Anthurium

red, anthurium, plant, flower, pen and watercolour, watercolour, water color, acuarela, sketch, illustration

 

I drew this beautiful anthurium while I was staying with friends in London this month.

I love the contrast between the red of the flowers and the green of the leaves and the elegant sweep of the stems.

I started with a pencil outline which I went over in waterproof ink (below) before adding the watercolour layers.

anthurium, plant, flower, pen, outline, line work, drawing, sketch, illustration

red, anthurium, plant, flower, pen and watercolour, watercolour, water color, acuarela, sketch, illustration

Chumbera!

chumbera, prickly pear, cactus, cadiz, vejer, vejer de la frontera, andalusia, andalucia, pen and watercolour, watercolour, water color, acuarela, sketch, sketchbook, illustration

I’m delighted to have finally found a chumbera (prickly pear) with some lush new growth; the once ubiquitous and beautiful cactus is suffering an infestation of insects and slowly dying out here in Andalusia.

Moi from the gorgeous Ecléctica Deco shop in Vejer suggested that I sketch a chumbera a good while ago; he told me he’d seen a good one in La Breña national park so I set off for a hike on a really hot day search of it…needle in a haystack situation ensued. His next sighting was luckily closer to home and much easier to find.

I missed it in flower but hey-ho…the heart shaped leaf was a bonus…promise it was actually like that!