Tag Archives: learn to paint

Watercolour Jumping off Points

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Sometimes you can carry on too long with a painting.

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I recently prepared a magnolia watercolour demo for an upcoming class I have.

I painted the flowers and petals and stems in stages and took shots as the painting developed.

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At the point where I had defined the flowers and stems sufficiently (photo above) I thought it needed a background and so picked a green that was opposite pink on my colourwheel and proceeded to paint the negative space around the flowers in a wash of this green plus some rose mixed in.

how the watercolour evolved

how the watercolour evolved

Then for a lark I posted the results on my FB page and asked what people thought.

There was a fairly unanimous reply that it was more appealing without the background.

I love to hear what others think of paintings and why - a never ending source of feelings and tastes are uncovered!

Please feel free to take the poll below. Is it better with or without the green background?

Spending the rest of today sketching and painting teazles

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A friend wants me to teach her the basics of watercolour and is very drawn to teazles and all things hedgerow.

A sketch I did just now of some teazles

A sketch I did just now of some teazles

My kind of subject! So today after sourcing many teazle images I am sketching out random shapes and forms from those collated.

The stark, uncompromising spikey spindley cage of the teazle - I love its organic shape

The stark, uncompromising spikey spindley cage of the teazle - I love its organic shape

I am going to use the best one or ones to then create a simple watercolour lesson on how to execute them in this medium. So excited as I love wildflowers and plants so this is a great excuse to immerse myself in hedgerow flora and fauna.

I'll use one of these from which to create a watercolour demo

I’ll use one of these from which to create a watercolour demo

Watch this space for the watercolour demo. You can paint along too if you like.

Brushes at the ready but I only used a 3 and a 6 round really.

Brushes at the ready but I only used a 3 and a 6 round really.

I have until Sunday to create two lessons for her - one on teazles and one on cowslips. A perfect sunny yellow flower that echoes the heatwave sun we are being exposed to here in Wales this last few days.

Do you have a wildflower that best evokes the British countryside to you?