Saturday, May 16, 2009

Woolen Breeches--today's sketchcrawl

Woolen Breeches

I had a bit of trouble identifying this little wildflower--it grew near the Greek valerian and wild geranium from last time in the Missouri Natural Area in my town. It's got a mouthful of a name for a binomial--Hydrophyllum appendiculatum-- and I couldn't find it in my Audubon book of wildflowers. Finally found something similar in the Missouri Wildflowers book by Edgar Denison, then went online with the Latin and found any number of variations on the theme.

May 16 sketchcrawl

It grew in the woods near this wonderful tangle of wild grapevines...

We try to meet once a month for a sketchcrawl--lovely to have weather that cooperated with working outdoors in the natural area, especially after yesterday's floods!

11 comments:

  1. Super post kate....Love it and learned something here about Latin names and looking them up maybe. Thanks

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  2. Thanks, Rick! I was glad I finally found it--it's probably in my Peterson's Field Guide, but it's not here at the house.

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  3. Beautiful lacy flower. I love your tree and vine. What pencil are you using for the grapevines?

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  4. It's a Prismacolor wax-based colored pencil in Black Grape, though the purplish color doesn't show much here. I love working with them, though for an extended drawing like this it did require sharpening about 3 times! They don't lift and smear like graphite, and I can paint over them...fun!

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  5. Kate- Such a lovely portrait that I hesitated to post mine...I think they're the same, but I came to a different conclusion on the ID. Please check the website I posted and let me know what you think.
    I am still trying to bend my brain around how to post here. Succeeded once, and never since!

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  6. Oh, I'm glad you put yours up, Jeanette! That's what makes it so interesting, and so difficult! I found one in my Missouri Wildflowers book that looked sort of similar, then went online and found a BUNCH that were of the same family but looked quite different. Interesting stuff...I'm sure yours is a waterleaf, too, and it's gorgeous...

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  7. By the way, I had looked on that website you posted too, it's one of my favorites but it's not even close to complete. Have you ever seen the huge Julian Steyermark "Flora of Missouri"? MAN. EVERYTHING is in there...and it's recently been revised, I think the newer edition is out...

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  8. This blog is great. I love your drawings and paintings. Taking the time to enjoy nature one line at a time is just my idea of wonderful time spent loving yourself. I am a master gardener in California, so to see these flower representations helps me learn about other plants and other places. Thanks to all of your cohorts in contributing to this blog.

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  9. Pat, I'm so glad you enjoy it--I love it that we're spread all over, too--Canada, Australia, Italy, England, and all over the US, so far...

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  10. Both of these are wonderful! I like the texure from the Prismacolor pencil too; so nice with the watercolor washes.

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  11. Thanks, Elizabeth. I really love using the Prismacolors to sketch with, and then adding WC washes...just wish the pencils didn't need sharpening so often!

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