Vase of dahlias

We bought some white and yellow dahlias in the market and added an anemone from the garden, which I thought looked rather nice in a small vase.

It was a good opportunity to use some of the techniques learned so far, and also to try and capture the shape and structure of the dahlia blooms. It was actually quite difficult as the blooms are made up of many tightly-knit petals, each of which throws a shadow on its surrounding petals.

I also wanted to convey the way the water changed the shape and direction of the stems. I did the drawing outdoors in bright sunshine, so there were some strong shadows.

I decided to add some colour as an afterthought, which I think was a bit of a mistake because I'd already used a lot of pencil for shadow.