Two more drawings inspired by flowers found in Scotland. The top one was based on hollyhocks, old-fashioned flowers that are not often seen these days. The plants grow very tall, with elaborate ruffled flowers arranged along the length of the flower spike.
The one below was growing in the garden of Dunvegan Castle, on the Isle of Skye. I haven’t been able to identify it – the plant was a creeper, covered with pink/purple bell-shaped flowers, many of which had a long pendulous part hanging down, unusual and exotic.
As before (see my previous post here), the flowers were initially drawn in water-soluble graphite then coloured with watercolour pencils.
anna warren portfolio 
Beautiful drawings and as always (and as I always appreciate) a strong sense of design which takes these to another level. I particularly enjoy the stems of the second group of flowers. They echo your cartography drawings and your ‘creepy’ drawings.
The second drawing’s flowers are innocently viewed on one level, but are seen as stealthy creepers on another; encroaching, encroaching…
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As you know, creepy is always good as far as I am concerned! But yes, the purple ones are quite science fiction – I looked more closely at my photo reference (it was on my phone, and I always work from those images, deliberately not wanting too much information) and realised they are actually quite phallic – I could have exaggerated the dangly bits far more!
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I already picked up on the phallic – but I was too delicate to mention it!!!
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That was very restrained of you!
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Oh Anne, ’tis is so beautiful, how I admire your work and talent. Its a joy to start the day with! Xo Johanna
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Making people happy is a wonderful thing! Thank you so much Johanna, you are always so encouraging!
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Anna, I love these flowers. They feel like the evolution of the organic blobs, now beautiful flowers. Scotland, Isle of Sky and all the places in between, so inspirational!
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Ah, thank you Cathe! I hadn’t thought of the connection between these and the blob drawings, but I can see it. There is something nice about a sense of continuity between stages of artwork. Scotland was definitely inspirational, and in unexpected ways.
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I love your hollyhocks. I vaguely remember making hollyhock dolls with an aged relative when I was little. They seemed aged at the time, but they were probably only in their thirties.
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My mother grew hollyhocks, and I remember looking up at them as a child, enjoying the colours. Hollyhock dolls would have been pretty – and I bet those aged relations were probably much younger than we are now!
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Really beautiful. I recently bought some liquid pencil and don’t know how to use it. Would you be able to let me know how it is used? It came in a jar with powder-like substance. Thanks!
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Thanks Nancy. There are different kinds of liquid pencil, but if yours is the same as the one I had, you just mix it with water and paint with it, just like watercolour. Mine wasn’t powder though, more of a paste. I found it was easier to use if I just put some in a small dish and added water. The more water the paler and softer the resultant marks. I would suggest you just experiment with it, and try it on different supports, paper, canvas, even acetate. I think there may be You Tube clips as well which could be helpful.
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Oh I do love these Anna ! I came back for another peep and also to see what pencils you’d used …and then realised I’d not commented . I know exactly why … lol I’d gone hunting for the mysterious 🙂 flower. I did find it .. a long Latin name of course … will return with a link !
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I’m replying on my phone which isn’t so smart or my eyes or brain lol Anna please could you edit out *like* between you’d _ used .
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Done! I didn’t notice the errant word till you pointed it out – just goes to show I’m not as observant as I should be!
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I’m impressed you found the flower Poppy! I haven’t been very attentive to details though, which would make identification that much more tricky, but I would love to know what it is. Thank you for doing that!
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I think it’s this one Anna … and I think the description will make you smile re comments above 🙂
Rhodochiton atrosanguineum “Purple Bell Vine”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhodochiton_atrosanguineus
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You are amazing Poppy, that is exactly it! How on earth did you track it down? I am so impressed, and I love the descriptor! I wish I had exaggerated them a bit more now …
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Happy new year Anna ! Taking a little look through your archives … such a variety of techniques and the ideas keep flowing …. wonderful I hope 2017 is packed full of more creative blossomings xx
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Hello Poppy! I have just returned from a month of travelling, mostly in Tasmania (beautiful!) but also visiting friends on the mainland. We had very limited internet access, so I haven’t been very active in either posting or visiting, so today back to it! I have lots of ideas of things to work on this year, can’t wait to get started. I will be visiting your site soon, looking forward to it, ALWAYS enjoy what you have been doing! I hope this will be a happy, creative year for you too xx
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