Sunday, December 3, 2017

Jerusalem Artichoke

Don't really know much 'bout these sunflowers. That is partly what prompted the drawing of some of 'em. They are a late bloomer, even later it seems than the most common of all, the Annual Sunflower. I had been wanting to see if I could tell the difference with my limited experience, so was glad when I found these guys in early September. The small central flower disc, the somewhat narrow, glossy leaves (compared to the Annual Sunflower) and the bloom time help in the id. The top of the leaves have a coarse feel to them. There are a number of flowers here ready to open, but only one fully open. Each individual bud, with its bracts and petals have a distinct character.
This drawing was done in 3 or 4 steps; steps that are not clearly defined:
      1. Find something of interest. In this case it took only a walk through the wetlands while the late summer flowers were in bloom. Make sure I have some paper and a pen or pencil with me. More than once I have gotten some minutes from home when I realized I had nothing in my pocket to make any marks at all.
      2. Do a basic sketch using a soft pencil. In this case it was the usual Pentel 0.9mm with B or even 2B lead.
      3. At some point (later in the day or whenever) start adding ink to the drawing using a ball point pen. This time, as is often the case, it was the Zebra F-402 0.7mm with black ink.
      4. Next I start at some point adding darker, bolder lines with a gel pen of some sort. Often a Bic Gelocity 0.7 black. Sometimes I use a larger black Sharpie for the larger, darker areas as well.
I suppose it would be a good idea to use inks and maybe even papers that are more permanent than some of these unproven, newer types. But the ease of acquisition, and the reliability of the function makes it difficult to return to the black markers that I have used in the past.
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