Tag Archives: magical

Nocturn - finally completed!

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Today was a day for cracking on with my Christmas wreath (see blog post here) and tidying up some loose ends.

The hare that I started a month ago (see earlier post here - https://eastwitching.com/2013/10/20/nocturn/) was finally brought out o my to do box and finished. I could see more clearly today how it should look. Sometimes you have to leave a painting to gestate a bit before bringing it to completion.

"Running Against the Moon" original watercolour painting - 8x10 inches

“Running Against the Moon” original watercolour painting - 8×10 inches

Here is the final look above - I popped a virtual frame on him too to give it that special space which helps viewing.

This painting makes me want to paint other animals in the British countryside under the magical moon…..

Art Demo - Watercolour Fly Agaric Mushrooms

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Now I am really hooked - been drawing more mushrooms this morning and painting their fragile, pulpy yet paper fibrous stalks - love them - so tactile and cute.
I love their random nobbliness and charm - carefree and child-like.
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Here’s how I did them.
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Paper is Arches Hot Pressed 90lbs. Unstretched as you can see.
I just paint on the paper and flatten it later.
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Paints Alizarin Crimson, Cadmium Scarlet, Chrome Orange, Cadmium Yellow, French Ultramarine, Sap Green, Cerulean Blue. Brushes No. 3 round.
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1. I drew the mushrooms roughly in pencil 3B
2. I wet the entire surface (apart from some teeny dry specks which will be the white bits later) of some heads of mushrooms and added Alizarin Crimson/Cadmium Red here and there and let it run. I added a deeper mix of this colour on shadow sides of heads to start creating form. The shadow sides I have created are all on the left of the mushrooms.
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I drew another single mushroom as a more detailed study and here you can see the wetness of the head ready to be charged with red paint.
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Let the medium do it !
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OK - back to out happy grouping…
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Now I darken areas of the heads with a deeper red mix.
I also felt the painting was looking overall too cool and not appealing so I added a splash of Cadmium Yellow and Chrome Orange to the Left hand side of some of the mushroom heads and stalks to bring in some sunshine:)
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Add some sap green to darken the red off.
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Then I wet the entire stalks and added a thin line of grey made from French Ultramarine and Sap Green along the Right hand side and let it run into the wet part.
This creates a curved illusion on the stalks.
 
 
So this is where I am going to stop now as I need a cup of tea and the Jack Russells are getting restless!
Back to continue soon. I hope you found this interesting /useful? Any comments pop them below:)
Alison