ONE FLOWER - SEEING & DRAWING

Unexpectedly finding a sunflower in my garden that had somehow got bent from its main stalk, I cut and put it in a watered jar in the house. Intrigued by the form and beauty of this single cut sample, I decided to draw a sequence of its blossoming from bud to decay. The sketch process took about two weeks; as the bud was emerging and taking form, with the blossom slowly emerging in stages, and then devolving into its decay.

Setting up the to-be-budded flower with the jar and water on a counter, I started with a smaller Canson sketchbook, 6.5” x 10” - a good surface - and chose a green prismacolor pencil for the drawing. Before beginning the sketch, I studied the form at slightly different frontal angles, and focused on the area of the bud & leaves, and visualized for a few minutes how the shapes as a composition would fit onto the area of the page, and what I wanted to have cut off. The figure-ground, of positive and negative shapes, were the essence of this seeing. In hindsight, it really was a first meditative (and relaxing) step that was key to fashioning all the subsequent sketches.

Keeping the pencil on the paper, except for 2 or 3 sharpenings, the intended discipline for these drawings was to carefully observe the shapes, edges and spaces, while the lines were being drawn slowly and with care. Once the form of the leaves and jar were lined in, some tonal work was done on the jar to provide a grounding area, and the bud was tinted with a compatible lighter green, with the emerging pale blossom tendrils in a yellow for this first sketch.

The following compositions were all intended as vignettes, not a full still life of bud & jar; which approach became the impulse for the entire series; all except one were drawn in the evening under a strong light. The positive and negative shapes of each composition, and the scale of the drawings, as well as the media, became a meditative process (which all drawing is). But the important, deliberate choice of the exercise was to arrange this cut flower in various positions to capture the energy of the overlapping leaves, and contours of what I chose to show of the jar.

The second sketch, about five days later, was drawn in a pentel ink, with the same concentration to observe and draw the positive and negative shapes without removing the pen from paper - a more disciplined process of sketching. The sketch book page was a little larger at 8” x 10 ?”. By choosing the position of the flower, and how much to show in the sketch, I imagined the view on the page before starting the drawing. The deliberate, steady and careful capture of the leaf shapes, the stalk, the fuzz, the veins, as well as the surface reflections and transparency of the jar, created a dynamic interplay of positive and negative space and sufficient details. Again, the slowly emerging blossom was the only element colored with yellow pencil.

The next sketch, again in the smaller sketchbook size, but in a vertical, much narrower view, was arranged and outlined with yellow prismacolor pencil. The light value of that color was intended to suggest the plant's color itself. A couple of days later, I played with a background compliment of a purple tint, achieved with light blue and pink color pencils, and applied them in a curved, textured stroke. The split-compliment of green-ish blue colors were later applied to the blossom to accent the fuller emerging shape.

A fourth drawing, in the larger sketchbook, was arranged in a new frontal view, first visualized on the page, and portrayed with a downward dynamic of the leaves, with the blossom being more centrally positioned; all of which was drawn in a blue gel pen, with a light tinting of yellow prismacolor for the flower. The minimalist result of the works just emerged on their own, because it seemed enough to depict this floral specimen.

The fifth sketch, done on a morning before work, was a larger depiction of the blossom and upper leaves, but viewed from the side, so that the central seed bud would provide a contrast to the contours of the line technique. The media was a bronze metallic gel pen, just to see what it would do on the page. The petals were again drawn with two tints of yellow pencil, to subtly portray some of the overlapping of the petals and shading.

In the large sketchbook, the last sketch was again focused on the upper portion of the cut flower, but viewed from the back of the fading bud. What I noticed while visualizing the composition before drawing, was the very fine spidery web across the drooping petals; which seemed unusual (at least never noticed before). I chose a deeper green prisma color pencil than the first sketch, and again decided on how the view would fit onto the page. While drawing it, I was amazed at the miraculous geometry of the bud, thinking about how an Italian mathematician devised his Fibonacci series by observing much the same form in nature. It also came to mind that generations of artists were equally fascinated by such wondrous simplicity, yet sublime complexity, of nature’s forms; which prompted some miraculous art.

The contrasting pinkish color infused the back of the bud, with yellow for the fading blossom, and a pale bluish green for the spidery web at the top. A day or two later, I noticed that somehow from thin air, or from within the flower itself, a whole colony of nearly-microscopic insects were colonizing and aiding the flower's decaying process. This blossom subject, providing much pleasure and study, finally had to be sent to the compost, with the likelihood of its next generation marvelously gracing our garden (and our house) next year. Inquiries for acquisitions welcomed. Copyright FM Costantino 8/2020.