This is what I`ve worked on in the previous week, I`ll try to be more regular and post every monday from now on. The sky is a mix of ultramarine blue and ruby red, paling towards the horizon. The addition of new gamboge to this (made slightly stronger) mix greys it down and I use this for just a slight suggestion of rain clouds. Very simple so that it doesn`t compete with the complex foreground. For now I`ve left the central area at the top blank until I decide if I should have just a hint of the sun shining through.
I`ve already done a demo on lilacs, so I wont go into it much here. I just went wild with all the colors that I had mentioned in my previous post. I worked wet-in-wet first while adding the sunlit and shadow colors and kept on working on details as it got dry. The floret consists of four petals with a dot for the center but the four petals are seldom visible the way they are stacked, safer to make groups of two petalled ones with the four petalled ones here and there. Go over the areas that you have painted with a clean water damp brush (if the area has already dried) so that you have soft edges. You can paint these in two ways, study the whole flower carefully and put in the values as exactly as possible or have your colors ready and just plunge into it, after all you have seen them before a hundred times, you already know subconsciously how they`re arranged, if you don`t let yourself think then what you already feel inside will come out beautifully. Both methods work but I don`t have to tell you which one is more fun…….. (but also more scary!)
Watercolor Journal 