This piece came about because all the rain(?) we've been receiving evidently weighted the bloom to the point that the stem broke (or mebbe some crittur broke it...); at any rate, since it was already broken, I brought it indoors to paint.

22may2020; watercolour, markers, technical pen, in a handmade sketchbook. Photographed & image edited 25may2020 (with minor colour and levels adjustments, cropping).

Having come to the conclusion that the henna decorations did better with a background, I tried them again, but I think they're probably too aggressive (i.e. too dark and too saturated.) But at least they help to detract from the fact that the illustration of the tulip is pretty much a failure of the botanical illustration technique.

I still had fun making the piece, especially all the little delicate lines, which I did with one of my favourite tools, a large round pental waterbrush.

Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.