Botanical line mood board

Botanical drawings in line: flowers and plants drawn rather than carved, to be distilled into faint backgrounds and lines on the website. The second direction to test against the woodcuts (see ../woodcuts/woodcuts-moodboard): one version of the site imbued with woodcuts, one with botanical line drawings, then compare the feel. Descriptions are in the user's own words where given.

Images live in images/ next to this file, named bt-NN-short-slug.ext. Not committed for now (see .gitignore in this folder), as with the woodcut mood board. This file is committed so the notes survive.

What to take from the set

1. One colour, brush line, no fill (01): the flowers are drawn, not carved. Open contours and a few loose strokes inside the petals do the shading, so most of the shape is paper. Lighter and softer than a woodcut, which is solid shape with cut-out light.
2. A printed line with a signature (02): a single-colour line that is clearly printed (relief or monotype), so it has the grain and wobble of the woodcuts but the openness of a drawing. A possible bridge between the two directions. A small red mark beside it (the artist's initials) works like our red logo stamp.
3. Silhouette in indigo, one sprig (03): solid shapes with no line at all, on a pale washed ground. Flower heads built from clusters of tiny dots. Calm and elegant, with a lot of empty space: the closest to a ready-made faint background.
4. A sprig that sweeps off the page (04): a single black silhouette whose stem curves down and runs out of the frame, so the plant becomes a line that leads the eye. Real plant outlines (serrated leaves, hair-thin stalks), as if pressed or photographed, not drawn. A model for a plant that doubles as a divider or a page edge.
5. Cropped close, in a soft gold (05): the plant fills the frame and runs off every edge, so it becomes a pattern or wallpaper rather than an object. Flat ochre silhouette with a crayon-soft edge on textured paper. Warm without being loud: the mustard idea from the woodcuts, made gentler.

(More to come as the set grows.)

Images

01. Blue tulips, loose brush line

• Source: AI-generated (Meta AI watermark in the corner), so reference only, not for reuse.
• User's note: blue flowers.
• Noticing: a single deep ultramarine blue on warm cream paper with a visible texture. Five tulip-like flowers on long stems rise from one point at the base, a loose bouquet with thin blade leaves. Everything is drawn with a dry brush: the strokes swell and taper, break up at the ends and leave the paper showing through, so it feels quick and hand-made. Petals are open outlines with a few heavier strokes for the inner folds, and there is no fill at all. The blue is warmer and brighter than the deep blue tried for the woodcuts (#25395e) and closer to a cobalt or ultramarine; compare the Wisdom cover navy. As a faint background it would be the lightest of the options so far, since it is mostly empty paper.

02. Bulbous crowfoot, teal printed line

• Source: not captured (send the link if you want it recorded). Signed "LA" in red, so an artist's print: reference only, not for reuse.
• User's note: none given (image only).
• Noticing: a deep blue-green, almost slate teal, on warm cream paper, with the plant's name pencilled in the corner ("Bulbous Crowfoot", a buttercup) and the initials in red. Two open flowers on tall stems, drawn as simple outlines, with the centre of one flower as a small dense blot. The leaves are narrow and pointed, some filled solid and some left as outlines, so solid and open sit side by side. The line looks printed, not brushed: even in weight, slightly blotted, with ink pooling at the cut stem ends. Plenty of empty paper and an upright, loose botanical-specimen composition. It is quieter and more delicate than 01 and sits between the botanical line and the woodcut: the craft of a print with the lightness of a drawing. The slate teal is a colour we haven't tried yet, softer than the deep blue and calmer than sage. The red initials echo the red seal-and-signature idea in ../woodcuts/woodcuts-moodboard (07).

03. Wildflower sprig, indigo silhouette

• Source: not captured. Signed small in the lower right, likely a commercial wall-art print: reference only, not for reuse.
• User's note: none given (image only).
• Noticing: a single indigo blue on a pale, cream ground washed with faint vertical brush streaks, like an old painted wall or linen. One tall, gently S-curving stem branches into three flower heads (an umbel or yarrow-like cluster), each made of many small dots and blobs massed together, with a few narrow pointed leaves along the stem. Everything is pure silhouette: no outline, no veins, no interior detail, and the edges are soft and slightly blurred, as if printed or stamped. Composition is airy and asymmetric, rising from the bottom left corner with most of the frame left empty. Closer to the woodcut silhouette in ../woodcuts/woodcuts-moodboard (04, 11) than to the line drawings in 01 and 02, but softer and more refined. The indigo is deeper and greyer than 01's ultramarine, closer to the deep blue tried for the woodcuts (#25395e). As a website background it is almost ready to use: one sprig, pale tint, rising from a corner.

04. Wild sprig, black pressed-plant silhouette

• Source: not captured; reference only.
• User's note: none given (image only).
• Noticing: pure black silhouette on warm cream (close to our --paper but warmer and pinker). One wiry stem rises up the left, branching into small serrated leaves and a few oblong seed heads on hair-thin stalks (it looks like salad burnet). At the bottom the stem curves round and runs off along the base towards the right edge, like a hook or a horizon line. The outlines are exact and natural, with tiny teeth on the leaves, as if a real pressed plant was scanned or photographed against light, so it reads as botanical record rather than illustration. Heavy contrast between solid leaves and very fine stalks, as in ../woodcuts/woodcuts-moodboard (04). Lots of empty space on the right, where text could sit. The sweeping base is the useful idea: the plant turns into a line that could underline a heading or run along a section edge. In black it is stark; tinted pale it would make a quiet background.

05. Flowering branch, soft ochre, cropped close

• Source: not captured; reference only.
• User's note: none given (image only).
• Noticing: a single muted ochre gold (around #c4a24f, softer and greyer than the mustard #d9831f tried for the woodcuts) on an off-white, slightly textured paper. A flowering branch, possibly jasmine or a vine, with forked stems, broad leaves, five-petalled flowers and a few buds and stamens. It is cropped tight, running off all four edges, so there is no whole plant and no centre: it reads as a section of wallpaper or a textile. Flat silhouette with no interior detail except a few fine stamens; the edges are soft and slightly chalky, like crayon or a dry roller, with the paper texture showing through the colour. The branches have a hand-drawn wobble. Compared with 03 and 04 it is bigger, closer and fuller, and the colour makes it feel warm, sunny and calm rather than stark. A direct model for a large faint background behind text: at this scale and tint the shapes are recognisable but quiet. It would sit naturally on or next to our --sunlight (#fbefc4).