I received the request for this project when I was so confused about what direction to go with my life. I was already working on some small commissions, but things was going nowhere.
For this project, I actually offer to do the first sketch for free since I wasn’t sure about myself on how to draw the whole series. The author was asking for a series of detailed ink drawings for leaves and animals. I’m still amazed now by how much trust the author had in me and how smooth things went.
I based many details on botanical illustrations from old books, which I dug up from Internet Archives. I do use photos from Google and other stocks sites, yet they tend to be not as useful. What I look for is an image showing the full branch or plant in clear lighting, and online images tend to be either close-up shots of just the flowers or have a strong contrast.
This project consists of about 30 ink illustrations for 30 poems about nature. It came like a magic touch, and kept me afloat for a whole three months to be able to receive more commission request.
I don’t do much these ink commissions anymore, since I’m working more with colors and full scene illustrations. I still look back this project dearly, since the payment helped supported me in those early days and I had a collection of animal and botanical illustrations in my portfolio.
Yet, birds, animals and plants are still my favorite topics to sketch with ink particularly, I have loosened my grip more, creating an impression rather than detailed inking. I have been taken up with studying animal anatomy carefully to be correct – a small anatomical mistake can make the whole drawing look off!
Jeanne Lolness 