inspiration:
After struggling with last month’s painting, I longed for something simpler. I also wanted to remind myself of the basics of watercolor. After googling “endangered flowers,” I found the yellow coneflower in the article “10 endangered plants you can help save at home.” I found a nice reference photo and watched two videos, one from Shana Circe, the other from Deb Watson. I love wet-into-wet watercolor, but it’s difficult to do when I have to work at an easel. I’ll see what I can do. I also liked the way Watson left a white border around each object. Circe reminded me of the way one can add detail with a few blended strokes.
I am hoping to rediscover and communicate the beauty and joy of the medium.
Planned strategy: (we’ll see how helpful this step is…)
- establish center with object trace.
- yellow and blue wet on wet background with yellow and dark green details.
- Yellow petals with scarlet wash details toward the center. Fade to center for scarlet points details.
- Center of light and dark green and dark scarlet.
Creation:
session 1 – I made thin pools of water in the background areas of lower part of the painting and put green and blue into them. I was pleased by the blending of the colors, even though it wasn’t truly wet into wet. I had to move the paint around with the brush more than horizontal dropping of color. Still, the paint was mixing itself. (Afterward I realized I’d forgotten to leave white areas and use yellow.) In between sessions, I worried that the petals would be too thin to leave white space around them. I thought about trying to regain some space by using a wet brush and removing paint. When I looked at the painting, I decided not to do anything. White edges will need to be narrow.
Session 2 – turned the paper upside down and used the same technique as before on what will be the upper areas of the painting. I did a little bit more painting of dark and light blues and greens, rather than dropping into wet. I tried to leave a little more white around the petal shapes to allow for edges. It will be interesting to compare.
Session 3 – I painted the flower petals. For the first petal, I flooded the area with water and then used yellow and orange for the darker tip. Then I dotted dark red close to the root where it comes from the flower center. I wasn’t happy with that so, for the next petal I used purple at the tip instead of orange. I like that better. I painted the rest of the petals using a combination of yellow, orange, and purple. In most, the red dots blended into the water.
Session 4 – I painted the flower center dotting in brown and red, with two small areas of green. I painted pointy spikes off the edge of the circle to indicate the spikes of the pistol. I also used water to remove some of the background green for the distant flowers shown in the photograph. I put darker green in the centers. On one flower, guided by the photo, I used a bit of yellow. I darkened a few areas of the background to push the flower or toward the foreground. This painting may be finished. I will look at it again in a few days and see if anything calls to me.
I decided it’s finished.
It bugs me that:
- I didn’t leave space for half of the background flowers. The two in the upper right show up so much better than the two lower down.
- I couldn’t make the pointy bits on the center of the flower be more pointy.
- I am undecided about whether leaving the white margins around flower parts was a good idea.
- This doesn’t match the reference photo, nor does it seem impressionistic.
I am happy about:
- in general, I am pleased with this painting.
- the process of painting the background.
- The varieties of flower petals.
- The texture of the flower center. (It made nice snippets!)
Insights:
- working with the modified wet into wet technique, I recaptured the joy of painting. I love to watch what happens without being in control. More of this!
- I want to continue experimenting with the white border.
- Watching videos was inspirational. It taught technique and put me in the right frame of mind.
- Thinking through my strategy before painting was helpful.
- I am grateful for flowers. Their beauty surprises and delights me. It also something I see in real life (not this exact flower, but flowers in general), unlike the animals I often paint.
I love this painting! The depth and spikiness of the center really come through, and I love the flow of the background colors. I do like the way the white border makes the petals stand out—I’m curious to see your future experiments with this technique.
Thank you for this beautiful reminder to appreciate flowers.
thank you for your kind words. I’m glad you like the painting. I do too. Thanks for letting me know the white border is a good idea. I’m discovering that it exists some effort to remember to include it.