nasturtium & courgette – allotment bristol – gouache & wax crayon – c. A3

Yesterday in the heat before the storm making more ‘collection’ studies… When I’d been sketching the one below on the previous day I realised I knew less about the big ‘glossy’ species than I did about the more bit part players.

gatekeepers, courgettes, scabious & knapweed – allotment bristol – gouache & wax crayon – c. A3

The allotment is on quite a slope and I’ve been cultivating wildflower banks as a means of retaining soil and creating wildlife habitat. So now I’ve often got the wild stuff sitting alongside the veg. To get the veg. more convincingly into the picture I started courgette studies and then moved onto nasturtiums…. next will be the runner beans … which now have toadflax and hemp agrimony flowering alongside them.
While making the sketch above a hummingbird hawkmoth patrolled up and down the bank… seemed to be egg laying on the gone over clusters of ladies bedstraw flowers.

hummingbird hawkmoth on ladies bedstraw – allotment bristol – wax crayon – c. A4

nasturtium – allotment bristol – gouache & wax crayon – c. A3

courgette – allotment bristol – gouache & wax crayon – c. A3

courgette – allotment bristol – gouache & wax crayon – c. A3