DRAWING STUDY OF NIPPLEWORT

Nipplewort (Lapsana communis) is a common hedgerow plant that resembles a cluster of tall, very slender dandelion flowers. It often self-seeds in gardens and, although it can be regarded as a weed by most gardeners, I think it is a beautiful plant. It’s perfect for a wild meadow planting scheme and offers a great food source to hoverflies and other pollinators. Nipplewort seed heads have a delicate, elegant and simple form that make them brilliant specimens with which to begin botanical drawing.

YOU WILL NEED

NIPPLEWORT OR OTHER SIMPLE SEED HEADS (THIS WOULD ALSO WORK WELL WITH WINTER BEECH BRANCHES, PUSSY WILLOW OR LYCHNIS [CAMPION] SEED HEADS)

PEN OR PENCIL

PAPER, SKETCHPAD OR JOURNAL

1 Look at your seed head carefully. If you have managed to find some nipplewort, you’ll see that the stems are slender and the seedpods are simple leaf shapes. On closer examination, they resemble tulips, but for this tutorial we’ll keep the outline simple.

2 Examine the pattern of stems carefully and begin to copy it using your pen or pencil, starting with the stems that would have been closest to the ground. Use a single line to depict each section of stem. Don't worry if your drawing isn’t perfect – it doesn’t need to be a photographic representation of your seed head.

3 Continue to add lines that represent the stems until you have drawn the ‘skeleton’. If this is too complicated, you can remove a smaller part of the seed head and draw that first.

4 Closely examine the seedpods and at the edge of your piece of paper or on a separate page draw a few practice pods. A simple leaf shape or teardrop is perfect to represent one.

5 Add seedpods to the upper ends of the drawn stems. If you wish, add a line or two to the leaf/teardrop shape for detail.

6 Add the common name, the scientific name and the date to make this into a page in your nature journal.