the Rhododendrons

 

             For the rhododenrons, I started with a wash of aureolin yellow for the reddish-orangish areas. I did this for the yellow areas of the leaves too. I like having a yellow underwash whereever its possible because if you get a hard edge now and then, they don’t show up that much and you get to know beforehand  the contours and nooks and crannies of the flower before applying darker colors.    

 

                    I started dropping in ruby red onto moist petals and a mix of magenta and UB for the shadow areas. I dotted onto the drying petal with a darker mix of the same (favouring UB) for the spots. 

 

 

                   For the buds, I painted wet on dry as they are pretty small and also quite dark.    

 

                   I got so excited painting the gold and silver for the sepals………. It actually shows up quite well, doesn’t it? even on screen. I just loved the glitter. And yes, the sepals really do have the gold and silver tinge to them in the reference photo. Not on the stamens though, I got carried away….. haaa.. I mixed them with the other colors (red, green, yellow) to get the pastel shades. The leaves are a mix of sap green and UB.