Monteviot House Gardens 8th April

On 8th April my mum and I went to Monteviot House Gardens to do research for one of the units that  I am currently doing at college. The weather was really nice which meant I could sit and do a few sketches of some of the huge variety of flowers and other plants that are growing there, as well as take lots of photos with great natural light. (By the end of our visit we had taken well over 200 photos!!!)

As it is still quite early in the season, there was still a lot of blossom and buds around which were very interesting to photograph. My particular favourite is the photo of the pink blossoms because I think the different levels of focus within the image help give it depth and interest without taking away from the beautiful flowers themselves. I also think it shows the different stages of the opening blossom quite well.

 

We also saw lots of butterflies, most were too quick for us to photograph but I managed to get photos of both a Peacock Butterfly and a Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly while they were resting. I was also quite chuffed when I managed to photograph a bee between flights.

There were lots of daffodils and primroses around the Gardens.  I particularly like the light on the cream and yellow daffodil as I think it subtly creates impact within the image. I also like the primrose photo because of the little folds at the edge of some of the petals which I think makes them more unique.

I sat and sketched some of the daffodils which also had some ivy growing up a tree behind them. I used Fine Liner Pen to sketch them and I later added colour using Inktense pencils and Faber Castell pens - I think the image turned out well and that the colour adds to the overall look of the drawing. I quite like the illustrated look of the daffodils.

Some of the flowers had very interesting centers so I used my camera to zoom in and focus on the really interesting details on some of the plants.

Pampas Grass

 

Pampas Grass

 

 

 

"White Perfection" Heather

At this time of year, there are more small flowers than big ones but sometimes the smaller flowers have more intricate details which can make them even more beautiful than the bigger flowers that we tend to see more of in the summer.

I saw this plant with yellow flowers at Monteviot Gardens and thought it was very interesting as it only had four petals and was growing more on branches than stems.

 

 

One of the bigger flowers that we saw was this white one. I thought it was interesting with its two halves - one half quite regular and evenly spaced and the other more curled and imperfect - but who am I to say what is perfect?

  

I was trying to photograph a close-up of these white flowers and this cheeky little fly landed right in the shot as I took the photo.