I traced the corners of the mat so I knew the image would fit when it’s done.

I studied how the stems branch and drew how I wanted it to look.

Since the old, dried flower shed some small blossoms I thought it would be neat to apply some to the paper embedded in paint.

I knew, however, I had to make the rest of the image look very realistic so that the blossoms didn’t look out of place. So, here I applied a shadow and some more darker shading.

And of course I went over it with pencil because I just can’t resist how it looks!

As a final step I added a gold “halo”. It is a dead flower, after all. Have to pay my respects…… also I really like gold.

Click to zoom! Just look how shiny it reflects!

And, of course, all framed up. I think the palette is lovely and airy with the mat and frame, though unfortunately kind of plain! Maybe I should have done something subtle to the mat. Hmm. And I do wish I could have somehow managed even tinier lines to really capture how delicate this plant was. Can anyone offer me advice on how to make the thinnest marks possible?

It may not be my best work ever, but I do think that it came out successfully. I’m hoping to price it at $25.