I bought a beautiful bunch of purple iris today. They have a bright yellow rib in the center that you can’t see yet (I’ll save that for another day!) I just love studying the buds before they open and then as the petals unfold.
I did this study in ink and colored pencil on Fabriano Artistico extra white 140 lb hot press watercolor paper. I am not entirely pleased with how the color of the petals turned out. They seem much more luminous in person. I think that I need to do more light layers of pencil as well as use some different colors (perhaps the purples I have are too dark…maybe need some medium blues…) How do you deal with colored pencils and dark flower petals?