Black Orchids

by Carol Luc

“The image of black orchids summons up a sultry evening ripe with beauty, mystery, and a wafting, faint fragrance. Among the most exotic of flowers, orchids can be found worldwide (exception: Antarctica). Whether growing on trees, the ground, or even specialized to bogs and swamps, their beauty and adaptability speak to us about persistence and survival. A couple of years ago I took a workshop at the Chicago Botanic Gardens where we hand-cut origami papers to create orchid illustrations. That inspired me to experiment with creating a “digital cut-paper” orchid design combining Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. Using an antique paper for a background, I manipulated the vector layers with tools in Photoshop to achieve the result seen here.”