Hi it's Thursday again so it's blog day again, a chance to put down my paintbrush and get my brain cells working. The weather here is still lovely, but as we were warned it is a touch on the chilly side. Time to run around the garden in the evening with a fleece or some old bubble wrap and tuck up my precious bedding plants. I always plant them out too early and hope for the best. However I have resisted planting out my runner beans and courgettes , they are still keeping me company in my studio, twining around each other until I think it's safe enough to let them out on their own.Anyway enough about plants you want to read about watercolours.
I am constantly trying to think of new ways to do things, I feel I need to keep challenging myself and adopting new techniques to add to my repertoire . It's always a scary process, will it work, will I just make a hash of it, is it better to stick to what I know? Yes sometimes a familiar painting in a familiar style is what I want to do, but this week I was given a challenge to paint a new subject and it required a new method. Jumping out of my comfort zone worked! I then proceeded to do a new piece and I will share that with you today.
I often leave backgrounds white ( nothing wrong with that and I will continue to do that too). However here I want a darker background than the subject.
So I sketched out the apple blossom and a bee, and then proceeded to mask them off
Now I could have used masking fluid for the whole area, and it might have been better it I had, but I used some making tape for some of the larger bits , I was trying to be frugal, and I got away with it, but paint can seep under the edges so be careful.
Now the scary bit, wet the paper all over, do it 3 times to make sure, then get your paints ready , yellow, sap green, sap green with indigo and a pink, and a separate brush for each colour.
Now while you were getting your paints ready the paper may have dried a bit so re- wet it and off you go. Yellow circles, pink ones, sap green and then the darker green. Use a separate brush for each colour . Have some clean water and dirty water so you can keep your colours fresh.
Now go away!
Leave it, let it dry completely, no fiddling.
And when it is dry you can take off the masking tape.
Now to begin painting normally, I began with the apple blossom with the bee. and then the other flowers, take your time now.
I used rose madder for the pinks, and some cerulean blue. Look very carefully.
Then I kept going all day , the leaves and the branch,
Finally the bees wings and gold pollen with some gold ink and I am done.
A new way to paint, a new way to see the world, I hope you manage to challenge yourself this week too x
1 comment
Stunning!