{"id":2355,"date":"2015-12-03T16:21:25","date_gmt":"2015-12-04T00:21:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aislinnadams.com\/?p=2355"},"modified":"2015-12-03T16:21:25","modified_gmt":"2015-12-04T00:21:25","slug":"friends-of-silver-falls-native-plant-illustration-project-getting-started","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aislinnadams.com\/cms\/friends-of-silver-falls-native-plant-illustration-project-getting-started\/","title":{"rendered":"Friends of Silver Falls Native Plant Illustration Project- Getting started!"},"content":{"rendered":"
This is the second blog in a series I’m writing about a large\u00a0native plant illustration commission I received from\u00a0the Friends of Silver Falls State Park (FOSF). To read the first blog click here<\/a>.<\/h6>\n
\"Scouler's

Detail of Scouler’s corydalis, Corydalis scouleri<\/em>, from my older sketchbook.<\/p><\/div>\n

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T\u00fas maith, leath na hoibre<\/em>, A good start is half the work!<\/h3>\n
Irish Proverb<\/h5>\n

When I first received this commission I was very excited: so many wonderful species and so much potential for good work, but my head began to spin when I thought\u00a0about the scale of the job\u00a0ahead of me (thirty native plant species). I realized immediately that the\u00a0project would involve many comprehensive\u00a0studies of the different growing stages of each\u00a0plant. I knew too that if I wanted to do a good job I needed a good plan. But by the time the project finally started\u00a0it was June and Oregon was beginning to experience\u00a0its worst drought on record. I could feel the panic rising as I watched many of the\u00a0native species on the list wither before my eyes. To calm my nerves I focused on the art materials I’d need, starting with\u00a0the right sketchbook. I had already begun to\u00a0make my own for other projects and knew I would do the same for this one but I wasn’t sure what page dimensions to use.<\/p>\n

Finding the right sketchbook!<\/h3>\n

\"Scouler'sStudy of Scouler’s corydalis, Corydalis scouleri<\/em>, from my older homemade sketchbook.<\/h6>\n

Feeling the panic nipping at my heels\u00a0I began\u00a0drawing\u00a0Scouler’s corydalis, Corydalis\u00a0<\/em>scouleri<\/i>, (in bloom in my own garden at the time). I used a\u00a0homemade sketchbook I already had – made from\u00a0Fabriano Artistico Extra White Watercolor Paper. I\u00a0realized very quickly, however, that\u00a0the pages were too small. I love\u00a0the brightness and versatility of this paper, which I use\u00a0for graphite as well as watercolor studies, but I needed bigger pages.<\/p>\n

Making my own sketchbooks for the project.<\/h3>\n

Luckily my local art store had a sale in Fabriano Artistico Extra White (140 lb, 300 gsm) at the time. I bought 22×30 inch (559 x 762 mm) sheets and divided each one\u00a0into four x 11×15 inch (279 x 381 mm) pages. I then had them spiral bound into sketchbooks of 12 pages at my local printer. I thought,\u00a0rather than having one large sketchbook, dividing the pages\u00a0up like this\u00a0would make it\u00a0easier to manage- and safer. Damage or loss of my\u00a0sketchbook would be a real setback- especially if all my plant\u00a0studies were\u00a0in one. By splitting\u00a0up the pages this way the sketchbook is lighter too and more manageable. I can study about 10 plants per sketchbook\u00a0and when full move onto the next.<\/p>\n

\"First<\/p>\n

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My first FOSF sketchbook of 12, spiral bound pages. The\u00a0cover (printed on my\u00a0Epson printer) shows a pen and ink\u00a0illustration of Western tiger lily,\u00a0Lilium columbium,<\/em>\u00a0created previously. It\u00a0is one of the native plants on my\u00a0project list (shown below).<\/h6>\n
\"FOSF

Friends of Silver Falls Native Plant list included it in the sketchbook.<\/p><\/div>\n

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The finished botanical illustrations.<\/h3>\n

The finished botanical illustrations will be reproduced on 11×16 inch (279 x 406 mm) sheets (similar to an herbarium specimen sheet) so my sketchbook page dimensions, at 11×15 inches \u00a0(279 x 381 mm), help me visualize\u00a0how much plant information can fit onto that size\u00a0sheet. I’ve already begun using my\u00a0first sketchbook and it’s working well so far. The only change I will make to\u00a0the second and third will be to insert\u00a0lighter tracing paper sheets between the watercolor\u00a0pages so that I can\u00a0protect\u00a0them better. I’ve made a t\u00fas maith<\/em> (good start) I think.\u00a0I will let you know how the “other half” of the project goes in due course.<\/p>\n

Aislinn Adams
\nBlog #2 Friends of Silver Falls State Park Native Plant Illustration Project.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is the second blog in a series I’m writing about a large\u00a0native plant illustration commission I received from\u00a0the Friends of Silver Falls State Park (FOSF). To read the first blog click here. T\u00fas maith, leath na hoibre, A good start is half the work! Irish Proverb When I first received this commission I was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1,19,22,23,31,61,68,90,168,212,236],"tags":[247,29,30,37,44,55,67,141,235,241,242,243,244,245,246],"class_list":["post-2355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-american-native-plants","category-botanical-illustration","category-botanical-illustrations-2","category-pen-and-ink-drawing","category-native-plants","category-watercolor-illustration-uncategorized","category-black-and-white-illustration","category-pacific-northwest-native-plant","category-botanical-artists","category-native-plant-illustrations","tag-western-tiger-lily","tag-native-plant","tag-pen-and-ink-drawing","tag-botanical-illustration","tag-american-native-plant","tag-native-plants","tag-watercolor-illustration","tag-aislinn-adams","tag-friends-of-silver-falls-state-park","tag-corydalis-scouleri","tag-fabriano-artistico-watercolor-paper","tag-lilium-columbianum","tag-native-species","tag-scoulers-corydalis","tag-sketchbook"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8UJpb-BZ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aislinnadams.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aislinnadams.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aislinnadams.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aislinnadams.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aislinnadams.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.aislinnadams.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2355\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aislinnadams.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aislinnadams.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aislinnadams.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}