Floral imagery is more evident in this drawing than in the previous ones, but they all come from the same sort of beginnings – inspiration from a flower or plant. My choices are eclectic, they don’t only come from one source, but all have their origins in photos I have taken.
The photo generally provides nothing more than a hint of the form, in most cases that is where I diverge. This one was a rather beautiful pair of white flowers on a cactus or succulent of some kind, so there was a great deal of licence in what I ended up with.
As previously, the initial drawing was made with Liquid Pencil on Yupo paper, then I drew into it with Caran d’Ache Luminance coloured pencils. See here and here for more of the technical information and to see other drawings I have done like this.
anna warren portfolio 
Oh this is fabulous
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Thanks Rosie!
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I’ve used water-soluble graphite pencils, but don’t know about liquid pencils. Are they Japanese? Your work is detailed yet not tight; the images loose and flowing.
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Liquid Pencil is actually a graphite paste that comes in a tube (or a small tub, but I don’t like those as they dry out very quickly) – here in Australia its made by Derivan Matisse, but I imagine it is available elsewhere. The ones that I use come in a box of 12 small tubes, and in a range of different colours, ie each one has a hint of colour in, so there are two greys, red, yellow, blue and sepia, and 6 are water soluble and the rest permanent. I prefer the permanent for these drawings but the water soluble would work just as well, but probably better for situations where you want to move the image around more. I mix a small amount of the Liquid Pencil with quite a lot of water and paint it on with a rough brush so that I get a variety of marks. It granulates sometimes which gives some nice effects to work into. For this one I used the grey version, for the one in my previous post I used the yellow, which I thought was going to be a disaster at the beginning, but it worked out alright in the end! I do use water-soluble graphite pencils too sometimes, but not for these drawings.
I’m glad you can see the looseness of this drawing – from a distance it does look very tight and detailed, but it isn’t really! I like to be able to keep my hand visible as it were! Thanks for your comment Vivienne, much appreciated!
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I love it. The design and placement on the page, and the execution of the drawing are superb. I like how the one on the right looks like a cross section of the plant. So even though it is kind of fantastical, still it has an element of a botanical scientific study. The work is loose and controlled at the same time. Spellbinding Anna!!
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Thank you so much Julie – I wanted to maintain that sense of real/unreal, unbalancing the view a little, so I’m glad that has come across!
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The detail images are so helpful to see to start to understand your process. The liquid pencil (first images) really shows the strokes clearly and the range of density. Adding color must be a bit intense. Seeing all your varied strokes, your hand work is so interesting. I really love this one Anna, the influence of the flowers to your final piece is wonderful. Do you have plans to submit this one to shows? I hope so! I love being able to study this beautiful image, thank you for adding to your blog.
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Thanks Cathe! Adding the colour IS intense – when I started adding the colour on this one I thought it might be quite limited, just serving as highlights almost, but as I worked it more seemed to be required, one part demanding more from the next. I still think it needs a little more in some areas, more contrast. I hope to be able to submit it to a show somewhere – we are still locked down (week 11 now I think!) so there are no exhibitions happening here in Sydney. We are due to be opening up probably next month some time, so its unlikely to be until next year that things really improve. I have a drawer full of drawings that I’ve done over the last year or so waiting for an opportunity to come out!
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