The Blooms of Spring

This is a project I started on last year--around this time actually. There will be four altogether--one for each season. Each one will be posted on the Solstice/Equinox of that season.

The first is Spring, or Haru as I've called her. Spring this year falls on March 20th, 2006.

I think, out of the all the Seasons, Spring was both the easiest and hardest becasue it was simple to figure out what to draw...but to actually draw every single little flower was a killer. I had major issues with her hand that has the butterfly on it as well. >.< When I drew the flowers I actually used a small booklet I had taken from a place called Butchart Gardens up in Canada, Victoria actually. It was extremely helpful in picking out unique flowers as well as common ones and drawing them to most precise I could. The Gardens in Victoria are so amazing--they really just take your breath away. It was bought by a man named Butchart back in 1904 and at that time it was actually a limestone quarry. His wife then turned into a garden dragging soil over and into it and creating a sunken garden there, where most things would be impossible to grow. It was only a few acres then, but it has turned into 55+ acres of nothing but every kind of flower and flowering tree you could imagine. There is a Japanese Garden, a Rose Garden and an Italian Garden. Natural as well as man-made streams run throughout the Gardens. It has been there for over 100 years and it recieves thousands of visitors every year. If you're ever in that area, that is definitely one of the top places you should visit! It is well worth it. Check out the site here: [link]

Ok, now, I have a list of all the flowers I used as well, so for anyone who cares, will know what each one is. ^_^ All of them are the common names, not the scientific names.

Flowers starting from the top to the right:
Sea Holly=the purple flowers in the back ground beneath the trees.
Witches Hazel=the tiney yellow things on the trees you can barely see>.<
Masterwart=the spiky flowers
Cockscomb=the things that look like brains under the Masterwart
Tibetan Blue Poppy=the large blue flowers behind the tree
Trout Lily=the flowers that kind of look like pink stars
Panted Tongue=The flowers in the tree roots
Black Eyed Susan/Gloria Daisy/Bumble Bee Daisy=The yellow Daisies down the middle--they are known as all of those
Columbine=the yellow and mauve star-shaped flowers--which are also part of the marijuana family. ^_~
Feathered Cockscomb=the flowers that look like their on fire
St. John's Wart=The large yellow flowers
Jennie Butchart Tulips=they are actually a specially bred kind of tulip for them to come out that way, something that Mrs. Butchart created herself.
Kingfisher Daisy=if you can find it, it's the one single tiny little purple daisy beside the Feathered Cockscomb
Alyssum=the teenie tiny little pink and lavendar bunches of flowers down by the tree and up by Haru's skirt.

Haru's "Clothing":
Love Lies Bleeding=its actually a tree, but I just used the "leaves" to cover her shoulders.
Montbretia=the red flowers on her waist in front
Gooseneck Loosestrife=the white in the back of her.

Everything else isn't real and is just my creation.