Fishery is loved by anglers who catch numerous Atlantic salmon and other fish there.  It’s run by a group of fishermen who support (and are members of) the Wye and Usk Foundation.

Starting on the Glanwye map

Initially I was shown the existing map of the fishing sites on the Glanwye stretch, and we discussed how we’d like the finished piece to look.  It needed to have the river and fishing spots on, but also to include species that were often seen there, and some vignettes of the beautiful views.

Glanwye Fishery Map

I spent a couple of happy afternoons with a camera and notebook, walking the fishery and deciding on the best views to include.  I find landscape painting more challenging than illustrating plants and animals.  So wanted to be sure I chose sites that were easily recognisable, and that I’d enjoy painting them.

Photo of Church House Pool

Salmon Life cycle

Various stages of the salmon life cycle needed to be included; I worked these up first of all, and put them at the base of the map.

I learnt a lot from the client and from researching the Atlantic Salmon Salmo salar (please see my blog for more on Salmon life stages).

Salmon life stages

What species and landscapes to include on the Glanwye map?

Next came the job of deciding what species of plant and animal to include.  My client has an in-depth knowledge of the area, so could easily suggest animals and knew where they were most commonly seen.  The otter needed to be at Craig Dhu; the wagtails are much in evidence at Church House Pool.  Prevelent species such as red kite, swallow, and kingfisher could be incuded wherever was most convenient.  I added a couple of flowers I saw while researching, and then it was time to draw up the pencil rough.

The layout was a challenge as there had to be plenty of room for text, and the landscape vignettes needed to leave room for the plants and animal illustrations.  I painted up the river and mapped fields lightly, then began to work on the landscapes.

Glanwye Fishery in progress

With rivers, the main object is to try to make the scene look watery, and not to over-paint and swallow too much of the white page with unneccessary colour.  I think the view of Church House Pool worked best.

View of Church House Pool

Once I’d done the landscapes it was a joy to work on the animals and plants, ; I began at the top left and worked down the piece.  The terror is always that you’ll mess up a detail towards the end, luckily I got away with it.  I particularly enjoyed painting the glinting kingfisher and the swans.

Kingfisher Alcedo atthis

Detail with Speedwell Veronica chamaedrys, Mute swans Cygnus olor & Red kite Milvus milvus

Adding the text

With all the illustration work complete, it was time to consider the text.  I traced out the letters for the titles, and painted them up in a dark purplish brown.

Glanwye Salmon fishery in progress

Then I have to admit to importing help for the remaining lettering.My mother is a fine artist and has always prided herself on her beautiful writing; it seemed the perfect time to use these qualities.

My mother (Susan Harper) helping out by doing the lettering on the Glanwye project

This completed the illustration of the Glanwye fishery.  Now all I need to do is figure out how on earth to get such a big piece of work to the client!  It was a brilliant job to work on, and I’m really pleased with the end result.

The post Illustrating The Glanwye Fishery appeared first on Lizzie Harper.

A job’s come in from Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire & Oxon Wildlife trust.  It involves illustrating a map of their nature reserve at Hartslock.  The second part is illustrating a large landscape of the countryside, and the seven species of orchid found on site.  It’s pretty amazing; one of the species (the monkey orchid) is only found in two other places in the UK.  Another species (the monkey-lady hybrid orchid) is found nowhere else in the country!

Background work for the map

Preparing to do the map rough of the map involves examining maps of the area.  Next, I look at aerial photos.  Finally, I need to include information on species and paths given by the client.

Work on the map rough

I draw up the boundaries of the area.   I make sure pathways and access roads are all in exactly the right place.  (My handy projector is useful for this).

Next up is to fill in the trees and scrub.  Then I add the icons and the arrows, followed by the paths and the boundaries.

I submit the rough to the trust.   Various changes are inevitable, and welcomed.   It’s so much easier to fix things at this stage!  A bench and a gate are added.  Two illustrations of keynote species (pasque flower and an orchid) are drawn in.   Tweaks to areas of undergrowth, size of the arrows, and the paths are made.   I think that we’re pretty close to getting the go-ahead.  There have been three rounds of revisions.  This is normal, and fine.

Re-use of an existing illustration

During this, I get an email asking for re-use of my oil-seed rape illustration.  It’ll be used in BBC Countryfile magazine.  Obliging is very easy.  This re-use of illustrations from my image library is the way I add to my income as an illustrator.   Illustrating is work that I love, but it is notoriously badly paid.

Work on the Hartslock Reserve landscape

The second illustration for the Hartslock Reserve is of the slope where all these wonderful orchids grow.  I’ve assembled my ref., and worked up a couple of thumbnail sketches.  The trust can discuss these.  I got the go-ahead on the 2nd option yesterday, with a few minor tweaks.

I’m excited.  These landscapes are tons of work, but lovely to work on.  The early stages are mostly about fitting everything into one composition that works.  I have to get movement going across the page.  Making the landscape not look clunky is important too.

For a detailed explanation of this whole process, check out my blog.

Garden Design Work for Rodale

Another job this week has been for Rodale Publishing (who I’ve worked for often, and always happily).  It’s been a pretty tight deadline (most illustration jobs do tend to be), but they wanted three simplified garden plans for the forthcoming “The Organic Gardener Caleder”.  They provide scans of the author’s sketches (see below) which I then work up a rough from, once I’ve collated the ref. for all the different plant species needing illustrating.

Here are the three roughs, along with their revised versions.

Winter Interest Garden rough

Summer salsa garden rough.  The spring onions get tidied up, the coriander bed is extended, and more yellow bell peppers have to show.  Revisions also call for a reduction in the number of tomatoes, and the addition of a support cage.  This requires a complete re-draw.

Colourful Herbal Planter rough.  On revision, the three red lettuces go up to six plants.

Rodale are great at getting quick feedback to me, so I get the go-ahead on these within 48 hrs of receiving the author’s sketches.  Then it’s just a matter of  “colouring in”.  This is fine, except for the red lettuces at the front of the herb planter.  I have to do several tests  as I have no idea how to show leaves which are purple and green simultaneously.  Amazingly, I think they work out well,  and are my favourite part of the three illustrations.

Winter Interest garden

Herb planter garden plan

When an illustration becomes hard work

The third of these turns out to be a bit of a nightmare, as the author realises that the tomato types I’d drawn aren’t what she is after.   She wants a change to the leaves of the bell pepper.  Also, entirely my fault, it appears that jalepeno peppers are green not red!  So a re-draw happens at unearthly times of the night.

Rodale were great about it,  and compensate me for my time.  So here, in a salsa-based “spot the difference”, are the two finals of the salsa salad bed garden plan.

Work for a magazine

A magazine I’ve worked with before, Resurgence & Ecologist Magazine, just got in touch to ask to re-use my wild garlic illustration.  Another image library re-use; they had the illustration within 10 minutes of contacting me.  Image libraries are beautiful things for clients, too!

So it’s been a busy week of work; which keeps me happy as I look out of the studio window into the garden which, for the first time in ages, is golden with sunshine.

The post Natural History Illustration: A Week of Work appeared first on Lizzie Harper.

I had a wonderful comission recently; to do a natural history illustration of a stag beetle to accompany a poem by Chris Meredith.

Starting the job

I began by reading the poem carefully (I’ve transcribed it at the end of this article) to get the atmosphere right, and to list what species I’d be needing to illustrate.  These included ones named in the poem, but also making sure there was enough of a variety of other plants and animals in there so the image would be full of life, and the colours wouldn’t be isolated within the composition.

Next step is a very swift set of thumbnail sketches, these are just different ideas on how to include all the elements into a composition that will work and lead the eye into and through the painting.  Below is the one I settled on.

Gathering reference

Then reference for all the species needs to be collated.  I have sketchbooks of botanical studies, and have assembled loads of ring binders crammed with my photos and notes, all organized alphabetically and by type of organism.  I also refer to google images for a broad spectrum of views of one animal or plant, and increasingly find myself using my own earlier illustrations for reference.

Piecing together the background of a rough takes a while; this one is loosely based in Cwm Byddog, a beautiful nature reserve run by Radnorshire Wildlife Trust, near my home.

Drawing up the rough

I leave the foreground until later, but it’s important to block in where the animals and plants will be so that you can construct the scene around them.

Next, I spend time on the animals, the focus of the illustration.  If these aren’t drawn correctly the entire illustration will fall apart, so it’s an exacting business and calls for consulting lots of reference and always, if possible, an actual specimen.

With both background and the animals plotted in, I can construct the flora and habitat around them, remembering to lose size and definition as the image goes towards the background; and trying to ensure the eye moves easily across the illustration.

Painting in the background

Once I’m satisfied with the rough, it’s time to get the paints out.  Over the years, I’ve found that the more disciplined I am, and the paler I keep the farthest areas of the painting, the more depth I get.  So I start with the most distant features in a very pale, blue-ish palette.

Next comes a little more detail, and as I paint further to the front of the image there is more contrast and depth of colour.  I work very hard at not getting the middle distance too muddy or dark; with watercolour you can always come back and work into it later, but it’s far too easy to swallow up the light and thus flatten the illustration.  I paint the background around the more detailed elements in the foreground, and it’ll be the prime point of focus (in this case the stag beetle) that gets painted last of all.

Adding Detail to the Background

I work more detail into the background, and put some very pale washes over the leaves of the trees.  Then it’s time to work on the flowers, which is lovely.  I use a tiny brush (winsor and newton series 7, size 0 or 00) and make sure the colours at the back are really pale.  This means mixing in reverse; you mix the colour you’ll need for the flowers in the foreground, dilute it enormously, then work from the furthest background forward, adding minute drops of the colour as you progress.  Sharp detail as well as intensity of colour and contrast bring things into the foreground, so I’ll keep detail to a minimum until you’re right at the front of the illustration.

I paint in the details of the flowers, and work further towards the front of the painting; we’re approaching the point where it’s all looking coherent except for the white cut-out spaces where the animals are going to be.

Once I’ve blocked in the flower shapes, and “drawn” them with their correct colours, I work into them with washes and then with overlying shadows.  Again, it’s vital not to swamp the details by making the washes too heavy or dark; white areas in a watercolour are what keep the painting fresh.

Painting the Stag beetle and other animals

Finally, I get to work on the animals, my favourite part.  I block in the darkest areas first and then work into them, up towards the lighter areas.  With the butterfly it’s important to keep the venation clear as it gives the insect some real structure.  I unify the details of the animals with a series of washes.  Sometimes at this stage I panic and think I’ve ruined it all, but it’s normally a minor or easily salvageable mistake.

Finishing up

The last step is to take a quick tea break then come back and consider the painting as a whole.  Does anything need tweaking or sharpening up?  Do any elements stand out more than they should?  Are the shadows clear enough, and coherent in terms of the light source?  Is there enough detail in the mid ground, and enough colour in the foreground?  Once these final questions have been dealt with, and adjustments have been made, it’s time to scan the final artwork (at 300 plus dpi) and send a copy to the client to see what they think.  In this case, I’m elated to say, the client was really pleased.  A lovely job to do, for a happy client.  That’s my idea of a dream job.

I have made a short youtube video of this painting process:

Under the Shadow of the Tree by Chris Meredith

Under the shadow of the tree

We are cool in each other’s company

The breeze gently moving your hair

A piece of sunlight highlighting your eyes

Under the shadow of the tree

Our love secretly takes shape

Beneath the wind and the willows

Our shadows sleep

Under the shadow of the tree

Raindrops lightly dust the moss

I place a buttercup under your chin

You blow a dandelion to the wind

Under the shadow of the tree

A stag beetle challenges us to a fight

Our laughter downgrades the threat

As well it might

For more poems by Chris Meredith please look at his Chris Meredith website.

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