Shadow, reflected light and translucency are all qualities of light, with translucency being the most delicious imo! The Akebia vine blooming outside my kitchen windows seemed a perfect subject for a sketchbook exercise in painting translucency. Although its tiny red flowers are usually easy to miss, when backlit by the morning sun, they glow like rubies scattered through the vine. Plus, when you look closely, there’s the added interest of two different flowers dangling on each stem, male and female.
My Akebia vine in bloom, backlit by the sun.
I studied the flowers with a hand lens and magnified them x3 in my drawing so their details would be easier to see and appreciate. When choosing my palette of pigments, I tried to match the overall color of the petals, then chose a warmer and cooler version of the same hue, remembering from former studies that translucent light is warm and reflected light is cool from the blue of the sky.
I found a tendril with a lovely spiral shape to practice shadows in graphite, and drew the pistil and stamen in graphite as well.
A sketchbook study in watercolor and graphite of the structure and translucency of Akebia flowers.
After the rainy, dark days of winter, seeing the glow of the sun on the fresh leaves and petals of spring is certainly a welcome sight! Btw, this sketch is part of a sketchbook exchange project with Oregon Botanical Artists. Next month, I’ll have yet another artist’s sketchbook to play in.
This blog is about my journey as a botanical artist--what I am learning, what inspires me and what I am currently drawing or painting. My desire is to continually hone my skills to better express my wonder and gratitude for the beauty of the creation around me in the Pacific Northwest (USA).
Your paintings of the akebia are beautiful. I feel a little guilty as I cut mine back so much because it is very vigorous. I should really appreciate it more! It is an akebia quinata but looks very similar to yours.
Chris, Ha, I know what you mean about vigorous! My Akebia is sending out long tendrils everywhere and I am thinking that a major pruning will coming its way soon! I bet yours will have a beautiful bloom period next year when it fills in (hopefully not too aggressively)! Fortunately my vine grows right outside my window so I have lots of opportunity to observe its charming flowers. Glad you liked my study of them.
This is a very beautiful page and I love the graphite spiral tendril. My teacher here in England taught me how to do shaded drawings and I find the continuous ellipses with the pencil very relaxing and almost hypnotic! I am enjoying your sketchbook pages immensely – thank you for sharing them
Angela, I feel the same way about working in graphite–there is something very soothing and therapeutic about it! The tendril was the most fun part of the page to do. Thank you for commenting, and best wishes in your studies!