Tag: Botanical Illustration

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Equisetum telmateia

A Horsetail for the ages.

This is Equisetum telmateia. Or more accurately, this is a late spring, newly emerge fertile stem of the Equisetum telmateia. Its a herbaceous perennial, native to British Columbia, and I found this one growing on the side of Burnaby Mountain.

I remember my dad telling me all about this species as a kid. We use to see a lot of it growing around the edge of Magic Lake on Pender Island where my grandparents lived. It was a neat little plant you could pull apart and put back together like a puzzle.

It’s pale yellowish, non-photosynthetic, spore-bearing, fertile stem only lasts a short while before dying right back and being taken over by the more familiar green, herbaceous, photosynthetic, sterile stems.

At the top of the stem is the cone-like, reproductive portion of the plant, called the strobilus. It is comprised of row upon row of hexagonal spore-bearing structures. Each little hexagon produces thousands of tiny spores.

When released, a spore will start to grow into a new plant, which is either bisexual or male. Sperm are produced by the new plants, complete with tiny flagella, and swim through the water in search of female plants. Once fertilized, the plant will grow to maturity, starting the cycle over again.

Having existed since the Devonian era in the great Carboniferous period, horsetails are true living fossils. There are only about twenty species of horsetail in the world, all in one group, or genus, known as Equisetum. Ten species are found in British Columbia, and six of these exist on Vancouver Island and in the Lower Mainland.

Horsetails are a part of a unique group of plants, halfway between primitive plants like mosses, and more highly evolved flowering seed plants (angiosperms and gymnosperms). Horsetails produce spores, like ferns and mosses, not seeds. Yet Horsetails have specialized vascular tissues for conducting water, food and minerals through the stem, unlike the more primitive bryophytes or so-called ‘lower vascular’ plants.

400 million years ago saw the planet dominated by these lower vascular plants, which at the time included species that grew as tall as buildings. In fact forests existed for so long, and grew so large, their remains provide the bulk of the world’s coal beds.

As for any beneficial uses, sorry folks, despite centuries of use in traditional medicine, there is no evidence that Equisetum has any medicinal properties.

However the stems are coated with abrasive silicates, making them useful for scouring (cleaning) metal items such as cooking pots or drinking mugs, particularly those made of tin. Equisetum hyemale, rough horsetail, is still boiled and then dried in Japan to be used for the final polishing process on woodcraft to produce a smoother finish than any sandpaper.

– Aaron

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Lichens

Those who lichen.. lichen a lot.

So lichens are cool. I mean, what’s NOT to lichen? Composite organisms consisting of both a fungus and a simple photosynthesizing organism like algae or cyanobacteria. Up close, lichens reveal an amazing array of colour and tiny networks.. daunting if your plan is to try and draw the darn thing.

But I’m a sucker for patterns.. especially naturally occurring ones. Lichens are just that! Big ol mess of repeatin patterns. And I’ll admit, this is probably the one organism that I just couldn’t (still haven’t) fully wrapped my head around. Soooo much fine detail!

As a subject of study and appreciation lichens, no matter the type, really try and draw you in to their labyrinth of detail. I start to feel this obligation to share EXACTLY what I’m seeing in person. This is when I remind myself, that this is why the photograph was invented.

But as abstract inspiration, the possibilities seem endless. So I guess, here is a first look at a few of my attempts at capturing the lichen world.. and I might as well toss some learnin out there too.

As in all my posts, I take all my own photos with my trusty Samsung Galaxy S9 (cutting edge technology folks).. no editing, just some cropping. All of these lichens were observed within a 15 minute radius of my house in Burnaby, British Columbia, with the exception of the two photographs below. The yellow crustose lichen was found on a south-facing rock at the peak of Whistler Mountain, and the grey crustose lichen was found growing at Lighthouse Park in West Vancouver.

Lichens are grouped into three main types:

  • Foliose – which have a leaf-like appearance.
  • Fruticose – are highly branched, either hanging or standing up.
  • Crustose – are the ones that look like a crust that has formed on a surface like a rock or tree trunk.

The algal (or bacterial) component is the autotroph in this relationship. It supplies the nutrients to the organism through photosynthesis. The fungus protects the algae from desiccation and also provides it with a means to grow and attach to whatever substrate.

..and if you enjoy being bombarded by Latin and scientific terminology, do yourself a huge favor and look up lichen taxonomic classification or Lichen Growth forms and internal structures. Good times my geeky friends!

They are slooooooow growing and everywhere. It is estimated that 6% of Earth’s land surface is covered by lichens. And they are not a picky lot either. Some lichens were exposed to Martian atmospheric conditions in the lab for a period of over 3 weeks in 2012.  Despite the weak atmospheric pressure, lack of protection from cosmic radiation, bitter cold and alien atmospheric composition, some species not only survived, but continued to grow and function with relative normality! Lichens can even grow on plastic.

Hummingbirds and other nest building species use lichen for nest building and camouflage. Lichens can even be used in making dyes and perfumes, as well as traditional medicines.

Lichens are eaten by many different cultures as well, though its generally when times are lean. Lichens are not very easy to digest and contains minimal nutritional content. And of course, a few lichen species are eaten by insects and larger animals such as reindeer. Remember kids, no reindeer, no Christmas!

So love a lichen! A delicate, yet resilient organism that’s been practicing unchecked socialist behavior in our forests, across our tundra, and on the sides of volcanoes since the beginning of time (or at least since the devonian). Living in mutually beneficial, symbiotic, cross-species, relationships. Buncha single-celled hippies.. chillin, sharin.

– Aaron

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Populus trichocarpa

The Black Cottonwood – Salicales Salicaceae Populus trichocarpa if you wanna get picky.

So here’s a sketch I did of some black cottonwood branches in early Spring of this year. It’s a subject I come back to time and again. Leaves are few and far between in early February, so I thought I’d tackle some of the otherwise hidden textures present on the gnarly leftovers from last season. Cottonwood has such character and always has something to offer when I’m itching to sketch and stuck for ideas.

Love em or hate em, I think here in the Lower Mainland of BC, almost everyone has a relationship with the cottonwood. This local tree evokes all kinds of emotion in people, for different reasons, at different times if the year. Every season seems to offer a number of reasons to hate and enjoy this local monster.

Like when it’s allergy season. I count myself as one of the lucky ones who get to enjoy the sweet fragrance of their sticky buds on long walks this time of year.. while others need to remember their daily, 24 hour, fast-acting, non-drowsy antihistamine or suffer the litany of symptoms we all know so well from the seasonal pharma-jingles on the radio, television and such.

Or later in the year when its fluff season. Making it appear to snow in June, the fluffy seeds accumulate into large drifts, becoming knee deep for weeks on end where I live. Every year, big gobs of fuzz inevitably sneak their way into the house and collect in the most hard to reach places. But outside, like in Burnaby’s numerous wetland and repirian habitats, the air can erupt in a beautiful storm of unseasonably flurry-like conditions with the softest of breezes.. and you don’t have to worry, most people are allergic to the pollen not the fluff, so dive in!

Or is it when the winds pickup in early fall. The air starts to cool and the large egg-shaped leaves, almost as wide as they are long and beautifully coloured, litter the paths and sidewalks. That time of year when you get to throw on a light jacket and maybe a scarf for the first time since last year. The breeze starts to blow and you notice how loud the dried leave are rustling high up.. and then you look back down and discover your car’s windshield has been destroyed by a fallen branch as thick as your leg. You know, that branch you park under everyday on the street outside, failing to notice its precarious growth and precise targeting.

Maybe it’s the critters? The Black Cottonwood is the ‘live fast, and die young’ poster child of our local deciduous tree species and do not live very long. However, they grow very quickly and they grow huge. It is one of the few trees big enough to hold bald eagle nests. When branches break off, large open cavities are created high up in the canopy.. perfect nesting sites for any number of owl and woodpecker species, raccoon, squirrel, etc. A sure favourite of numerous species including invertebrates, plants, and eventually fungi and bacteria.

And at ground level and below, the cottonwood’s aggressive and uncontrollable growth can sometimes be costly to home owners. Branches shed regularly and cause damage to roofs and gutters. Roots can destroy sidewalks, driveways, plumbing and drainage. And they are pretty indestructible. In fact the shoots and roots contain so much rooting hormone, even a small piece of fallen branch can root and become a clone. They survive most major weather damage and even a clear-cut at ground level won’t kill this survivor.

Indeed there are plenty of grounds for disappointment and anger in the case against the the Black Cottonwood. But it does play an important role in our local environment, as well as in our homes. In fact, if you happen to be using Scotties toilet paper here in BC, it probably came from cottonwood pulp grown in Chilliwack and made in New Westminister. So there’s that. Maybe not such a pain in the ass after all.

Watercolor paintings were done on De Serres Aquarelle 300 gsm coldpress watercolour paper by Fabriano. I can’t remember the exact colours I used in my ‘soup’ of paint, but they are most definitely Windsor & Newton Professional watercolour and possibly some raw sienna by PWC Premium Extra Fine watercolour. I tried a stylized approach to painting the branch above. I like how it turned out.

For the pencil sketches, I used the same mechanical pencil I use for most of my drawing in the field. I found it in the car under the passenger seat, so who knows where it came from. It’s loaded with .07mm HB lead. I’m drawing in one of my Moleskine 13 x 21cm plain paper Cahier Journal. I absolutely love the paper’s smooth finish.

Couple Extras:

I think that hormone thing is pretty interesting. I have heard there is enough hormone present, that an extract of the shoots can be used as a rooting hormone for all types of cuttings. Shoots are gathered, chopped and soaked in cold water for a day to create the solution.

I also know, from the horrible stains they can leave on your patio and concrete, that a yellow dye can be obtained from the leaf buds. I have made walnut ink before.. I’ll have to try this next year sometime.

It’s also cool to note that on older trees, the bark becomes fissured, gnarly, thick, and very hard.. hard enough to cause sparks when being cut by a chainsaw.

– Aaron

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Oemleria cerasiformis

‘Oso’berry, from the Spanish word for bear + berry.

The most widely used common name for this local is ‘Indian Plum’. A dated name to say the least. It is also sometimes referred to as a June Plum, Oregon Plum (inaccurately), Squaw berry (cringe), Osmaronia (plant nurseries), and Osoberry (from the Spanish word for bear).

So Osoberry it is..

It’s a native to the Pacific Northwest, from British Columbia, Canada to Santa Barbara County in California.. but you can read all about that kind of stuff on wikipedia. What I can tell you is why I chose to draw it and why I think it’s a special yet underappreciated local shrub.

Osoberry is usually the first sign of fresh life and new colour in our local wooded areas. A barometer of the coming change to Spring. A real ‘pick-me-up’ following our long, wet Vancouver winters. Early to bud and quick to bloom (mid-February), Osoberry ushers in the early Spring by lining paths and dutifully filling in the undergrowth, first with sprays of small white clustered flowers, followed in short order by large chartreuse, elliptical leaves. It always gets me looking forward to setting up the garden and Easter.

The flowers are one of the very first sources of nectar for pollinators and hummingbirds in the new year, and the berries that start to appear in early June are an important food sources for countless birds and mammals. Each berry cluster (female plants only) consists of a half dozen or more fruit resembling tiny plums, containing a hard pit and very tart flesh. I love how the fruit in each cluster tend to ripen at different times, offering a short-lived, tricolor rainbow display. Definitely something I would like to try and represent with some watercolour in the future.

The flowers.. can have a very strong scent of cat-urine if cut and taken indoors.. but on the trail, take a leaf and crush it in your hand to reveal a pleasant smell of cucumber. If your looking for birds.. vireos, kinglets, finches, junkos, hummingbirds and warblers, to name a few.. this is a good place to start. Of course, if you happen to be in the right area.. usually in the evening, you may also be lucky enough to see bears feeding on the fruit, as the name suggests. Sometimes, they leave behind a gift.. evidence of their last meal, filled with seeds ready to germinate. As I write this post, I am sitting not 10 meters away from this morning’s bear dung donation behind our house.

And when it’s all over, the Osoberry’s parting gift of seasonal colour is the change from green to cheerful yellow leaves. Splashes of yellow highlights begin to appear in July, accelerating in August before they detach and fall to the ground, eventually filling the forest floor and creating golden trails and pathways through the thinning under brush.

So now, I’m going to assume you know which shrub I’m talking about. Osoberry has always been a favourite of mine, as it offers so many opportunities and inspiration for creation and study, throughout the year.

For this sketch I chose a simple mechanical pencil, loaded with .07mm HB lead. I’m drawing on my cherished Christmas 2018 gift sketchbook from my creative buddy Caitlin. She got it from MUJI on Robson and customized the cover for me. The paper is plain white, probably 15lb pages, with smooth finish.

I drew this back on April 4th, 2019.

– Aaron

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Ad Primum Tempus

My Very First Post.. Better Make it a Good One!

Welcome to the Hammer and Pen Artist Collective, a group of artists that create things and share them, here. My name is Aaron Schallie and I’m an illustrator living in Burnaby, a suburb of Vancouver, Canada.

Roughly two years ago, I made a commitment to revisit and improve upon the drawing skills I’ve had since childhood. I had just moved to a new neighbourhood and was presented with a beautiful, brand-new environment to explore, on the edge of a sizable urban forest. What better excuse could I have to be creative and learn.

There were plenty of great subjects to work on and fascinating places to explore. An incredible contrast to living so close to downtown Vancouver, with it’s quick access to beaches and the marine life I was already so familiar with. This ‘neck-of-the-woods’ presented an interesting mountain topography, lots of new critters, and over three dozen trails covering 30+ kilometers. These trails crisscross several distinct watersheds that drain in every direction of the compass. The top of the mountain is crowned with one of Western Canada’s most beautiful architectural jewels, the main campus of Simon Fraser University, designed by Arthur Erickson.

I was surrounded by inspiration.. it was game on.

Since then, I’ve filled more than a dozen moleskine cahiers and sketchbooks and have come to know the ‘mountain’ like the back of my hand. At home, I’ve created a small workspace dedicated to my art projects and supplies, and now have a small functional shop space in the garage, brimming with the potential for much larger projects. I started small, but I’m aiming to create much larger works and possibly explore print making. For now, I try never to leave the house without out something to draw on and I’m keeping it simple.

I mainly use pencil, pen and ink and have started to incorporate some watercolour. I try to draw everyday and give myself regular challenges to improve my skills. Sometimes these challenges lead to more detailed studies of subjects I find in my local environment.

Of course, life’s busy pace and, uh.. a certain global pandemic.. can make allocating time for art difficult. But I try to foster creativity as often as I can and manage to fit it in whenever possible. Most recently I’ve been focused on botanical and biological detail, but I also explore more abstract approaches and sometimes gravitate to subjects in the urban landscape as well.

Over the past couple years, I also remembered to take photos of a lot of my work’s incremental progress, in the hopes I might one day get the chance to share them. This blog is finally that chance. I’m looking forward to sharing some of the steps and challenges in my journey, show off some of my available work, and hopefully inspire others to pickup a pencil and draw. I’ll keep my past works in my Throwback Posts is you’re keen to follow along.

Once we get settled in a bit, I’m looking forward to offering classes, guided walks and plein air sessions. Until then, I hope you enjoy my posts. Let’s get started.

– Aaron.