Rose Hips & Birch Cone

Wild Rose, known as rosa multiflora, though very hardy and proliferous has such a delicate look to it both when it's flowering and when it leaves its hips behind. Long, slender climbing stems weave their way through other plants and in June festoon the underbrush and small saplings with a garland of petite white flowers. In winter the hips decorate the landscape as an endless string of red beads draped over its head and shoulders. The White Birch, produces tiny "cones" on slender twigs all through the winter. At first they are tightly closed and then they open and form a plump cone.

These sketches were done the old fashioned way, with a bottle of ink and pen with a nib that must be dipped in the ink every few strokes. With the advent of markers and rapidographs, very few artists use the old fashioned pen and ink method. But I have to say that there is nothing quite like the result of using the old fashioned "crows' quill ". The pen nib, like a pint brush has "spring" to it and is very responsive to the artists' hand producing a quality of drawing that no other tool can duplicate. Here I used walnut ink and a crows' quill pen.