Tonal work under way

My workspace is getting a bit crowded with all the pencils, but looking at them sitting there ready to be used never fails to make me feel great and inspired. I love these pencils so much and they have opened up so many new possibilities. they blend like a paint and build up without being waxy so you can work on them again and again, but they also don't have that "linyness" of many pencils- they give me so much freedom to put in detail with much more control than I could manage in watercolour. Unfortunately I have a way to go before I can get to use them on this work. I have finished the layout and have done the initial sketch onto the watercolour paper. I have started on some tonal work, but it is slow going with the dampness of the paper due to the wet weather. I am starting to lay in all but the final details in the black and white and then do the watercolour for the flowers, and then finally will get to the coloured pencils. I will then go back and put in the final darks for the background picture so I can balance it out against the bright colours of the blooms.

I was worried about it just being too bright, and would almost look a bit plastic if I did the whole plant in colour, and I also feel as though the cyclamen is quite a busy plant. This is a one of the blooms that are on the plant which is sitting on my desk for a reference. I have used it to do the initial sketches and for colour reference, but it was such a riot of leaves and stems that it would have been overwhelming so I have used parts to construct my composition. Hopefully this experimenting with the black and white and colour will describe the plant well, but will highlight the beautiful blooms, and still be a pleasing end result.

I am seeing finally seeing some blue sky so hopefully the paper will start to dry out and I can get on with it before the plant looks any sadder than it already does.