Story behind the art of Dorothy DePaulo
26th Annual International
American Society of Botanical Artists and Marin Art and Garden Center
Desert Delight
Aloe arborescens
Spring comes earlier in the Southwest desert near Tucson than it does at my home in Denver. In early March when the trees are bare and there’s snow on the ground at home, I make my pilgrimage to the desert which is alive with flowers!
I found this Aloe arborescens (Candelabra aloe) near the Tucson Botanic Gardens. The single red-orange flower hovering over the ungroomed gray-green and tan leaves compelled me to draw it. I did preliminary drawings and color studies on site and then photographed the plant from several angles.
Back at home, I transferred my basic drawing to drafting film, which is a semi-transparent plastic film that was originally made for drafters to use when they did their drawing by hand. I find that the film takes the colored pencil evenly, and if I can’t get enough layers of color on the front of the film, I can turn it over and add more layers on the back. I use Grafix double sided drafting film, 003” thickness.
Using my photos and color studies as guides, I went to work with my colored pencils to depict this plant growing in the rocky soil as I found it. I was happy with the drawing, but the plant that I drew could have been growing in a hot house. I felt I needed to do more to show the beautiful environment in which I found it, but I didn’t want the landscape to dominate.
Using the advantage of the semi-transparent film, I took a separate sheet of drafting film, and drew the distant desert. I used only a sepia colored pencil because I didn’t want the background to compete with the plant, which was my main focus. Then I placed the drafting film with the desert scene under the sheet of film with the drawing of the flower. The semi-transparency of the drafting film made the desert fade even more into the background, and my Aloe plant was still the star of the show.
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Read more about this artist’s work: America's Flora