Flower Painting
Every year at about this time, I get involved in a few flower-painting workshops (cunningly timed, of course, to coincide with those days dedicated to Significant Others and Mothers). Flowers differ from landscapes in that they stretch the palette and demand close observation, yet the basic techniques are just the same.
There are many different ways of approaching flower painting; finely detailed botanical illustration may be just the thing for you if you crave hours of fiddling around with a tiny brush, or it may be that you favour the more unconstrained style of loose impressionism.
If you’ve never painted flowers before, then this is an opportunity to go rummaging through your paintbox in search of paints that you’ve rarely, or never, used. To dedicated flower painters, correct colour is paramount, and colours such as Permanent Rose, Ultramarine Violet, Winsor Violet and Quinacridone Gold are difficult to relicate with other hues.
As with almost anything in watercolour, painting flowers is largely a matter of observing the subject closely and reducing it to simple shapes and tones. Paint an all-over light tone first of all, leaving untouched highlights where applicable and dropping in a few well-chosen darks onto the petals whilst still wet (This will help give a little shape to the petals at an early stage). Applying Mid-tones, and finally the darks (to produce the stamens) can be done in two clear stages of graded wash, allowing each wash to dry between application, and thus building up the shape of the flower.
Making a black & white tonal sketch of the flower in pencil prior to painting will help familiarise you with the essential lights and darks in the subject.
Painting flowers from life is far superior to painting from a photograph. Pick them and paint whilst still fresh. Total accuracy is not essential: the challenge is to capture the fresh colours and unique shapes peculiar to the flower before you. Pre-sketching (optional) should be kept light and to a minimum, so that pencil-lines can be erased afterwards. Using no pencil at all in the finished work is preferable, and will create a fresher and more spontaneous-looking finish!
Go for it: Spring is in the air!!
