Curtis's Botanical Magazine

These are botanical illustrations from the late 18th century. Someone at the Univeristy of Georgia has photographed every page of the first 20 volumes of Curtis's Botanical Magazine (from the universities rare book collection) and compiled them into pdfs for us to download. There are some really strange and beautiful portrayals of flowers. Copyright is expired so it's safe to use them in drawings, collages etc.

colour and linework tests

This whole week I've been exploring, experimenting and going back to basics with colour and technique. I'm finding too often that I get halfway through a painting and get stuck with the colours or wish I had done something differently because I only had a vague idea of what I wanted when I began. I have found working like that to be frustrating and not giving me the results I want. I have too many half finished paintings lying around the house because of it. So it finally occurred to me that maybe I was doing something a teeny bit wrong and it's time to fix it.

When I have worked out the separate components (colour, technique, composition, line work, materials), I'll then try and put it all back into a picture and see if it works out any better.

I'm re-reading the book Blue and yellow don't make green. Good book, based on science and research. And I love the satanic book cover with it's burning colour wheel. Makes me want to light my own colour wheel on fire. But I won't. I love my colour wheel.