Click on the Clematis.  Read a

lesson on Drawing a Clematis

from the May 2011 issue of

The Artist's Magazine

1

Using drawing paper and a graphite pencil, I immediatel drew the large composite flower because I knew it would not last very long. The flower was more than 5 inches in diameter and to show it in composition with leaves and stems required a large piece of paper. At the time I only had 8-1/2 x 11 inch paper with me. Since I don't like to draw such a complex flower and then have to redraw it on bigger paper, I decided I would work on Dura-Lar film for the final drawing. Having made this decision right away, I was able to relax and take the time to render a detailed drawing of the main flower.

As I was certain that this flower would be the focal point of my composition, and I wanted to capture how the petals overlapped one another, I paid particular attention to the center of the flower and how the petals get progressively larger as they radiated out from this point. Creating the overlapping areas of petals was challenging and required a lot of patience. It was crucial to show the form of each petal and the variations of concave surface contours. I did this by careful toning the petals in the center. Once I gained an understanding of how to draw these petals, I did not tone the whole flower.

After drawing the main flower, I planned my overall composition in a thumbnail sketch at the lower left, so I had a sense of how I would add in the stems and leaves. (Later on I went back to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and made the small drawings of the bud and partially open flower to add in my final piece.)
  

3  I selected the colors I would use to render the flower, leaves, and stem, as follows: Flowers: red violet #194, purple violet #136, and middle purple pink #125 Leaves: permanent Green olive #167, earth green yellowish #168. and cadmium yellow lemon #205 Stems: burnt sienna #283 and earth green yellowish #168.

In addition, I selected dark sepia #175 for toning and ivory #103 for burnishing.

I laid out small squares of each colored pencil and practiced smooth toning bars to capture the colors in the plant. Creating a good range of dark to light values was very important for this drawing--both to convey the complex petals and to create contrast between the overlapping areas.

4

At this stage I got out a large sheet of Dura-Lar film, measuring 24 x 18 inches. Placing the Dura-Lar film on top of my compositional drawing, I started to render the main elements in dark sepia #175. Adding value and color at the same time, I completed the color drawing of the main flower right away because at this point the real flower was on its way out. (I took lots of photographs, just in case; however a photograph would not be able to capture the exact overlapping of petals and accurate colors I would need to complete a realistic drawing.)

Next, I drew the leaves and stems nestled behind the flower. Notice that even in the areas without color the drawing clearly shows the details of the leaves and stems, capturing the three-dimensional quality of the plant. To achieve this I rendered exactly with my dark sepia #175 pencil. Then I added the color on top, being especially careful to use a full range of values.

While my flower was still alive, and before I completely rendered the color on the leaves and stems, I decided to pull apart my mail flower and look closely at the petals and the individual flower parts on the dahlia. I wanted to fill out the composition, so I tossed some of these elements on the bottom left of my drawing. I liked this idea, so I drew them in. Sometimes I draw enlargements of dissections in a composition, but for this piece I wanted more grace and less of a scientific approach. I let the dahlia speak to me and help in planning the final piece.

5 After adding in the elements to the bottom left, I wanted to pull the composition up and to the right, for better overall balance. I did this by adding in the smaller, partially opened flower and the bud. It is important to note that these flowers were not in the original plant. I went back to the garden, studied similar dahlias, and created this composition based on what could be possible, not what was actually growing on my particular plant at that particular time. As I rendered the stems and leaves in color, I focused on the overlapping elements.

6 Because this drawing was on Dura-Lar film (which is transparent), on the back side of my drawing I was able to add more dark details and render areas to enhance parts of the drawing. I also applied white opaque paint very carefully on top of the major elements in the composition to bring them in the foreground and create the illusion of other elements becoming part of the background