{"id":2365,"date":"2016-01-12T15:52:03","date_gmt":"2016-01-12T23:52:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aislinnadams.com\/?p=2365"},"modified":"2016-01-12T15:52:03","modified_gmt":"2016-01-12T23:52:03","slug":"blog-3-friends-of-silver-falls-native-plant-project-overcoming-white-fright","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aislinnadams.com\/cms\/blog-3-friends-of-silver-falls-native-plant-project-overcoming-white-fright\/","title":{"rendered":"Blog #3 Friends of Silver Falls Native Plant Project- Overcoming White Fright!"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is the third in a series of blogs I’m writing about a native plant illustration commission I received from\u00a0the Friends of Silver Falls State Park (FOSF). To read the first blog click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Redwood

Redwood sorrel, Oxalis oregana. .005 Sakura Micron Pen.<\/p><\/div>\n

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White fright!<\/h3>\n

Having gone to all the trouble of making beautiful new\u00a0sketchpads for this project (see my last blog<\/a>), when it came to the moment of actually drawing in my first one I had a\u00a0serious\u00a0attack of “white fright”. I looked at the white expanse of expensive Fabriano Artistico watercolor paper and was paralyzed. No\u00a0amount of cajoling or upbraiding\u00a0myself made a whit of\u00a0difference. I was intimidated. After struggling back and forth for a\u00a0while\u00a0I decided\u00a0that a different approach was needed.<\/p>\n

Drawing as meditation!<\/h3>\n

I knew from experience that when\u00a0I draw with a black pen only, no pencils or erasures allowed, I somehow manage to relax more and spend the time truly observing my\u00a0plant subject. It’s the closest thing to meditation that I know; a time when I let go of expectations\u00a0and focus completely on the act of looking and drawing. Time stands still.<\/p>\n

\"Salal<\/p>\n

Coastal range sketch-\u00a0salal, sword fern and trailing blackberry (while also having fun with bark texture).<\/p>\n

A new sketchpad!<\/h3>\n

With this in mind I decided that my “white fright”\u00a0sketchpad had\u00a0to wait while I practiced some “meditation drawing”. I went back to my local art store and bought an (inexpensive) 11×14 inch, Alternative Art<\/em> wire-bound\u00a0sketchpad and some .005 Sakura micron pens. I like the way the fine .005 tips allow me to\u00a0include lots of fine detail if I wish, as well as interesting textures. \u00a0The inexpensive sketchpad\u00a0also means that I don’t worry about wasting good paper. It is big enough too for lots of observations and, with its strong hardback cover, it\u00a0doubles as a drawing board for my \u201cgood\u201d sketchpad.<\/p>\n

\"Corydalis<\/p>\n

Scouler’s corydalis, Corydalis scouleri<\/em> study in my “meditation” sketchpad.<\/p>\n

Not all my pen drawings are this successful, and many\u00a0are unfinished, like this one. For me the point is not to produce the perfect finished drawing but to loose myself a little in the looking, and really\u00a0enjoy getting to know the plant.<\/p>\n

Aislinn Adams
\nBlog #3 Friends of Silver Falls Native Plant Project- Overcoming White Fright!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is the third in a series of blogs I’m writing about a native plant illustration commission I received from\u00a0the Friends of Silver Falls State Park (FOSF). To read the first blog click here. White fright! Having gone to all the trouble of making beautiful new\u00a0sketchpads for this project (see my last blog), when it […]<\/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":[1,31,61,68,236,248],"tags":[29,30,44,67,141,235,241,245,249,250],"class_list":["post-2365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-pen-and-ink-drawing","category-native-plants","category-watercolor-illustration-uncategorized","category-native-plant-illustrations","category-fabriano-artistico-watercolor-paper","tag-native-plant","tag-pen-and-ink-drawing","tag-american-native-plant","tag-watercolor-illustration","tag-aislinn-adams","tag-friends-of-silver-falls-state-park","tag-corydalis-scouleri","tag-scoulers-corydalis","tag-meditation-drawing","tag-white-fright"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8UJpb-C9","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aislinnadams.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2365","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=2365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.aislinnadams.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2365\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aislinnadams.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aislinnadams.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aislinnadams.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}