I'm not a 'traditional florals' type artist so this was fun way for me to explore flowers to aid my curiosity. I marvelled as the white inks of the Spring flower petals popped against the odd assortment of toned paper that I had collected. 

Working with negative space can be deceptively hard but once you understand how to work it to your advantage it really is fascination to see the shapes of leaves emerge. It was a like a game trying to study and break down that shapes. 

My favourite part of this study were the delicate stems of the hawthorn blossoms I was able to pick out. And If I had another try at this reference image I would probably try to add more as they really capture the essence and bring this piece to life. I'm new to Daler Rowney white ink and was thrilled with its easy application here. 

I'm not altogether happy with the bluebells at the back. However I think if I'd try to create a study of a single bluebell flower it would have been much easier. Theres nothing like stretching yourself creatively though. Also I probably won't use W&N ink on this type of packing paper as it soaked in too much but I do love the shade.

I went on to paint a colour version of the clematis. It turned out far better than I expected as I immediately started painting in the negative spaces. This really helped me to simplify down all the basic shapes.