A splash of colour!
Yesterday, I showed you my ink drawing of these poppy seed heads. Today, I'm sharing the process of adding colour to my drawing using watercolours.
History
The poppy seed is mentioned in ancient medical texts from many civilizations. For instance, the Egyptian papyrus scroll named Ebers Papyrus, written c. 1550 BC, lists poppy seed as a sedative.
The Minoan civilization (approximately 2700 to 1450 BC), a Bronze Age civilization which arose on the island of Crete, cultivated poppies for their seed, and used a milk, opium and honey mixture to calm crying babies.
The Sumerians are another civilization that are known to have grown poppy seeds.Poppy seeds have long been used as a folk remedy to aid sleeping, promote fertility and wealth, and even to provide supposed magical powers of invisibility
I mainly use the dried seed heads in flower arrangements, but I may give the invisibility thing a go too!
It's amazing the range of colours you can find on a dried poppy seed head; yellows, pinks, blues, greens, purples, so many! You just have to look closely and observe the variety of hues.
Time to add a background colour, and for this I wanted to match the colour to the fresh green poppy seed heads.
I've been experimenting digitally with the original line drawing and I hope to share these designs with you soon!
