From vase to my drawing pad

I bought a bunch of orange orchids with red spots two weeks ago, and decided to try drawing a bloom.

Half done. 

Actually, the single bloom - already past its prime and detached from the stem - deteriorated really quickly, so I had to throw it out. But by then, I had already done two petals or so. I put the bloom into my flower press and continued drawing the other three petals, basically without a reference object.

I put a layer of yellow first on the lightly-pencilled outlines, then put in the deep red spots, using Crimson Lake from my Derwent Artists set. They were a test of patience, and I had to keep my pencil point sharpened. 

I had to layer a medium grey over each spot - yes, each and every one, talk of tedium! - to give the red the greater depth required. 

Then I used orange and a light brown to give some shading to each petal, with the lighter parts in orange and the deeper bits, in brown.

This was an exercise in observation - how the red in the spots was picked up at the tips and bases of each petal. 

The centre part of the flower was very hurriedly done. For this, I Googled for a picture of this type of orchid and drew it from a reference picture. It's not very good - but I suppose it looks real enough and recognisable as one variety of orchid found in Singapore.