Botanical sketching

Did some 30-50 min sketches of Southern California native plants at the Madrona Marsh nature centre.

Catalina snapdragon
Galvesia speciosa
Watercolour sketch,
9x12in
©Lala Ragimov

Desert mallow
Sphaeralacea ambigua
Watercolour sketch,
9x12in
©Lala Ragimov

Firecracker plant
Dichelostemma ida-maia
Watercolour sketch,
9x12in
©Lala Ragimov

Brodia sp.

Watercolour sketch,

9x12in

©Lala Ragimov

Lesser goldfinch

Finished the lesser goldfinches - it's my fist time working from a skin - much more difficult than from a stuffed bird.  Had to use imagination and some photos for the poses, and used the skin for the details of feather patterns and texture.  Having to invent made the final result look a bit archaic I think! What would be really interesting to do is to work from live birds, too bad they don't have any at Madrona Marsh nature centre.

Lesser goldfinch (Carduelis psaltria)
© Lala Ragimov 2012

the model