A Peek In My Sketchbook: Drawing Wild Poppies

A natural outcome for a creative person who loves to take nature walks is to start sketching all that amazing inspiration, a much quicker alternative to painting I might add! So, since I have just shared with you photos of the lovely red poppies native to Northern Israel, I thought I’d share with you the sketches of poppies that I drew in my sketchbook. And not just any sketchbook, but rather one that was only half full of sketches I’d make in New York before moving to Israel, yikes, quite a long time ago. I’m a little sad that I didn’t keep up the creative practice of drawing in a sketchbook most of the years in between (I did start a sketchbook 2 years ago on our vacation to Washington DC, here, and I did start a painting sketchbook last year in Sweden, here) though now I am so happy filling the pages with botanical drawings that I hope to continue, or at least fill the remaining pages! So dear readers, please please please, if you have that inner desire to create something in a journal, or draw in a sketchbook, do it, and keep doing it, and don’t give up! I used to be so very reticent of sketchbooks because I was afraid of making mistakes, but guess what, you can simply cover up those mistakes by glueing paper over them, or if the paper is thick enough, painting over them, and voila, no pressure, just enjoy and don’t be too hard on yourself! I did make a few mistakes with the poppies, so keep on reading to see how I worked that out!

I actually love the simple poppie sketches at the bottom of the page, but the first go was not at all successful. Then I had the idea of simply drawing another flower on a piece of paper (pink and patterned in this case) and glueing it over the not so lovely outcome. So happy with the results!

And here you can see a variety of poppies that I drew using little tutorials or other’s sketches that I found on Pinterest. Once you follow someone else’s way of drawing something it becomes that much easier to draw it with your own touch, and that my friends is where the not giving up on the sketchbook comes in, because with drawing it is all about practice, practice, practice!

And just by the way, with the Jewish holiday of Shavuos coming up next Thursday night, I am thinking all about flowers, and so this sketchbook practice is a great starting point for some festiveholiday decorations, hopefully!