Tips on sketching orchids for painting digital watercolours

I'm putting these in my Beginner's Tip Category because a good painting starts with a good sketch.

Orchids are my next challenge. I have painted them before. Remember Ant on a Mission. My husband took quite few photos in the Singapore Botanical Gardens a few years ago. I found it hard to come up with a sketch from them at that point. My eye for composition, shapes and possible combinations of shapes has improved over time.

These sketches are strong in form, partly because of this orchids distinctive shape. I'm really drawn to the simplicity and elegance of the curves. (Aside from their erotic connotations lol!) There are usually too many growing together in the photos. Picking which ones to draw depends on the flow of movement, which would always be curving to echo the orchids shape.

The white space left around the orchids has to be interesting and pleasing to the eye in shape as well.

Here are three sketches done today: