Black-eyed Susans in Cobalt Carter's Ink Bottle

7/27/06
I picked a huge bunch of these from the backroads near work at lunch. I arranged most of them in a pitcher on my desk, but put these in my ink bottle and put them beside my computer. I sketched them in my Aquabee with Caran d'Ache Neocolor II and then when I got home I added some black Prismacolor over the blue for the darks in the bottle. Before I did that the bottle seemed sort of faded out in comparison to the dark centers of the flowers.

As I was riding and picking these flowers at lunch, I thought "Wow, how blessed I am to have such beautiful country surroundings just a couple miles from work!" No skyscrapers and sidewalks for me; I'd go crazy. Just fields and barns and roadside chicory, AND I even saw an older couple blackberry picking on the side of the road. I wish I could have drawn them without being noticed, but that would have been impossible. The woman had a bandana tied around her hair and the man had a straw hat on. They had parked their pickup truck across the road. What a peaceful country scene that was.