Time to make an end on this one.
Did I accomplish what I set out to do? To attempt to simplify a bit and try to get a more spontaneous feel to the drawing, in part by drawing the space around the subject? Well… yes and no.
Simplification? In some ways, yes… For example: I kept the leafy areas somewhat vague. To make them as detailed as the flower heads would, I think, have taken attention away from where I wanted it to go. And I allowed the outside edges of everything to sort of just fade out (vignette). Depending more on cross-hatching forced some simplification just by the nature of the technique. But, I’m still pretty heavy-handed on the detail side of things.
One of my drawing teachers once said that in order to successfully indicate or allude to something, you first must to be able to understand *and* draw it ALL. Only then can you convincingly leave things out of a drawing, and they won’t be missed. It was a figure drawing class, and we were learning to draw the skeleton underlying the model’s pose, but I believe the same principle applies to anything else. I’m working on it. 
As far as the spontaneous thing? Uuuuhhh… I’d have to say not so much. Please understand that I’m not ragging on myself, just realistically assessing the results in light of what I originally set out to do. Perhaps my style of pen and ink drawing simply doesn’t lend itself to capturing “motion” or vitality, which is how I define spontaneity in a drawing. I have to admit that the subject itself, for all of it’s curving lines and organic shapes, is rather static. (Had I done it in charcoal, it would look *much* different!)
On the positive side however, I think that the darkened areas in behind the elements do add interest and serve to make the drawing much more engaging than if it had been simply a subject on a flat background.
Overall, a successful drawing? For me: yes… because I learned quite a bit in the doing of it. But even more importantly, in the final analysis, if I enjoy looking at a piece of artwork… if it pleases my eye, it doesn’t really matter all that much whether or not it’s fulfilled certain academic criteria.
How’s that for subjectivity? 
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