I started drawing this magnolia flower before my trip to Milwaukee for #NCECA2014 and didn’t finish it until last week. I left it home while I was away on the trip, and didn’t pick it up for a few days after I got back. I started stippling the leaves as a way to procrastinate the piles of homework I’ve been buried under. While I was in Milwaukee, I did take another sketchbook and I had some down time in the hotel room and during lectures where I decided to draw. On the plane ride back, I drew this angler/koi/cat fish with protea flowers from start to nearly finish (I added the stippling on the scales later):

And by the next day, my mind was already wrapping itself around the idea of drawing proteas on my pots. I’ve already been drawing heaps of grevillea flowers on my pots, so why not take the next step and draw other intricate flowers of the Proteaceae?

So after seeing how nice my grevillea cup turned out, I did the same red line drawn pattern to draw a protea on this plate (yes, that is a wasp hovering over the flower). I’ve been doing all of these drawings freehand, with occasional glimpses at instagram photos under #protea, #proteaceae, and #proteaflower. There are some beautiful photos of this lovely plant on there. Anyway, after drawing on this plate, I thought about my orchid sculptures and how they relate to my functional work– and decided to sculpt a protea flower in porcelain clay:

I plan to paint it realistically after it’s bisque fired.

Now my decorating process takes longer than ever, but I am extremely satisfied with the results so far 🙂