These feature on a series of stamps completed for Jersey Post in their Fruit and Berries issue, out now. (Click here for a blog on this job).

Bloom on fruit

Other fruit which have this distinctive blue-ish bloom on their skin include plums and grapes.  Sloes differ from these in having a far blacker underlying colour, which you can see if you rub off the bloom on a berry.

It’s surprisingly easy to get the bloom on fruit effect, and I have to say a massive thankyou to the wonderful botanical illustrator Christina Hart-Davies who taught me how to tackle this subject, and is a maestro when it comes to capturing bloom on fruit.

Grapes by Christina Hart-Davies

Step 1

The first step, once you’ve drawn up your illustration and are ready to paint the fruit is to cover the whole fruit with a layer of slightly mauve water.  Mix this up by adding the tiniest amount of blue-purple to some clean water.  Make this layer really wet, you want the paint you’re going to apply to the page to blur into it in an organic way, so no half measures!

Step 1: Putting a very dilute wet wash on the fruit

Step 2

Next, mix up a very wet purple watercolour mix.  I used purple, cobalt violet, and cobalt blue; all Winsor and Newton paints.  Apply spots of this mix to the body and margins of the wet fruit, making sure you keep the palest and highlighted areas clear of paint.  Allow the purple colour to gently bleed into the water, then allow it to dry completely.  Don’t be tempted to mess with it as it dries, or move onto the next step before the paint is fully dry.

Step 2: Purple wash seeps into the wet on the fruit

Step 3

Next, mix up a darker blue, less watery than before.  I used winsor blue and some Cobalt purple.

Mixing up a good blueish purple

Use a really good brush (I always like the Winsor and Newton Series 7 ones).  Now add some areas of this darker paint to the top of the dried painting.  Don’t overdo it and go too dark, and remember to leave your highlights as white paper.  A dark line delineating the base and top of the fruit can be a useful addition, if you blend it in with the dark blotches.

Step 3: Adding darker ares to the Sloe with a dry brush

Step 4

Once dry, and being brave, mix up a darker blue again (using indigo and greenish blues) and with a comparatively dry brush this time, pick out some areas of the darkest bits of the fruit.

Step 4: Adding really dark areas to the fruit

Treat all other fruit in the same way.

To be honest, I rather wish I’d stopped working on the sloe at this point.  But the brief required a highly polished finished illustration.  In working toward this I fear I lost some of the tonal spontaneity that I quite like in this stage.

Step 5

Using a slightly less dark blue, work into the areas around the darkest darks, allowing there to be a gradation between the shadow and the light.  These dark areas cross regions of bloom and highlight, so keep a look out for exactly where they fall and be true to your subject.

Step 5: Blend in the dark areas woth midtone purples

Step 6

Now mix up a watery white gouache, I use Winsor and Newton permanent white, and apply blobs of it to the edges of the brightest highlights.  Try not to be too precise, the bloom on each fruit isn’t.  Also, make sure you bring some of this white around to the very edges of the fruit, not only to the central highlighted area.

Step 6: Adding white gouache

Step 7

Yet more work into the darks is needed, so pop some more depth into the darkest regions of shadow.

Step 7: Add darker areas ontop of the gouache

Step 8

Now, with your heart in your mouth, closely observe the fruit in front of you.  Where the bloom has been scratched off and grazed (as it inevitably is in places) you reveal the almost black fruit below.  Using a very fine brush, pick out these tiny details.  Don’t be half hearted about it though, these need to be definite decisions and accurate, bold paint brush strokes.

Step 8: Add scratches and pock marks

Step 9

Last step is to add tiny brown and magenta markings to the skin, which can be seen on most sloes if you peer long enough.  The brown is a red hue, Vandyke brown with Cadmium orange light.  The purple is Opera pink with Cobalt violet and a touch of Alizarin crimson.  The brush marks need to be very discrete, observe the fruit carefully and replicate them on the page as closely as you can.

Step 9: Add brown and pink details

A few final touches of a very dark blue, almost black, and the illustration is done.  The scan below is slightly misleading as it is of the finished plant, so the leaves and fine details of surrounding areas are also finished.  The illustration was also scanned not taken by a camera, hence the discrepancy between the black of the image below and the blueness of the earlier photos.  (The scanned image below is truer to the colour of the final illustration.)

Completed Illustration

Detail of Sloes illustration

And here are our two sloes with the rest of the plant.

Final Illustration: Sloes, completed for (and copyright of) Jersey Stamps 2017

I doubt I’ll ever manage the sublime subtlety of Christina Hart-Davies’s work on fruit bloom, but by following these steps, many of which were a revelation to me (working wet on wet?  Using blobs of white gouache? Putting in dark scratch and pock marks?  Who knew?), I think it’s possible for everyone to give it a go.

For more of my step by step botanical illustrations blogs, click on the link.

The post Step by step Painting Bloom on a Fruit appeared first on Lizzie Harper.

The fruits and berries that needed illustrating were the Dewberry Rubus caesius, the Elderberry Sambucus nigra, the Wild strawberry Fragaria vesca, the Jersey bramble Rubus caesarius, Sloes Prunus spinosa, and Black bryony Dioscorea communis.

All the botanical illustrations in this blog are copyright Jersey Post (www.Jerseystamps.com) 2017, and must not be reproduced without their express permission.

Sloes artwork for one of the stamps                                copyright Jersey Post (www.Jerseystamps.com) 2017

This commission gave me the chance to wander the countryside around Hay-on-Wye, gathering specimens to paint; luckily the job came in during the autumn months!

Desk whilst illustrating the Dewberry stamp artwork

I also illustrated a First Day cover (an illustration for the corner of the First Day Cover envelope); this was a sprig of Hawthorn berries Crataegus monogyna.

Hawthorn berries; botanical illustration for the First Day Cover of Jersey Post’s stamp issue-copyright Jersey Post (www.Jerseystamps.com) 2017

Here’s a detail of some of the wonderfully prolific and vibrant red berries this sprig of Hawthorn carried.

Detail of Hawthorn berries                                              copyright Jersey Post (www.Jerseystamps.com) 2017

Illustrating Black Bryony

One of the plants I painted was the Black bryony.  You often see the startling orange berries of this plant in hedgerows.  It was important to show the variation in berry colour; green through yellow to an orange red.  I also had a lot of fun with the tendrils that this plant grows.  I love using these to help when composing an illustration.

As always, painting the leaves began with a layer of tiny paint marks, building up and marking the areas of dark.

Painting the first layer of green on a Black bryony leaf copyright Jersey Post (www.Jerseystamps.com) 2017

Next, I put a yellower and more dilute mix of green over the entire leaf.  I use Winsor and Newton paints, and a Winsor and Newton series 7 paintbrush.

Brighter green wet wash applied to the leaf.  Copyright Jersey Post (www.Jerseystamps.com) 2017

The angled stems and tendrils get plotted in next.  As always I leave the fun berries to the end.

Painting in stems and tendrils of Black bryony                   copyright Jersey Post (www.Jerseystamps.com) 2017

The berries needed to look bright and smooth, so I spent a long time building up the colour with endless tiny brush strokes in orange and red, following the shape of the fruit.

Final illustration of Black bryony                                      copyright Jersey Post (www.Jerseystamps.com) 2017

Illustrating the Elderberry

Another lovely plant was the Elderberry. I love the crimson of the stems of this plant, especially in contrast to the shiny black berries.  Getting the shine right on each berry was a challenge.

Paining each Elderberry                                                  copyright Jersey Post (www.Jerseystamps.com) 2017

It was a tricky plant to arrange in the format of a postage stamp, and required the positioning of the leaflets behind the berries, always a difficult task.

Elderberry artwork                                                         copyright Jersey Post (www.Jerseystamps.com) 2017

Presenting the illustrations in context

Another part of the commission is to illustrate the Presentation pack, the shiny decorated sleeve in which newly issued postage stamps can be delivered.  This features Rowan berries Sorbus aucuparia, Sloe Prunus spinosa, Bramble Rubus fruticosus, and Goji berries Lycium barbarum; all of which grow wild in Jersey.

Presentation pack with Rowan, Goji, Sloe and Bramble      copyright Jersey Post (www.Jerseystamps.com) 2017

One of the things I like to do mid way through a job such as this, is create a mock up of the stamps to ensure they look alright as a series, and to be certain the text and images work well together.  Here is the rough of the stamp layout, an aid to the commissioners when they look at these detailed roughs and decide what feedback is required.

Layout of stamps at Colour rough stage                           Copyright Jersey Post (www.Jerseystamps.com) 2017

The published stamps, first day cover, and presentation pack arrived in the post just this week.  To say I am delighted with how they look once the designers have produced the issue is an understatemant, they’ve done a fabulous job with my paintings!

This job was a joy, I really love working with Jersey Post, they give interesting subjects, long lead times, and treat their artists really well – what more could an illustrator ask for?

The post Botanical Illustrations of Fruit for Jersey Post appeared first on Lizzie Harper.

I picked up two illustrations from my excellent framing workshop Fitting Frames  this week.  I also had a jigsaw of the Waterbugs and Dragonflies illustration made up.  The painting is destined for a house with small children in, so I’ve included that in the photo too.

Paintings that have been sold

I  sold a framed illustration of mixed wildflowers; which included hawthorn, sloe, and pyramidal orchid.

Another two of my illustrations, a salmon and a trout, raised a very decent amount at our local school Christmas fair (Hay on Wye Primary School), which was gratifying.

Ash Die-back

I decided a useful project would be to research and paint an illustration of diagnostic symptoms, to help people identify ash die-back.  According to the Woodland Trust, ash die back has been identified at more than 257 sites across the UK, and a local friend has just found the first case in Herefordshire.  What surprised me was how many different traces the disease leaves. Cankers appear, and there’s damage to the stems.  The crown withers.  Sprigs and leaves curl up and die (with a tell-tale black midrib along each leaf).   White fruiting bodies appear on leaf stipes and on blackened twigs in leaf litter. In all cases the fungus responsible is Hymenoscyphus pseudialbidus.  Internal damage to the wood leaves it greyish brown and mouldy.  I only have the thinning of the crown and a dying sapling left to paint, then the piece will be completed.

It’s a fascinating project, but also enormously upsetting; I’m very fond of ash trees with their hopeful upturned branches and beautiful black buds.  Along with many other people, I will be deeply saddened as the effect of this disease becomes more apparent across the British landscape.

I’ve also updated business contacts and done some more promotional work.   I hope to send out my Christmas mail-shot next week.

The post Ash die-back, framed illustrations, and a fish appeared first on Lizzie Harper.