Fire Lily

This is a birthday card for a friend. The plant is a fire lily, also known as Glorious Lily, from the genus Gloriosa. The actual size of the painting is 17x12 cm. Made with oil pastels on light-beige paper (and my camera messed up the colors big time!). I used this picture [link] as a reference/inspiration, but otherwise the composition is free.

PS.: the real thing looks waaaaaaaaaaaay better. And on top of that I've realized for like a 1000th time that, despite all my efforts, I'm way better at drawing plants and animals than people (which is rather frustrating, considering the fact that I just love to draw fantasy stuff ). It must be the biologist in me that's doing the job !