I haven’t done a flower portrait in a while, but I always have a bunch of reference material ready when the urge strikes. These shooting stars were found all along the Riverside Walk trail in Zion National Park when we visited in May.

I always start out with a soft charcoal drawing to help with composition and placement. You can faintly see my drawing below…

Next I filled in the purple petals, roughly adding some shading and highlights along the way.

After I get the petals where I want them, I began adding color to the middle portion of each flower.

I haven’t decided if I want to include the stem or the bud in the lower right corner yet. I’m going to leave it for now and ponder my options tomorrow afternoon.