Orchids: Beautiful symmetry

Prismacolor colored pencils on Stonehenge paper

3.5" x 4" (2x actual size of bloom)

I have an obsession with symmetry, especially radial symmetry, in nature. (Click here for some of my other posts on that subject.) So, while orchids, arranged along their graceful stem, make a lovely artistic composition, I like to examine their beautiful symmetrical structure. When my friend gave me this planter as a gift recently, I immediately said, "I'll have to draw these!"

I spent quite a while looking at online photos of the thousands of types of orchids; some of them are truly spectacular. This one (as close as I could tell) is a miniature hybrid phalaenopsis sogo gotris. As you can see in the photos, it's smaller than the other one in the pot; which I plan to draw as well.

The petals looked creamy to me in the light at my drawing table, but  they look a bit more green in these photos; I might have to go back in and green them up a bit.

Orchid blooms look an awful lot like faces, don't they? Now, if I can just keep these little beauties alive...!