Wildflowers and a Gray Card in the Wallowas

Wildflowers and a Gray Card in the Wallowas

September 1, 2018 by · 8 Comments

I recently spent a week in what is locally called “the Wallowas”, a pristine mountainous region in the uppermost northeast corner of Oregon far from any population centers, traffic and noise.  Because of the high elevation, wildflowers peak in mid-summer when the weather is sunny and mild rather than during our rainy, cold spring here at our lower elevation nearer the coast. The air is clear and crisp, which seems to make colors especially vibrant.

Native sunflowers bloom in the foreground as I look across a the Imnaha River canyon to the Wallowa mountains beyond.
Native sunflowers (Helianthus annuus) bloom in the foreground as I look across at the Imnaha River Canyon to the Wallowa Mountains beyond, with their peaks in the clouds.
A shooting star wildflower
Colors are incredibly bright and clear because of the high altitude and remote location of the Wallowas.  This alpine shooting star (Dodecatheon alpinum) grows in bogs and along stream banks.
Field sketchbook page
I did several pages of studies of wildflowers during my trip. and took many reference photos as well.  This drawing of meadow larkspur (Delphinium burkei) and prairie smoke (Geum triflorum) will be helpful if I decide to develop a painting later.
greycard behind a fluffy seed head
Now you can see why Geum triflorum is called prairie smoke! This is the delicate and intricate seed head.  When I want to record a complex plant feature I often use a photographer’s gray card to block out a busy background.  The grey card also helps the camera record colors more accurately, although here I am using the card in an unconventional way. Here is a good explanation of a gray card and how photographers typically use them.
An example of the usefulness of the gray card for documenting plant details.
Here’s an example of the gray card visually separating the leaves of the lupine from the similarly colored busy background. It’s much easier to see the structure of the leaves.
Meadow forget-me-not in the Wallowas
Meadow forget-me-not (Hackelia micrantha) in the Wallowas
I never rely solely on photographs to record colors of plants accurately. I take charts like these with samples of pigment colors and green mixes and note the closest hues in my sketchbook. Ideally I have time to paint some parts of plants with the live specimen in front of me to make sure my pigment choices and mixes are accurate.
I never rely solely on photographs to record colors of plants accurately. I take charts like these with samples of pigment colors and green mixes and note the closest hues in my sketchbook. Ideally I have time to paint some parts of plants with the live specimen in front of me to make sure my pigment choices and mixes are accurate. I recently added centimeter marks on my gray card, which will help to establish scale later.

I hope to return to the Wallowas next summer in order to do some more field studies and eventually develop some paintings. It is a magical place.

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Filed Under: Botanical, Native Plants, Technique and materials Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Comments

  1. Dorota says
    September 1, 2018 at 1:18 pm

    Thanks for sharing these gorgeous photos and sketches! Love the wildforget me nots

    Reply
  2. Angela Cox says
    September 2, 2018 at 5:18 am

    It looks a wonderful place. Thank you for the link to the page on the use of a grey card it looks very interesting and I will be going through it carefully. I always struggle when I want to photograph a painting – the white background always ends up looking murky in the corners.

    Reply
    • jswalkky says
      September 10, 2018 at 1:25 pm

      I’ve had the same trouble but have found that using two professional photography natural light lamps help a lot. Dianne Sutherland wrote a great post about lighting for photographing artwork, which gives lots of specific information. I photograph the work I plan to put online but have all of my paintings professionally scanned as well.

      Reply
  3. Steve says
    September 5, 2018 at 2:22 pm

    Gray card: What a great idea! Thanks for the tip. It’s definitely one of those “why-didn’t-I-think-of-that” kind of things which will be indespensible. Not only for wildflowers and such, but when photographing bumblebees, honey bees and other small docile critters.

    I did a little searching and was able to learn that 18% Gray (the percentage refers to the amount of reflectance) is equal to N5 Gray on the Munsell Scale. This is helpful, because Golden Acrylics makes the entire range of Munsell scale grays so I can paint a piece of cardboard and have at it. (Daniel Smith has the entire Golden line in their factory store if you’re ever up this way.)

    Cheers

    Reply
    • jswalkky says
      September 10, 2018 at 1:35 pm

      Hi Steve, Thanks for the tip about the Munsell Scale and Golden Acrylics–I had no idea! I could us that to make a larger ‘card’ for photographing subjects in my studio. Thanks for commenting and sharing the info.

      Reply
  4. Yoon says
    January 15, 2019 at 7:26 am

    Gray card with centimeter marks! What a great idea! I use gray palette for mixing paints, so it makes total sense. Thank you for sharing!

    Reply

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