Cyclamen Studies

This was drawn lightly in pencil and painted with watercolour. I liked the way the patterns on the leaves worked out in this one

Hi there, how are you?

Sitting on my window sill is a cyclamen plant. It’s had so many near death experiences, but it’s a fighter and just when I think “that’s it I’ve finished another plant off”, back it comes.

I’ve been looking at it for a while trying to work out where I should start, in the end I just picked a shape and worked everything out from there.

Cyclamen flowers are a little strange because the flowers seem to be inside out and upside down. I think the best way to see them is by looking at them as abstract shapes and literally drawing what you see without thinking petals etc.

Some are drawn with a micron pen others with a fountain pen smudging the ink out with a water blush. For some I tried to make the shapes with watercolour and a brush to see if I could figure the shapes out.

A quick sketch in watercolour just trying to work out the shapes with colour.

I started off trying to paint in the shapes. I realised it was going nowhere and switched to a fountain pen which worked a lot better.

The flower heads were drawn with a micron pen (possibly an 0.8 the numbers have worn off!) and coloured in with watercolour.

There are only about four flowers on the plant, I turned the pot around to see them from different angles. Some worked better than others but they are fascinating to draw and when the next wave of flowers come through I will have another go at drawing them.

Thanks for stopping by today. Till next time, have fun x