Wildflower season in the Old Forest of Overton Park is always my favorite. Henry and I have been walking and watching them emerge, and I've done a bit of sketching over the last couple of weeks. The top one is my overall view of Jacob's ladder and a few trillium in the foreground. It's my much more traditional walk-into-the-scene scale. I tend not to do either huge, swallow-you-up panoramas or really close up pieces. I've got a modest, person sized landscape that appeals to me for my main work, but I make an exception for wildflowers, and teapots, of course! I do also sketch my tea things close up. So here are some closer views of the wildflowers that I have done just for fun, starting with the one small gorgeous circle of yellow trillium. Most of our trillium is that purple-y brown, but I love this one vibrant patch.

In other news, these are all in my newest sketchbook, at roughly 5x8 size that opens up to an ever so slightly landscape format. It's by Handbook and has watercolor paper but is more modest than my longtime 8x8" size. I'm really enjoying the change of shape and the smaller amount of real estate to fill. It feels less daunting to sit down and start a spread, but it still has room for what I want to do. I've ordered another one and asked my local Art Center to start stocking them. I think it's my new go-to after trying several different ones over the past year.

The trillium above and the mayapples/Jacob's ladder below both have watercolor crayons (Neocolor 2) as their base instead of ink from a fountain pen. I try to mix it up some to keep myself fresh. I enjoy the extra texture of the crayons, but ink remains my go-to, especially for more architectural landscapes around town. But the crayons work great for organic shapes and especially the looser close ups I've been doing with the wildflowers.