Garden Flower

Edit: The original scan was too light for my liking, so I found a way to darken it so that the drawing would be more distinguishable.

So, I had mentioned in my last journal entry that I could draw a picture based on one of the photos I took during my 2009 Summer Photography Kick. I had the perfect picture in mind. It was one that I didn't feel was a good enough picture to upload, but I did love what I took a picture of. It was a bright orange flower growing in my front yard. The picture was kinda blurry, but it wouldn't really matter if I drew the flower instead.

So I did! This is the result of my efforts, and this is original picture: [link] And, to be honest, I think it turned out rather well. I certainly spent a lot of time working on it. I drew it in chunks spread out over the last few weeks. If I were to guess my total time working on it, I'd say 10-12 hours maybe. Probably more.

It was a bit frustrating to work on, to tell the truth. A blurry picture isn't the best reference for a drawing, after all. The stamens of the flower were way to blurry for me to distinguish them apart from one another, so I took a few liberties with them. But I was quite focused on creating an accurate rendering of the rest of flower. I had my own little grid system set up even to make sure that that I was as accurate as I could be without tracing.

I think I was thinking too hard about it and made it a more difficult endeavor than it should have been. Still, in the end, I think it was worth it. It definitely means I need to refine my technique if I want to continue doing this in reasonable amount of time (that is, I don't want to spend 12 hours on one sketch).

I think once I get into it, and I think less and worry less about it, it'll come much more easily. In truth, it was the outline that frustrated me. The shading was easy, compared to that. I just stopped worrying when I shaded the picture, and I enjoyed doing it, and I shaded it much faster than when I worked on the outline.

Still, I think it turned out great, and it gets me excited to work on more drawings in the future. With more practice, I may actually get good at this! Yay! So, I hope you all like this picture.