Gerbera revisited

(the scanner failed me this time, it lost the many variations of orange)

Did you know that the Gerbera daisy is the fifth most used cut flower in the world (after rose, carnation, chrysanthemum, and tulip)? It is also used as a model organism in studying flower formation. And I had to paint it.

I tried, really I did. I didn't draw any outlines on my paper frst - I just plonked down some orange paint (carefully matched to the actual living organism) and used my brush to "draw" all the petals. It was a lovely loose collection of orange-y splotches arranged concentrically, but it was missing something. As much as I tried to leave it sitting there without definition I couldn't do it. I just happened to have a black triplus fineliner in my purse (a girl never knows when she'll need one) and I was much happier once I got to draw all the little petal edges in.

I know, I can hear you saying "but things don't have black lines around them in the real world" and you're right. But I can't escape my comfort zone it seems, at least as far as Gerbera daisies are concerned. I did banish the "stay inside the line" demon however and that is enough of a victory for a Tuesday night.