Gesture Drawing

The first drawings I do of botanical subjects are gesture drawings. I place my pen or pencil on the page, and without looking at the page I follow the lines of the plant from bottom to top. Sometimes I run out of page before I run out of plant, so I'll draw it again until I have learned to fit the plant on my drawing sheet. I think some of the most lyrical and elegant drawings result from gesture drawings. One learns to really look at the subject, rather than assuming anything from past experience/culture.

This is an ink drawing of Chicory intybus, one of the few true blue wildflowers that grow in my region.