Watercolor paintings, tutorials, and videos
I tinkered with a couple of rose paintings today and had a bit of time left so why not paint along with The Foxton and paint an egg. Mainly an exercise in mixing and blending but quite satisfying.
Apparently I was gone for a long time as James came up to find me and was very amused that all I was painting was an egg.
It’s session 5 already! And we’re now onto putting some detail into the roses. We worked on the two main roses and it is extremely tricky. I think I’m happy right now but I’ll take another look tomorrow. I just about kept the form without losing value in the shadows or gaining it in the lights. And the inside curled petals just about came together.
Here’s where I started – all smooshed edges
We first worked on the big left hand rose. Sharpening up some edges and leaving others loosely defined
Then the right hand rose which was trickier but just about kept together.
And a detail of the two almost finished roses
We planted three David Austin rose bushes this year. Our track record with plants is hit or miss to put it generously so I was pretty pleased that they all flowered albeit sparsely and with tiny blooms. However – these are our own roses grown by our own fair hands. I don’t think this is quite finished yet. I need to leave it on the easel and see what it needs in the next couple of days. I’m pretty happy at the moment though. The values are good, the edges have a nice variety to them and they have some life.
Here are some intermediates:
This is the block in stage with the major values. Pretty much 2 or 3 for each flower, 2 for the leaves and 2 for the background. All hard edges right now and it looks pretty nasty.
All the edges are now softened with a combination of a comber brush and a soft sable. At this point I can start to see which areas will be left soft and which will be sharpened up.
This is right at the start of the process of refining and sharpening up the edges. Only a few edges have gone in but you can see it start to come to life. This is the magic bit!
This is the current state. The edges have been redefined, some petal detail has gone in and some extra values. A good day’s work I think.
The color study is done and I’m happy with it. It’s not a painting – just blocks of color but it seems to hang together well. This is 8″x10″ and I’m planning maybe going up to 16″x20″ for the final thing. Unless I chicken out of course.
Here’s the state of the palette. I try and keep it tidy with so many colors on the go but it gets confusing.
Second pass on this one. I think I’m probably done with this one although already I can see stuff to do.
Phew! Finished this one. Too soon to come to a verdict on this.
