Pink. There’s a lot of it in the garden at the moment and it’s always more complicated than it looks. Perfect, then, for trying out some portable materials before a live sketching assignment at a wedding.
I’d actually gone out into the garden to draw forage, starting with the new growth of lemon balm. But the wild sweet peas, a marvellously-shouty pink, got in on the act…
My plant stall penstemon have spent most of the Summer biding their time but now, they’re having a moment, throwing out new stems and flowers for late season. Velvet-textured, the flowers are a strong cherry pink from a distance but time drawing them showed me their crimson lining,
And the one solitary rose, from soft pink to cheery-bright, with a bloom of peach, all in one flower.
The materials? This week, with biro and fineliner, some new, vivid watercolour pencils and my old tube watercolours in their folding metal box.
Read my article about Dispatches from a Small World in Sublime magazine.
My April illustration of the whole garden is on show at Town House Open, Spitalfields, London, from 10 July until 12 September.