In actual fact, I ought to make a correction to the above title straight away; its How I draw a poppy seedcase in graphite.

Since we came back from Italy, I have been chasing my tail as usual. But there is a result, so the time wasn’t wasted.

I’m in the process of writing a new, online botanical art course starting off with graphite, moving to pen & ink and then either watercolour or coloured pencil (one or the other – the choice being the student’s). I have put a lot of work into the sections I have done so far and knowing that different people learn in different ways, I have thought a lot about this quite a bit.

My husband has been a beautiful model in some sections so that I have been able to explain in words and show in photographs, different techniques. That is the reading and seeing bit. But then we have audio input too, and that is where videos come in.

Some of the videos I have done so far are very short and will not be available unless through the course, but today I have actually finished one that shows how I do a botanical graphite drawing from line drawing to finished piece.

This is the finished artwork – only small and as yet I haven’t really found a title for it other than Poppy seedcase. But if you have some imaginative titles, please give me a prod. At the moment I am a little brain dead!