Black-Eyed Susans

 

8/20/26 Black-Eyed Susans, Maple Leaf neighborhood

Although my walk was getting hotter than I like, I couldn’t resist making a quick stop to catch these Black-Eyed Susans near the sidewalk. After sketching them hastily with a brush pen and coloring the petals with a yellow Museum Aquarelle pencil, I was disappointed that they didn’t pop as I wanted them to. Usually adding a dark background does the trick, so I used a dark blue-violet Neocolor II crayon. I snapped a photo (below), thinking I was done.

About to close the sketchbook, I looked again and thought the flowers still lacked pop. Although I don’t usually use water in Uglybooks, and I like the raw, rustic look that dry crayons impart on colored paper, I thought I’d try applying water to the Neo II to see the result (at left). I avoided fully activating the color to retain some of the dry look. I like it.

By the way, do you know the difference between Black-Eyed Susan and Brown-Eyed Susan? I wasn’t sure which these were, or even if those were just two colloquial names for the same flower. They are, however, different: Brown-Eyed Susans have rounder, shorter petals, while Black-Eyes have slender, tapered petals.

What did we ever do before the Internet?

Neocolor II background before activation