Poppies study

I made these poppies to be part of a decorative set of assets to use on a project that never came to be, but in the end I loved them on their own!

Often when I illustrate a realistic subject I use photographic reference directly on the digital canvas, but this time I used photographic reference to make a good sketch by hand, which then I used as a base for the digital piece.
I think this made the lines more fluid and the etching much more intuitive and personal, and this has now become my ritual to start a digital piece!