Papaver Soniferium

The story behind this poppy is quite sweet. My boyfriend Matthew had asked me to do a technical illustration of these flowers quite awhile ago, busy with school and processing the cold colors of winter there had been no space to visually articulate such brilliance. Spring's colors soon started to flourish and these flowers began to spot the valley. I'd see bushels of them driving by but they remained a mystery.


One day driving home from Newberg a hedge of vibrant orange caught my eye. Wrestling with the thought of home and my artist self I found the nearest driveway and turned around. There was a small gravel patch on the side of the road in front of the little white cottage drive. I scrounged around for scrap paper and a pen and precariously perched myself on a railroad tie that kept the gravel out of the flowerbed and started to frantically sketch.

Right as I was finishing a noise caught my attention. Looking up I saw an old man walking down the driveway in a straw hat and overalls. His pinstriped cotton shirt matched his soft blue eyes. I jumped.
"You may have a bunch if you like," his voice was so kind.
"O! Really!? Wow, thank you... I was just sketching them, I just think they are so pretty..." I tried to collect my nervous self.
"You are pretty good at that, here, I brought my garden knife." He said as I pointed to the orange discs. "Which one would you like?"
"O, well you should pick for me, really."
"Ah, Ok then, this one is a beauty!" Bent down and cut three fuzzy stocks and handed them to me. 


It had just rained, and the petals were still heavy with the sky. Rivers flowed out of the plate sized flowers all over my hands. I felt like I was being washed with life's nectar. "They're perfect." 
"Here, I have more, come on," We fed the wild quail and strolled around his garden. Poppies of all colors deckled his jungle of green life. He talked to me all about his love for the land and how I reminded him of his granddaughter.
That night I started with the line drawing, free-hand, graphite then ink on Bristol. It always boggles my mind how much more one sees when drawing something from life, alignment and shapes speak louder then the subject itself and suddenly you are speaking a different language. 


Comfortable with tangible media I decided to challenge myself and colorize the line art in Photoshop. Through this process I became quite fond of my Wacom Tablet and the fun new features of CS5. I hope to do more of these technical illustrations in the future. 


More art on the way. Until then, 


Keep Creating,


Rachel.