African Violets getting ready to winter.

Things in front of me on my drawing table are what I draw when I have a new paint to test, a new idea to try, have no clue what I should be doing next, and just want to draw, or have only two minutes and a ballpoint pen. Hence, my African Violets Series.

African Violets - a series of 15 sketches

One of the questions I get quite often is why I draw the same thing over and over. Among several long versions of the answer (depending on who is asking), I have one very short one: It is never the same.

I just finished a sketchbook and collected here fifteen portraits of my African Violets. They are resting right now after repotting and I hope to see new buds soon - but I am always happy to draw them - flowers or not: furry leaves with different colors on two sides, interesting patterns of veins, the complexity of the shape they make as they grow, stems that are as prominent as leaves - and that is all before the flowers! 

 I've had these violets for some time now - here is a link to a whole collection of drawings of them I did over the years: 
https://blog.apple-pine.com/search/label/african%20violet

My Table Garden: Dark Red Ruffled African Violet and Not Lavender

I am in a hectic season at the moment and have only little snatches of time to work in my sketchbook. So having a table garden (a plant or two sitting on my art table) is my way to ensure that when I sit down and face the page and clock (which often says "5 minutes") - I spend no time debating what to draw. It also presents me with a chance to notice little changes in my plant. Create an interesting pattern made out of drawing the same object - like when you draw with a spirograph - the first line usually looks strange but when you make several they start to look like magic. The same is happening with me and drawing the same object several days in a row: I begin to see magic :)

Presenting my January Table Garden Heros: Dark Red Ruffled African Violet! (it needs a repotting so next time you will see it in a completely new light) and "I picked you from the garden trash can" stems of not lavender.

Table garden update - with very little color.

I think I've killed some plants. Not intentionally - by accident but still - here are some sketches explaining the current state.

There is hope though: my orchid started a new leaf since I sketched it - so I am thinking that I lost only flower stalk (perhaps it was time?) and there are some signs that there will be new leaves on the jasmine plant. 

The african violet is giving me hope - it is still blooming despite my care. 

On the move: my violets through the sketchbook lens.

I just moved my two African Violets to a new light situation, and they are trying to figure out how to react. As I monitor their progress, I start looking at the sketches I've done of them to see how much change I can observe. 

Portraits of My New African Violet

My new african violet is tiny and has flowers of a marvelous astringent burgundy color. It lives on my art table and is often a subject for my experiments. Here is a couple:

 (as always click on the image to see it large :)

Life cycle of a bouquet (Part 3 - the last days)

With time I trimmed some leaves and removed some flowers. I enjoyed writing down things that were changing. And watching my violet get into some super bloom next to the purple bouquet. Top - ballpoint pen which I colored with pencils later, then ink and watercolor sketch, and the last sketch - water brush with gray ink and some dip pen lines with watercolor and finger smudges.  

Looks like this bouquet got 4 posts on my blog:
One Sketchbook Page in 3 Parts
Life cycle of a bouquet (Part 1- with paper experiments)
Life cycle of a bouquet (Part 2 - Gouache and Ink + Watercolor)

and this one: 

Life cycle of a bouquet (Part 3 - the last days)

Violets

I drew this plant with a dip pen and then painted these with my watercolor and gouache palette and then added some color pencils and neocolor II crayons. It was a much longer sketch than I am used to. Many times I felt like this is going nowhere. I started filming the process (see below) but as frustration grew I turned the camera off. And many times I thought that this will never work out. I am not happy about the final result - but I learned quite a bit about not giving up while I made this and some colors turned out really close to what I wanted - so here it is - to share the experience and to remember to keep going.