BOOK WITH IRIS

Back in June, a woman asked me to make a little sketch book as a birthday present for her artist husband. She had seen one of mine and wanted one the same size and requested that I paint an iris on the first page. As with most things, I kept putting off making the book and even longer to paint the iris.... I thought maybe she would change her mind or I could change her mind about me painting in his sketch book. His birthday is tomorrow, and I was finally forced to paint the iris. I usually paint flowers from life, but the irises are all gone now. I found an old sketch.... from 20 years ago.... and copied it.



Here is the book. You can see the little painting inside and the painting I copied on the right.
I used several kinds of paper and the cover is made from an old navigation chart which I waxed. It's a coptic binding. The book is 4 1/2 by 6 1/2 inches.

The copied iris on the left. Both were drawn with pen before painting. I'm noticing now that the right petal looks too small on both of these, more so on the one I did today.