Coral honeysuckle

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Coral honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens) is blooming in Southwest Florida now.  One of the things I love about this native vine is that it’s relatively easy to maintain once established, and is non-invasive, unlike some of its relatives.  It grows throughout Florida, north to Canada and west to the Midwest in the US.

Another thing I like is that the blooms attract ruby-throat hummingbirds and a large variety of butterflies.  The large swallowtails visit our yard more frequently when it’s in full bloom, especially the brilliant yellow and black Giant Swallowtail butterfly.  I’ve read that clearwing moths use honeysuckles as larval foods, but I’ve never seen them around.

The trumpet-like flowers are a mix of lovely shades of deep yellow, coral, and carmine, and the opposite oval-shaped leaves are bright green on top, with a pale green underside.  Right now, the berries are forming and are green; they’ll ripen to a shiny red later to be eaten by songbirds. 

The genus name Lonicera is a tribute to Adam Lonicer, a 16^th century German botanist, and the species name sempervirens is from the Latin for “always alive” which describes its evergreen habit in the South.  It does tend to drop some leaves in the winter in our area, but not many. 

I gathered these leaves and flowers to sketch inside as part of The Sketchbook Project I’m creating, since Tropical Storm Debby has pushed her low gray clouds, rain, and wind (even tornadoes!) into our corner of Southwest Florida.  We’ve had a rainy week already, and it looks like we’ll have more in store next week. Hope you all are save and dry!

Media:

The Sketchbook Project sketchbook,

Pitt Artist pen in black, size XS for the sketch, and S for the text

(I’m determined to sketch directly with pen throughout the book…we’ll see how that goes!),

Kimberly watercolor pencils,

Niji Aquabrush, small size (sparingly, as pages buckle easily).

For more information on coral honeysuckle, visit Floridata’s site.

For a range map on their distribution in the US, visit the USDA’s page (scroll down to see map).

The Sketchbook Project , first pages

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A peek at the start of a new project, as part of The Sketchbook Project; you can view my post about this here.

I drew these with a Pitt Artist pen outside (sitting on a lumpy rock!), then back inside to a comfortable chair for lettering and adding color with my water-soluble pencils.  The paper is a nice bright white, and beautifully smooth.  The ink goes on like silk, with no noticeable bleeding or penetrating (so far).  My watercolor pencils worked nicely, picking up a light texture from the paper - however, too much water is a no-no which resulted in wrinkled pages.  I’ll have to pay attention to find that fine line between just enough and too much water from my waterbrush!

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The details:

The Sketchbook Project book is from Scoutbooks.com, but I couldn’t find out any information on the paper. 

Ink:  Pitt Artist pen in black, size XS for the sketch, and S for the text.

Watersoluble media: Kimberly watercolor pencils (you can read about my set here), and Inktense by Derwent.

Brush:  Niji Aquabrush, small size.

The subjects:

I’ve written about both of these two lovely plants that are blooming right now in south Florida, so I won’t repeat myself!  If you’d like to read about the Florida butterfly orchid, please visit my post from last year.  Here is a link to the post from 2010, which also shows a honeybee and its funny pollen “hat” that I observed while drawing.

You can find the beach sunflower post here.  I started these from seed several months ago, and they are doing extremely well in a dry and sandy spot that nothing wanted to grow in before now.  The seeds took a VERY long time to germinate (or perhaps I’m an impatient gardener), but I’m glad they did.  The flowers lift my spirits every time I see them!

The cover:
Oh - and if you'd like to see what I've done with the cover so far, I wrapped it in a recycled and crumpled Tyvek envelope (blank side to the outside), and painted it with some leftover latex paint.  Wiping the paint with a damp paper towel removes enough to reveal the random fibers in the Tyvek, which add a lot of texture and interest.  The two colors I used were an "old gold" and a tobacco brown; leaving on more of the gold, and wiping off more of the brown. The last step was a seal coat with a matte acrylic medium.  I've found the Tyvek to be extremely durable as a sketchbook cover; even the wear marks add to the beauty.

Back and front of the sketchbook.

 There may be more to come regarding the cover - time will tell!  In the past I've used acrylic paint on my handmade sketchbook covers; if you'd like to see some examples, please visit my Flickr set here.

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Thanks for visiting!

The Sketchbook Project

The sketchbook and the informational insert.

I’m going to participate in Project Sketchbook 2013!  Actually, you can too!  Project Sketchbook 2013 is an international venture for artists, sketchers, journalers, or any creative person that feels a need to chronicle their life or experiences on paper.  

The sketchbooks will be part of a traveling library, which lends the sketchbooks out (just like regular books).  It will also have a permanent home in the Brooklyn Art Library, a storefront space in (yes) Brooklyn, New York.  All this was dreamed up and brought to fruition by Art House, LLC, who have been enabling creative people since 2006. 

How to participate?  For a small fee, they will send you a small (just under 5 x 7 inches) 32-page sketchbook  with a bar code on the back specific to you, the author/artist.  For a bit more, they’ll digitize the book so people can access it online.  If you’d like to see examples of past books, click here. 

The back of the sketchbook - my information immortalized in a bar code!

I’m doing this as part of a small group, SWFL Art Friends, initiated by my sketching friend Stephanee M., which allows each of us a discount (thank you again Stephanee!).  My theme is “Sketchbook” which I hope allows a lot of leeway in subject matter.  Somehow I think my pages will be nature-related!  The paper itself is a bit thin, so I’m leaning in the direction of ink with some light washes.  Right now I’m still having a bit of “blank-page fright,” and haven’t made a single mark in it – ack!

The beauty of this project is that ANYONE can participate and create one!  How cool is that?

Click on photos to view larger.  Comments and feedback appreciated.  Thanks for stopping by!