How to paint a Rose in Watercolour

This large rose is painted with a soft yellow wash and the shadowed tones in a lilac and grey.

I’ve left plenty of white in the petals and notice that I’ve reserved a lightest area to suggest the petals furling inwards.

When this wash dried I added a deeper yellow centre and orange details on the stigma, anther and the filaments are suggested at, this keeps the painting soft – like the rose!

When the layers of wash dry add a final layer of tone in lilac and grey with a size 0 brush, keeping your brush strokes in the direction the rose petals grow, centre to outer edge.

By giving the background a strong contrasting colour, I’ve mixed a turquoise,  the painting has a contemporary vibrancy.

Watercolour by Sarah

This diagram gives a better understanding of the anatomy of the rose flower.

 

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The essential skill of drawing for all

http://www.theguardian.com/culture-professionals-network/culture-professionals-blog/2014/may/29/drawing-needs-to-be-curriculum-essential-education?CMP=new_1194

Drawing is a way to clarify your thinking, ideas develop, shared and communicated.

Drawing is a skill to learn and develop through life and brings a new dimension to your emotive and intellectual responses to the world.

Tree by Jenny – an expression of movement and growth in an urban environment

Orchid drawing using ink

Orchid drawing using ink.

Orchid drawing using ink

sketching in ink at the Cambridge Botanic Garden

Try drawing from life, it can be  far more interesting than from photographs. The University Botanic Garden in Cambridge has a fantastic collection and the glass houses are perfect on a cold wet day.

http://www.botanic.cam.ac.uk/Botanic/Page.aspx?p=27&ix=2702&pid=2&prcid=36&ppid=0

I enjoyed drawing this orchid using an artists ink pen.

 

 

Watercolour Tulips by Jenny

Tulips by Jenny

This was Jenny’s first flower painting in watercolour and the graduated washes on the red petals works well.

Creating an interesting curl to the leaf in the foreground works well to add depth to her composition.

Try applying your paint strokes in the direction the petal or leaves grow…

Watercolour painting wild flowers

 

George paints wild flowers in blue glazed vase

Wild flowers gathered from the end of my garden made a soft and less structured still life to paint in watercolour. George arranged his in a striking rich blue vase. You can see the use of sea salt crystals to soften and texture his background wash.

Three very different approaches using wet on wet watercolour and very dense paint mixes to create rich colours, particularly the acid yellows.

Experimenting with the colours before starting to paint proved very helpful, particularly matching the greens.

Lynn’s intense colours and fine detailed brush work

Kelly’s soft red flowers contrast well with the matt green of the ‘honesty’ seed heads.

Peter’s bright blue of these borage flowers are intense against the soft olive greens of the leaves

Tony has worked aquilegia flowers in a detailed study in a more botanical illustrative style

Watercolour painting class 24 May at the Cambridge Art Salon

http://wp.me/p22aMC-4g Enjoyed a good day of an introduction to watercolour painting. We started the day with a look at colour mixes and washes and how to create skyscapes

Peter’s gently painted cloudy sky

A generous mix of a blue wash, Peter used Ultramarine then working from top of the  watercolour paper painting quickly with lots of the blue wash then working with clean water to create a graded wash at the mid point of the paper. Colour runs gently and blends to a graded blue. To create the cloud effect use a scrunched up tissue and blot away your cloud form when the blue wash is still damp. Peter added a grey mix to his clouds mixed using alizarin red + cerulean blue. If you wish to add a vapour trail drag a clean tissue diagonally across the skyscape. You can flick the paint with the tissue to suggest the wind moving the clouds.