Current project: A new bromeliad botanical illustration!
Posted on 3 September 2010 | No responses
Studio still-life of bromeliad and sketchbook, © Wren M. Allen
I’ve started a new botanical illustration of a bromeliad. The leaves are a much warmer green and stronger purple than the last plant.
Completed: Botanical illustration of bromeliad
Posted on 2 September 2010 | No responses
The bromeliad illustration is finally completed, © Wren M. Allen
At last, the painting of the bromeliad that I started during the illustration extension course at the Jardim Botânico is finished! It required working from sketches painted from life, and photos taken during the class.
Groovy Link of the Month: The Art of Mindy Lighthipe
Posted on 1 September 2010 | No responses
Botanical and natural history artist Mindy Lighthipe showcases her art and shares technical tips and tricks for aspiring botanical illustrators. She has recently started a series of top 10 drawing tips for natural history/botanical illustrators which cover all kinds of basic issues from eraser choice, to squinting to discern the value scale of a still life. Lush, colorful flowers and iridescent bugs make her portfolio a delight to look at!
Challenging quest for logo originality
Posted on 20 August 2010 | No responses
The research phase for a couple of oilwell logos has begun, and I am faced with an exciting, but a bit daunting, challenge.
The naming convention for oil well projects is based on a theme that is unique to each field or area. For example, the UK North Sea wells are all named for the wives of the long-ago company managers; Norwegian wells are usually named for Norse gods; there is a field in the Gulf of Mexico named after classic rock bands. Etc.
The new well project in question is named for a famous hat.
As a designer, my challenge will be to create a logo that pays homage to the icon without actually stepping over the trademark line. It doesn’t help that there are universities and law firms using the name as well, so their logotypes must also be steered clear of.
Stay tuned for updates, and wish me luck! 
New movies for art lovers
Posted on 20 August 2010 | No responses
Black Swan by Darren Aronofsky is due out in December (US), and offers a twist on backstage ballet dramas. Natalie Portman plays a ballerina selected to dance the Odette/Odile role in Swan Lake, but must fight the competition of a fellow dancer played by Mila Kunis. A touch of All About Eve, a sprinkle of the impresario/ingenue romance of The Red Shoes, and apparently some occult-psycho, best-girlfriends-not-really Single White Female thrown in for good measure. Yum!
My Dog Tulip is based on the book by J.R. Ackerley and is an animated film based on hand-drawn and painted images (shocking I know! ). Christoper Plummer, the late Lynne Redgrave and Isabella Rossellini provide the voices. The drawings are all very loose and sketchy and really catch dog behavior, at least from what I saw in the trailer. It arrives in US theaters in September. Definitely has that poignant yet heartwarming vibe.
Coming soon: Corpse Flower Lois
Posted on 19 August 2010 | No responses
Waiting to bloom: Corpse Flower Lois © Wrenaissance Art
Like almost everybody else in Houston this July, I rushed to see Lois the Corpse Flower bloom at the Museum of Natural Science. Or rather, to watch her in bud, as she didn’t actually bloom until 3 weeks after the initial announcement. The crowds were not too bad if you went at 7 am, as I usually did. Besides the flower, it was an amusing exercise in non-profit public relations, marketing and expectations management. How does one balance the need to promote an interesting educational event to the public using the media, without pushing said newsmedia into a hype machine for a natural process that can’t possibly meet the breathless vaporings of the 6 o’clock broadcasters?
The atrium where the flower was displayed was very cramped, with no room to discreetly sketch, although I did manage to get a basic palette mixed for a final composition one weekday morning.
The plant itself is pretty interesting. Arum titan grows from a corm, just like anemones. Unlike anemones, it grows on limestone cliffs in the Indonesian rainforest. The bloom imitates the look and smell of carrion to attract the beetles that pollinate it. Immediately after pollination, the giant flower closes, and the plant enters dormancy, later re-sprouting in its vegetal stage.
For an illustrator, the flower offers many rendering challenges of texture, color and composition.
Check back often to see updates as I illustrate this fascinating flower!
Sketchbook: Celosia “Cockscomb”
Posted on 18 August 2010 | No responses
Celosia head, page in my sketchbook. © Wrenaissance Art
The soft, velvety “brain” shape of celosia is a real challenge! Is it opera, alizarin, permanent rose?
Arches 88 a poor paper choice for watercolor
Posted on 12 August 2010 | No responses
Detail of watercolor brushstrokes on Arches 88 paper. © Wrenaissance Art
I wanted to paint an illustration of one of the butterflies we saw at Iguaçu Park and had a spare half-sheet of Arches 88 paper. I transferred the drawing to the paper, and then began to lay in the first level of washes. As you can see, the paper sucked up all the water and color in each brushstroke, not permitting the use of wet into wet technique at all. The paper also puffed and buckled in the shape of each stroke. Arches 88 remains a better option for silkscreen,which seals the surface of the sheet, or maybe as a support for acrylic on paper, which also seals the surface.
Current project: Continuing on the bromeliad
Posted on 12 August 2010 | No responses
In late February, the bromeliad illustration I was working on was packed away for the movers at this stage of completion:
Unfinished watercolor of bromeliad in February 2010 © Wren Allen
The external sides of the leaves were finished, but the root/earth and the internal leaves were still unmodelled. Yesterday I spent most of the day working on the internal side of the leaves. One challenge was that the green mixtures lifted as additional washes were laid on. To get around this, I layered fine strokes of water-soluble colored pencil over the green wash mix. Here is the result:
Bromeliad botanical illustration, stage 5, © Wren M. Allen
Groovy Link of the Month: Angry Paul Rand
Posted on 9 August 2010 | No responses
The Twitter account Angry Paul Rand features pithy, acerbic and often vulgarly worded thunderbolts hurled from Design Olympus by the shade of the great one.
Hilarious!