Apple-Pine: seed pod

Showing posts with label seed pod. Show all posts

Magnolia Trees Give Me Gifts Twice a Year

Magnolia Trees gift me two seasonal pleasures every year. There us time to draw their Flowers and then there is time to draw their Seed Pods.

Magnolia Seed Pods are gorgeous and complicated, they can be a reason for a walk (and walking at unusual times means I might need a reason, and my reason this season is to find "my new magnolia seedpod tree). They are familiar, yet never the same, hence can work both as a comfort sketch (when I have very limited time and/or attention or ability to draw) or a reason to experiment (when I have some time and capacity to try materials and ideas). So here are some of the pods that I drew and decided to save in my sketchbook:

Exploding Wisteria Pods

Wisteria seed pods twist and open in the spring when the weather gets warm. If you ever brought a wisteria seed pod home (smooth or fuzzy - they are irresistible!) you probably experienced a loud explosion and dispersion of the seeds firsthand - as I did. The very first time it happened late in the evening and it was scary loud! (and I think the last seed was never found). This year I witnessed how a whole large boosh went into a burst mode. For a few hours, the same sequence repeated: a loud POP, then the sound of an empty pod falling on the ground (they covered the ground completely!). And just in one evening most of the pods were gone and wisteria began showing buds of this year's flowers.

I learned that Both Wisteria Frutescens (American wisteria) and Wisteria Sinensis (Chinese wisteria) twine in a counterclockwise direction but Wisteria Floribunda (Japanese wisteria) twines clockwise.

Magnolia Seed Pods: Sketchbook Pages and a Painting Video

As a big fan of Magnolia Seed Pods, I always draw the very first pod I find in a season - this year it was October 16th - you can read more about the beginning of that day in a slightly-smudged ink below.

And after the first one magnolia seed pods pop usually into my sketchbook for quite some time. Some years it results in a whole series, some it is just here and there between other things - a record of things I bring with me from my walks. And as a drawer of every day - what to draw if not the contents of one's pockets?

Later I found some more seed pods and made a video of how I draw and then paint them in my sketchbook. I am using an Ackerman pen with a comic G nib and a combination of watercolor and gouache in my palette. I made an 8x8 print out of it to add to my Etsy if you are interested.

Little things that I draw in between other things.

My sketchbook is populated by little everyday things: standing in line, fixing my pen, enjoying a fig preserve, choosing color palette, conversations with our nonagenarian, eating apples and looking at interesting seed pods.

My Magnolia Seed Pod Collection

As I mentioned before I picked up a nice collection of magnolia seed pods after the storm and decided that I will draw them all one by one. Slowly but surely all got into my sketchbook through some burst with berries before that happened and others got a little moldy :)

Some were tiny sketches, some were done with my pentel CMYK brushes, and some were experiments with the texture and ink application (I am collecting a whole bunch of things to choose from for the upcoming "deck of textures" workshop). Others were made with unusual surfaces (though this is lost in the scan so you can never tell) - except if you get to flip through this sketchbook :)

Wind brings gifts: magnolia seed pods

With all the rain and winds I 've been finding lots of treasures to draw. Magnolia seed pods have a special place in my sketchbooks - always. Here is one of them. I painted it with gouache and you can see some parts of the process here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CnS0MaWKkkc/

Treasures

Little things. Always. Click to see them larger.

Jacarandas

Frustrating Video Experience and the Most Important Thing About Bunya Pine

I planned to make a process video today about my sketchbook page where I draw and paint scales from Bunya Pine (Araucaria bidwillii). It did not go well. Here is a list of mistakes I made: filmed at a wonky angle; filmed at wrong orientation; did timelapse instead of video; did a video instead of time-lapse; forgot to turn on filming; cursed during filming; bad framing; shaky table/camera set-up; lost my train of thought when writing text, and the list goes on and on...

A couple of stills though will tell you the most important thing there is to know about all of the above: the scales of the bunya pine cone are enormous and magnificently textured. I hope to see a whole pinecone one day.

Magnolia Seed Pods Update (I blame the squirrels)

Last week I was drawing and writing about the fact that magnolia seed pods are late this year. I blamed my findings of only old pods on the squirrels.

But today I got a present - a fresh seed pod! Its end is slightly chewed, so I think I was right about the squirrels.

Little Everyday Things

I picked up a bunch of dahlias at the farmers market last week and still enjoy their company. There is a little story about this particular pink one - written in the sketch.

Also, there is a shortage of magnolia seed pods this year: I looked at my sketchbook from a year ago and saw that I had plenty to draw by this time. But this year I see only old or half-eaten ones.