Illustrating a Cuckoo Flower with Orange tip butterflies

This film shows the whole process involved in creating an illustration, from getting reference through composition sketches, and up to completing the watercolour botanical illustration of the Cuckoo flower.
There is a sister film showing me illustrating the Orange-tip butterflies - please check it out too:
Illustrating an Orange tip Butterfly Video link • Illustrating an Orange...
This is because having the entire process as one film became impossible - it was way too long!
This is filmed in real time with commentary by Lizzie who explains her processes and talks at length about the Cuckoo flower (also known as Ladies-smock) Cardamine pratensis, as she paints.
The accompanying video, showing the illustration of the orange tip butterfly, will follow in a couple of weeks
Links to equipment and things mentioned in the film are listed below.
Please do leave comments - I love getting your feedback!
Equipment List
Paper: Fluid 100 by Global arts
www.speedballa...
Pencil: Pentel P205 HB lead
www.pentel.co....
Brush: Winsor & Newton Series 7 sable, size 1
www.winsornewto...
Paints:
Winsor & Newton watercolours
Colours used include: Vandyke brown, Naples yellow, Yellow ochre,
Cerulean blue, Cobalt blue, Terre verte,
Black, Cadmium yellow light, Winsor yellow,
Davies grey, Opera pink, Alizarin crimson,
purple....
www.winsornewto...
Magic paint eraser: www.jacksonsar...
Projector: www.artograph....
(discontinued)
Richard Lewington: www.richardlew...

[@yvonneparker1588]

Lizzie, I could watch and listen to you all day. Your work is wonderful and your commentary informative and fun. Thank you for sharing.

[@LizzieHarperillustrator]

Wow, thank you! Such a generous thing to say. x

[@megstout7229]

It's been easy to find loose flower artists but not so easy to find potennical artists. Love your work and thankful you share with us.

[@LizzieHarperillustrator]

My pleasure 😊 Glad you found the channel, and even happier that it's got stuff you like in it!

[@WhimsiesWorld]

Cheryl Hodges is an Australian Botanical Artist and has a couple of videos on KZbin - she's also very detailed however uses 'washes' rather than Lizzies 'drawing with paint' technique. Interesting to see styles though isn't it!

[@opabinnier]

"Potennical". Love it!

[@foxgloved1]

Oh i love the magic eraser tip!!!,I found your channel yesterday and have been bin watching your videos all day!!!i just love your work and cute personality,thank you for sharing your knowledge with us,i feel like i found the jackpot

[@LizzieHarperillustrator]

That is such a lovely comment! And I'm so very glad you like the films and be babbling on about all sorts of stuff. It's an honour to have so many lovely people being so generous about my films. Thankyou

[@SheilaLandry]

I love this but the link for the butterfly isn't valid. :) Thank you for your videos. They are quite inspiring.

[@LizzieHarperillustrator]

Hi Sheila, Thanks for this. I've updated it now. It's no longer private, but is "unlisted" so the link should work, although you won't see it popping up on my channel until I make it "public" in a couple of weeks time. Thanks for letting me know.

[@Noorieification]

Love it! Your work and the stories!!! Hey, couldnt help but notice that your hands a bit like mine and are prone to dryness and cracking. I stumbled upon this wonderful mix that I make (aloe vera gel+MSM power+vitamin E oil). You can add some vitamin C aswell. Hope you'd give it a try...it works wonders! 💓💓💓

[@LizzieHarperillustrator]

Thanks for the tip! Sorry your hands play up too, it's annoying isnt it? That's a great recommendation and I may well invest and mix some up. Dry hands are such a pain, and really unsightly too! Really appreciate you taking time to share this tip.

[@melainapitzer7943]

Delightful! Thank you for sharing your knowledge.

[@LizzieHarperillustrator]

My pleasure!

[@user-qr8qh7ss8f]

Lovely! Thank you for sharing this ❤️

[@johncranna]

It is I what commissioned Lizzie to do this plant and butterfly work as I love watching the cuckoo flower growing in meadows and then seeing the Orange Tip butterfly aroundxas they lay individual eggs on each leaf and then the lava feeds off the plant, turns onto a chrysalis the emerges a few weeks later. Just got to get it framed. That might take another 6 months!!

[@LizzieHarperillustrator]

Pleasure to meet you today John, and Im so glad you and the painting have finally met one another! Such a lovely commission to work on. Thank you

[@michellerichert8225]

Magnifique ! Très fin et très beau ! Hubert Reeves parle du papillon Aurore associé à la Cardamine des prés dans son livre sur Malicorne. Protégeons-les ! Merci.

[@LizzieHarperillustrator]

Merci beacoup. J'adore que le Orange-tip est "Le papillon Aurore" en Francais. Les mots sont beaucoup plus jolies. Oui, nous devrons les protegeons. Merci. x

[@michellerichert8225]

@@LizzieHarperillustrator orange-tip joli aussi merci. Continuez ainsi, c'est magnifique.

[@TheTracker83]

🤩

[@lindagruber2232]

You are so fun..thank you for your thorough demonstration.❤

[@LizzieHarperillustrator]

You are so welcome!

[@buntings1988]

Thank you again. What a treat. Listening to stories and watching you while you patiently draw petal by petal. Lovely.

[@LizzieHarperillustrator]

My pleasure 😊

[@AlineJoyGoodchild]

Oh my gracious, this was amazing to watch and enjoy. I thank you very much for sharing your talent. I love your beautiful and detail pieces. Looking forward to the yellow tipped butterflies. Blessings to you from Pikes Peak, Colorado

[@LizzieHarperillustrator]

Thank you so much! Im really glad you enjoyed it. And I love the idea of you all the way in Colorado listening to me witter on about the Cuckoo flower. the internet can be a wonderful thing.

[@AlineJoyGoodchild]

@@LizzieHarperillustrator You absolutely make it a joy. Our colors here are a beautiful golden in the quaking aspens.Thank you, and blessings for a great October.

[@jandaniel9133]

Thank you for sharing.

[@LizzieHarperillustrator]

My pleasure!

[@MicheleAnnTarot]

I was wondering if you ever found a synthetic replacement for your W&N brush. They’re a hard act to follow aren’t they.!

[@LizzieHarperillustrator]

Hiya MicheleAnn Alas, Im still questing. the closest I got was Rosemary brushers designer red dot, but even that hooked at the tip. It's on ongoing quest that I hope to return to when I have a bit of time, but alas, for now Im stuck with the weasel-carnage of W&N's sable series 7. Thanks for asking.

[@KeishaSalmonArtist]

Wow. Those butterflies are beautiful. Glad I found your channel. Thank you for sharing your wisdom.

[@LizzieHarperillustrator]

You are so welcome

[@harveyhairr3390]

p̳r̳o̳m̳o̳s̳m̳ ✋

[@alisonruth3947]

Thank you.Love your work.

[@LizzieHarperillustrator]

Thank you!

[@opabinnier]

It's Cardamine PRATENSIS: being a feminine noun, cardamine takes a feminine adjective; PRATENSE is the neuter form and does not apply here. Many Greek feminine nouns and in E: daphne etc. The leaves: yes they DO look leguminous, you're v right there; however cukooo flower is regular and four-petalled and thus it's what we used to call a crucifer, not a legume. Sadly the family Cruciferae (cabbages/mustards) is now BRASSICACEAE. The Leguminosae family (peas/beans) is now FFABACEAE... and lots of other families too- the legumes were gleefully exploded into various new families, but the common legumes are Fabaceae like I said. I got fed up with today's infantile and unscientific scientists (just look at today's physics) so went and studied Classics instead. Thank God!

[@LizzieHarperillustrator]

Hello Pindar Thanks for the explanation with the pratense and pratensis. Classics and studying greek and latin is such a useful thing to do in terms of the root derivation of scientific names. I should have remembered that cuckoo flower is a crucifer (I too wish theyd not changed the names. I dont think it was neccessary, and the old names were beautiful). Four petals is a give away. And yes, that the leguminosae family are now fabaceae makes me sad. But hey ho, classification has always been a mine field. Glad youve escapes to study the classics, what an emminently sensisble thing to do! And fascinating. Thanks for the comment. Yours Lizzie

[@opabinnier]

@@LizzieHarperillustrator Thanks for your sweet reply, Lizzie- no sweat, glad to sort out that bit of accidence for you. Nice to meet another soul who remembers the trad names! When they started changing here it went through an embarrassing, pimply phase of silly nonsense (eg Papilionaceae and the like) but at last they settled for the sane, rational Russian system. BUT the old irregular minority of family names lacking the -ceae ending (Leguminosae, Cruciferae etc) were the grit in the oyster! I don't like a life totally without pearls!

[@denisestover2416]

Beautiful piece! I always learn soooo much from you! My dad used to say that a lot. Sitting in the Cat Bird seat. He explained it to me, but I've never used it. As for the drying layers, I have to contend with the layers completely drying before putting on the next layer on silk with dyes as well. I use a hairdryer/ blow dryer to gently dry the layers in between each layer. If that makes sense, lol?! When I was a watercolorist I was also a purist! The idea of using gouache or a white acrylic was absolutely OUT! 🙅‍♀️ NO! Even mixed media makes my skin crawl! I'm just Goofy 🤪! Ha! Watching you bring your very wet (dilute) colors in your palette directly over your art piece that the background will more-than-likely stay white makes me soooooo SOOOOOO nervous that I hold my breath and pray! Aarrgghhhhhh! 😄🤣😅 Do you create scientific illustrations? Or I guess I should ask scientific botanical illustrations? How do you get commissions? Do you create for books or does someone ask for a Cuckoo Flower piece with the Orange-Tipped Butterflies hanging out? Does the Cuckoo Flower exist as a weed, a shrub or a small branched plant with many siblings all around it? Thanks! I enjoy watching your art come together. As I mentioned earlier, I learn so very much from you! My breath holding time is getting longer thanks to you, lol! Bye! God Bless 😃

[@LizzieHarperillustrator]

Hi Denise The cat bird seat. I think (not certain) that I got it from a James Thurber collection of short stories many years ago. its stuck with our family, which I like. Glad you recognize it! Wow, painting on silk, now THAT'S a touch discipline. And yes, I do sometimes use a hair dryer if time is tight, but it can change the shape of the little pools of paint and compromise the edges. But it's a good tip. Putting the paper on top of a radiator has worked too. I know, I should be more careful when I move my paint box around, but Ive alwas been a little slap-dash. So far Ive not tipped colour all over a near finished piece, but there's an inevitability about it happening one day! So yes, I do do botanically accurate illustrations for flower guides and identification boards etc. Not like Kew-gardens accurate, but good enough to please the botanists. In terms of getting work, I'm freelance and advertise in illustration journals, work to get my name pop up on Google, and rely on word of mouth, and social media and my website. Yes, in this case the cuckoo flower and orange tip is a private commission. Publishers do indeed get in touch, normally with a species list and little more. SO doing the research is a big part of my work too. Luckily I lveo doing ti. So Cuckoo flower grows as a plant up to 60cm high, in fields and grasslands. Each flowering plant is solitary, but they will grow in clumps together, turning early spring meadows a pale delicate pink. Lovely to hear form you, and thanks for such an interesting comment! yorus Lizzie

[@denisestover2416]

@@LizzieHarperillustrator Hi! Thank you for taking the time to answer so completely. Wow, I didn't know that the hairdryer would/could affect the edges and spot placement so much. I just never gave thought to it. Thank you for that. I'm going to check if the hairdryer will have this effect on my silks as well as watercolor. Thank you for making me aware of it! Your work sounds fun and very interesting! I love to research, too! Before any of my pieces are made I spend more time researching, well, I call it my "R&D" time, than actually making the piece, lol! Thank you for the response! God Bless 😃

[@montserratlavid3532]

Always a treat. Thank you!

[@LizzieHarperillustrator]

Thank you too!

[@jandaniel9133]

What is the pallet your are using the wells look nice and deep

[@LizzieHarperillustrator]

Ah yes. The delicious paintbox. It's something I bought ages ago and have struggled to replace. I believe it came from a shop called the "Coln Gallery" in the UK, but I dont think they still stock them. I believe its winsor and newton, but cant find it anywhere online. Sorry to be so unhelpful!

[@jandaniel9133]

@@LizzieHarperillustrator Thank you Lizzie. Hope you find one just as lovely 😍

[@AMIR-nm7fo]

YOUR DRESS IS VERY BEAUTIFUL. I LIKE THE PRINT AND COLORS THANK YOU FOR YOUR VIDEO AND THE EXPLANATION

[@LizzieHarperillustrator]

I'm so glad you like the film, and my dress! Always nice to know that people appreciate what you wear as well as what you paint, so thankyou!

[@irmabenus7001]

Thanks for sharing this! Beautiful work! And lovely comment and stories! Have you ever tried escoda chronos brushes? They are really amazing and have and hold a very sharp point. Maybe something for you to try out?

[@LizzieHarperillustrator]

Great suggestion! Ill look into Escoda Chronos. Good idea! Thanks

[@violetsands]

A few years ago i went on a hunt for native wildflowers for my garden and the cuckoo flower /cardamine pratensis is one that i planted en masse under a tree and in throughout my borders. (i bought them and did not dig up from the wild i hasten to add!) It is glorious in early spring, when most of the colours of other flowers are white or yellow, i have a splash of pinky lilac throughout my garden which so cheerful and charming. Early bees like it and of course the said butterflies. Thank you for sharing your process and i always love to watch you work and listen to you talk. If you are ever in Scotland teaching i would there like a shot! I could easily listen and watch you work for years lol! You are a font of useful knowledge and lore.

[@LizzieHarperillustrator]

Tash, What a fab comment! I'm so jealous of your garden. Ive tried to plant out Cuckoo flower in my garden, but it's not taken. I guess the soil isn't to its liking. But those pale pink clouds of blossom truly are stunning, like you say. I do teach, but the only in person workshops I run are down in Cambridge, not exactly close to Scotland alas. However, I promise to go on making these films from time to time, and I'm flirting with the idea of getting in touch with Domestika and maybe doing a course with them (they have proper film studios and my hair would NOT appear in all the films!) but I need to find the space to do it. So glad you like the films, its great to have such a generous and receptive audience! X

[@agatagoss6444]

I love watching your video Over and over . Beautiful flowers and butterflies

[@LizzieHarperillustrator]

Thank you very much

[@helenloveday4473]

Wonderful painting, so beautiful, and you really make me laugh 😂 great commentary! X

[@LizzieHarperillustrator]

Thank you so much 😀

[@karolfrench5816]

THANKYOU magnificent tutorial

[@LizzieHarperillustrator]

You're very welcome!

[@mikipiwonka4311]

I am always learning from you. Thanks

[@LizzieHarperillustrator]

My pleasure! Thanks so much x

[@СветланаЕрмолаева-б5щ]

Какой хороший подарок в эти грустные дни... Спасибо, лучезарная Лиззи 💚🍀🌿 What a good gift in these sad days... Thank you, radiant Lizzie.

[@LizzieHarperillustrator]

Какой прекрасный комментарий. Если моя картина может вызвать улыбку, то это делает более чем стоящим ее создание и создание фильма. Спасибо.

[@LizzieHarperillustrator]

PS> Hope Google translate made sense!

[@donnadyer7040]

I think I could listen to you all day. You have a very soothing voice. Plus, watching you paint is so awesome! Your talent is incredible!

[@LizzieHarperillustrator]

Wow, thank you! I dont think my husband or kids would agree that I have a soothing voice, but Ill pass on the message! And thanks, I just think Im lucky to be able to share my love for what I do in these films. But its great to have such lovely feedback