Narrow-leaved everlasting sweet pea Lathyrus sylvestris showing the plant with its paired lanceolate leaves, twisting tendrils, winged stem, and flowering spikes. The flowers are pink, but flushed green toward the calyx. There's a detail of a pea pod on the right, the whole illustration is cut to white.
Detail of the pea pod, which is closed but has the suggestion of developing peas within
Close up of some of the tendrils of the Narrow-leaved everlasting sweet pea Lathyrus sylvestris. I am a sucker for a tendril, and love painting them and making a lot of fuss about the way they cast shadows on themselves (which I show as a purple blue). They're actually quite tricky to do as you have to get the curves and curls right but also keep the width of the tendril consistent. Cut to white hand painted watercolour, a tri-split tendril in ale green.
Close up from my #sciart #botanicalillustration of the Narrow-leaved everlasting sweet pea Lathyrus sylvestris showing the flowers. At this detail it's really easy to see how I approach the painting of these blossoms. Lots of lines to build up colour and show the veins, then a top wash of pink towards the petal edges. The central area of the flower, the in-furled wings, are a deeper purple than the pink standard. The fused calyx is flushed pinkish.
This is the Narrow-leaved everlasting #sweetpea
#Lathyrus sylvestris. It's one of a series of #illustrations recently done for South #Devon national landscapes and will be used on interpretation boards.
I saw this beauty in flower in the summer, with the rare long-horned bees pollinating it.