Art Exploration - Sketching & Carbon Copy x Glazing

Spanish Lavender.  Acrylic on Paper

I have been craving to do some botanical illustrations, especially on herbs.  I remember when I was a little girl, I used to want to become a botanist.  Unfortunately, I was never good at bioscience and any related discipline that would support me for development on botany.  Nevertheless, I have still been fond of plants - flowers, aromatic herbs and all those things in garden.

我一直都渴望畫植物插畫，尤其是畫香草。還記得小時候，我曾想過當一個植物學家。可惜我的生物科學和其他相關學科從來都不好，沒能支持我往植物學方面發展。儘管如此，我還是很喜歡植物－花、香草植物和花園裡的玩意兒。

It is probably out of such reason, I tend to have flowers and trees in many of my artworks.  At first, I did not realize the connection and only let the inspiration grow unconsciously.  Until to some point, I picked up the memory about the dream in my childhood and had it all explained why I never get tired of painting plants in the themes.

可能是這個原因，在我的很多畫作中常出現花和樹。起先，我並沒發現這當中的關聯性，只是讓靈感下意識地發展。直到有次我拾起孩童時夢想的回憶，才解釋了為什麼我會不厭其煩地把植物加入畫的題材裡。

Moving in a new apartment since last June, I am lucky enough to have a small balcony extended from my kitchen where the sunshine comes in almost all day and air circulates well.  I made myself a tiny garden there with different kinds of herbs.  Since they already demonstrated to settle in living in my balcony, I feel so content for having various botanical subjects to sketch and paint anytime I want at my own place.  =)
去年六月搬進新家，很幸運能有一個從廚房延伸出的小陽台，那裡幾乎有陽光進來，空氣流通良好。我在那裡用各種香草作成一個微小花園。香草確定都適應在我的陽台生活後，我就覺得很開心能有不同的植物主題在家隨時素描作畫。

So this is my first try - Spanish Lavender.
這是我的第一個嘗試 － 西班牙薰衣草。

Sketching plants in close shoot actually make you obverse more details.  I learn to appreciate how they leaves and branches grow in numbers, the fine lines on the petals and so on.  For me, it is calming to observe plants and relaxing when sketching them.
近距離素描植物讓人觀察到更多細節。我學會了欣賞植物的枝葉分數成長、花瓣上的細微線條等等。對我來說，觀察植物使心情平靜，素描時人也放鬆了。

After doing some sketches with pencil, I started creating some new pictures with acrylic.  I tried this "carbon copy" technique by using tracing paper and black acrylic paint which is in one of Carla Sonheim's books.  The outline could not be perfectly copied onto the paper so the texture was very interesting and created sort of vintage feel.  I used gesso to trim the shape to the way I want before I am ready to paint.
鉛筆素描了一陣子後，我開始用壓克力作幾張新畫。我用描圖紙和黑色壓克力，嘗試了Carla Sonheim老師所著的一本書中介紹的複印技法，印到紙上的輪廓因為不完美而產生很有趣的質感及一種復古感覺。我用壓克力打底劑把圖型修整成我要的樣子後，再進行上色。

Then I introduced glazing technique that I learned from Diane Culhane's online class to add colors to the pictures.  I found the flow of paints was not as smooth like before probably because I didn't gesso as much as the way we did in the class(since I only roughly gessoed after I copied the outline onto the waterpaper).  But by applying more layers slowing, it still worked very well.
然後，我採用Daine Culhane老師線上課程中所教的薄塗技法上色。我發現可能因為壓克力打底劑沒有像課堂時上的多（因為我是先複印線條在水彩紙上後才大略地上打底劑），所以畫起來沒像之前順，不過慢慢上了多層後，效果仍舊很好。

This was truly a pleasant exploration.
真是很愉快的一次試驗。