Purple Coneflower Sketch and Marker Rendering

It's been a while, hasn't it?  We've been soaking up the sunshine and making the most of our Summer days here. Every time I walk past flowers, I feel the compulsion to pull out my phone and get a few shots for future drawing reference.The echinacea/purple coneflower  that modeled for me was on a clearance table outside our local Home Depot a couple of weeks ago.

Here was my initial rough pencil sketch--very rough! 

I used my Copic Warm Gray 0.1 Multiliner and inked over the penciled lines that I wanted to keep, and erased all of the pencil lines that I didn't need.

I started by rendering the petals--Copic Violets and Red Violet, as shown above.

Next I worked on my greens.

I worked on the flower centers here. I was happy with their roundedness, values, and color, but I still needed some highlights. Usually when I need to regain highlights, I resort to either my Copic colorless blender (if it's a small area that doesn't need a crisp white), or sometimes colored pencil if I do need a crisp shape. 

For this piece, I tried a new-to-me tool, a Gold Kirarina Wink pen. You can see the gold metallic dots above. They are standing out a bit more than I needed, so after the gold ink was completely dry, I used my darker Copic colors (E49, RV99) to obscure the precise dots just a bit. (For more information on the Kirarina WiNK pens, look HERE.)

Here's my finished marker rendering. Flowers make me happy--so does coloring! ;-)

If I have any adult-coloring-book friends out there, here is a somewhat cleaned up .jpg file of my original purple coneflower artwork for your coloring pleasure:  View this photo for gray lines, and  View this photo for black lines.

Enjoy!

Comments

[Shari Arbogast]

This is absolutely beautiful. Thank you for sharing.

[GreenGlam]

Fabulous to have you back! Great cone flowers and thanks for the colouring page.

[Deb Vandersteeg]

Hi Debbie,

I love your work and so appreciate you sharing your talent and knowledge with us. I have a question: What do you think of the new Copic Sketch Fine Nibs? I never use the chisel end of my sketch markers and don't have any of the multiliners and was wondering if this would be a good alternative. Would love your feedback. Thankyou for your time.
Deb

[Debbie Olson]

HI, Deb,

If you do not use the chisel/medium broad nib, then I would definitely consider replacing a few of your nibs to see what you think! I don't have any of these in my possession yet, but I do plan on ordering some when they are available. My problem is that I DO use my chisel nib for airbrushing quite often, so I am in a quandary about replying that chisel nib. I thought I would start by putting one on the handful of markers that I have doubles on, and see how much I use it.

As a replacement for a Multiliner: first, a Multiliner is both Copic-proof and waterproof, so in that sense, a fine nib would not replace a Multiliner. If you are simple looking for a smaller point, it will certainly do that. Do you have any of the Copic Classic markers (also called Copic Originals)? If so, it seemed to me that the new replacement nib was a little bigger than the fine nib on the Copic Classics, if that gives you an idea of size. It is very firm. Honestly, by using good hand-control, I can probably get into a smaller area with my Super Brush nib than I would be able to with the new replacement nib; however, I would still see the new nib as being invaluable to people who may struggle with hand control. I hope that helps!

Debbie