In honor of this, National Coloring Page Day, I present you with a humble gift (=^_^=)
I sent this out to all of my subscribers as a special gift. If you want in on goodies like this too, sign up for my newsletter to get’chu some ASAP!
Simply save, and print my line drawing onto watercolor paper, or B: Print it onto copy paper and transfer it to watercolor paper by tracing or with carbon/graphite paper. Or HEY, C: Put your big-boy pants on and draw this with observational drawing techniques. Cause that would be pretty bad mama-jama.
I’m also including the original reference so you can use it as inspiration. Try not to get bogged down with the complexities, just paint each element with a local color (the main color you observe) plus a shadow color. Leave a few unpainted bits throughout for highlights. I like to use masking fluid to preserve my highlights 🙂
Even though I still plan to paint a large and final version of this painting, I have made several test studies like this one:
For the study, which is a typical method artists use to prepare for serious paintings, I drew the basic shapes I saw and worked from the outside-in. I always follow a method where, I start with one side of a subject, then jump to the opposite side to plant accurate proportions. So, I would start with the top-left side of the flower, but jump to the right-bottom to plant the silhouette of the entire shape. I did this with the inner petals too, working back and forth before completing the whole shape.
For my colors, I used:
- Verzino Violet from MaimeriBlu (for my lightest pink)
- Permanent Red Violet by Rembrandt (for my deepest pink)
- Transparent Yellow from Winsor and Newton
- Phthalo Blue green shade by Daniel Smith
- Permanent yellow by Daniel Smith
Just those few colors make a fab limited palette and I can get deep shadows, pale pinks, greens and salmon hues.
- Before painting, I always activate my palette by spraying it down. Then I mix the puddles of colors I’ll be using, ready to go.
- I began painting with a flat wash of very light grey that I made with a mix of all the colors, over the entire painting. The wash is so pale that it reads as white, but softens the highlights while also providing a wet surface to paint wet into wet.
- I added my pinks, and added deeper pinks with Rembrandt’s Permanent Violet straight into the wet paint for soft gradations and shadows, working to create contrast and not loose the edges of my petals. You can always take a clean, damp but blotted brush to remove more highlights and edges 🙂
- My paper was already drying, but I painted the leaves starting with yellow, and added greens that I made with Phthalo/Yellow straight into the wet yellow paint. One leaf at a time to preserve my sanity. The yellow carries the greens nicely, allowing variations in the greens to shine and create a sense of form and still lending wet in wet effects. Pretty cool.
- Then I ended with the center of the peoni wet on dry, charging in some little shadows with thicker paint mixture.
- I completed the painting with a few tiny wet on dry details to refine edges, but I also tried to limit myself here to make sure the center of the flower is the focal point.