Begonia Blossom In Graphite Pencil

I bought three moderately expensive begonia tubers and planted them in a pot late in the season this summer. I purchased them intending to draw them, which justified the cost to me. They immediately attracted the attention of a raccoon, who ate one of them, so I had to bring them inside every night. One tuber grew into a giant stalk with small, strange-looking flowers; the other remained short and had two giant blossoms. One of the blossoms was damaged, so this drooping blossom was my best photo choice. Drawing it seems like a fitting reward for all the energy I invested in caring for the begonias over the summer.

I wish this blossom were not drooping. It would be more beautiful if it were tipped up with the center showing. It was such a heavy flower that it couldn’t hold itself up, so I had to take the photo as it was.

I’m using a contrast filter (BeCasso) to add more punch to this begonia blossom reference photo. I’m not sure if this is cheating, but if it is, so be it. The contrast version and the regular version of the photo are at the end of the post.

 I have discovered that the contrasty version of the photo obliterated some fine details, so I’m working from both the original and the contrasty version simultaneously. It’s not as bad as it sounds. I have both versions in my Copyit app, and I can switch back and forth easily. The only issue is that the high-contrast version is generally darker, so I must be mindful of my values while switching between the two.

My contrasty photo has given the blossom’s petals a somewhat ‘dotted’ texture that I thought might throw me off. Happily, I’ve found that I can ignore that texture and draw a smooth, averaged tone. I’m using a small brush for some of the very light petal work, which I don’t do very often because it’s not exact. However, a brush can easily give you a very light value that’s frustrating to get with a pencil tip, and that’s what this blossom calls for.  

I use 2H and 4H pencils to draw the shading on the body of the petals, and sometimes, I use H and B pencils for the darkest areas. The central petal has a gradated value with very light darker streaks that fade to nothing in the lightest area. Drawing very light detail requires a hard pencil tip, a steady hand, and practice. Having an eraser that lets you gently lift graphite is also helpful. I often end up with values that are too dark and have to lighten them with a soft eraser, like a kneaded eraser.

I love the way graphite creates the petals of this blossom. Gentle washes create each petal’s arched form, as well as veins. Each petal takes about two hours to complete. I have never been fast at drawing.

It’s not hard to work with two reference photos simultaneously. I draw a petal using the contrasty photo, then compare it to the regular reference and correct any crazy artifacts the contrast filter left behind. These are usually easy fixes, like a quick lightening or darkening of a detail.

One petal is giving me a hard time. There are too many veins! The shadowing on the petal is dark and subtle, and it seems to undulate around each vein differently. I keep adding and removing layers of graphite, each time thinking I’ve captured it, only to erase it again because I missed the likeness. I’ve spent three days drawing this damned petal! It might be time to move on and come back to fight it another day. 

The petals have a natural dark line around the edges, which the contrast filter exaggerates by turning into a sharp black line. That makes the filtered version of the photo eye-catching but too surreal for my taste, so I’m muting most of those dark lines in my drawing.

Here’s how I drew a petal.

I used a dull pencil to create the outline of this drawing, so I had to erase and redraw the outline of this petal before I began because it was too thick. Lesson learned. From now on, I’ll always use a sharp pencil for my outlines. I worked on the petal using a 2H pencil, carefully shading around the highlights and keeping the shading even. After that, I went over the veins with the 2H to sharpen their lines.

I made the outlining along the edge darker with the tip of a sharp H pencil. I darkened the veins as they reached the right edge of the petal and added gradated shading at the right edge of the petal with a 2H pencil.

I added subtle shading and highlights over the entire petal. Then, I added details along the left edge that I had forgotten. Finally, I touched up any shadows or highlights that needed help with a 2H pencil and a kneaded eraser.

I love seeing a flower take shape as I draw it. Each petal forms slowly and adds to the sculptural form of the whole flower. Choosing a flower that will work in grayscale is half knowledge of the medium and half instinct. I knew this blossom would make a good drawing when I had the reference photo on my iPad. My husband walked by and said he’d like to curl up in it and take a nap. That was an excellent recommendation!

As I draw these softly sculpted petals, I let my mind wander because I don’t need to actively think about the act of drawing too much. The drawing seems to draw itself. This is a good feeling; I stay in this frame of mind for as long as possible. Eventually, life focuses me on the world again, and I check my work against reality. If all is well, I rinse and repeat. If there is a problem, it’s an all-hands-on-deck emergency as I fix it. 

And then there is this pain in the ass petal. Drawing it was just hard work. It had a lot of information packed into a small space that I had to pay attention to. The veins running through the petal were tricky to render because they were light instead of dark. I used an eraser cut into a thin wedge to erase them from the hatching. I used a sharp 4H pencil to thin them down appropriately, then used the same pencil to darken them slightly where needed.

I ended up with a petal that looked somewhat similar to the original and decided to call it a win. Sometimes, you have to know when to move on.

I wish I had taken scans of this petal while working on it, and I apologize for not doing so. I wasn’t confident enough.

Here’s how I drew a more normal petal.

First, I plotted and drew the dark veins. I did this before I added any hatching because of erasing. I always have to erase several times before I get a line right, and that would create a big mess if I were working on top of hatching.

 Working with sharp 4H and 2H pencils, I added the first shading. I didn’t try to add each undulation of the petal, but I did try to add the overall gradation of the shading. For example, the petal is darker at the top than at the bottom. I hatched in some dark details on the left edge to finish this step with an HB pencil.

I finished shading the petal using my 2H and 4H pencils, paying close attention to the edge where interesting value changes created some shaping. I darkened the veins and added little details here and there that added texture and more shape to the petal.

The background is muted, and values are merged with occasional sharply defined detail. I feel like I’m drawing a watercolor wash that has hard-edged detail every once in a while. It’s easy to lose my place, and I must keep checking to see what area I’m working on.

The background is less important than the blossom, so I’m allowing myself a lot of wiggle room with it. I’ll be happy if the finished background looks somewhat similar to the photo.

Some leaves surrounding the begonia have tiny hairs that catch the light. I drew them last by erasing them out of the hatch. I cut a Mono Zero eraser into a pointed wedge shape and used the point to erase each hair. When the point was saturated with graphite, I cleaned it by dipping it into a kneaded eraser. Then, I thinned down each erased smudge into a hair shape with the sharp tip of a 2H pencil.

The dark center area at the bottom of the drawing is not just a dark spot. When I turn off my overhead light, it reveals a lot of detail. So, I’m taking the time to draw all its details using my booklight. The booklight gives me just enough light to draw by and it doesn’t obliterate detail like the brighter overhead light does.

The border is tedious work. I want to rush through it and complete the drawing, but it deserves my attention. There are no hard lines in it. It’s all soft and blurred values that bump up against each other. That gives me wiggle room to make mistakes, which is good, but if I make too many mistakes, the whole thing starts to look like a graphite mess rather than a leafy background. 

I’m finally working on the leaf in the bottom right corner. Like the rest of the border, it has large veins and a fluted edge, and its edges are primarily soft. To draw the veins, I lightly trace their pattern, then fill in the value of the vein and the leaf next to it. Finally, I blur the vein edges with a sharp 2h pencil that I hatch and blend over them. 

I finished this part of the drawing by adding the highlights along the edge of the leaf at the bottom right. As you can see, they aren’t very bright. I decided dull highlights were preferable to small, sharp ones that could distract the eye.

Autumn is over, and winter has given us its first snowfall. Several weeks ago, I collected this begonia’s tubers, and they are now resting in my refrigerator’s bottom drawer. 

I’m happy with how this drawing turned out. I was afraid the leaves around the begonia would pull the eye away from it, but I like them. I think they frame the blossom nicely. 

Happy drawing,
Carol