Watercolor Project: TJs Bouquet Week 3

I hope that everyone has been working on their flowers so that this week you can start putting in the background. This dark background is what will make these flowers pop, you so you will see dramatic changes once you start putting in your background.

You will need to have your reference photo in front of you to paint this background. There will be a lot of negative painting so you will need to see where it is so you can leave unpainted areas when you get to them. You also need to choose a background color for the area you painting, I don't care what color it is, I chose a blue/green, though it will eventually get dark as it goes to the corners. Have a color near the flowers that will compliment to the colors of the bouquet. There are yellows and reds and greens so you can choose those colors that are the complementary colors too red green and yellow, you could choose a color that will fit into the color of the room you might hang the finished painting, but remember it is going to get dark towards the corners.

I was using my Hooker’s green with a little touch of blue and water for the lighter value that was around my flowers and the basket. I went over the entire background twice with variations of this color making it darker I added more green and blue and less water and when I got further away from the flowers towards the corners, it was mostly my blue and

purple to make it very dark in the corners

One thing to look at when you are studying your picture before you start painting around the flowers is they have a glow about them. This is because the petals and the leaves are being backlit by the sun. To recreate the glow, as you paint in the background leave little bits of the lighter areas around the edges of some of the petals and leaves to create little halos of light. Don't do this all over but just in specific

areas mostly near the top where you want it to be lighter and look like a glow. Look at the reference photo.

When you get to an area that has the ferns in it, the ferns are very easy to negative paint they are mostly dots and dashes.You will have to pay attention to their shape so look at the ferns before you start painting them and just use the point of your brush if you're using an angle brush, if you're using a round brush will just be using the tip to create a little fuzzy edges of the ferns. It does not need to look exactly like the photo you are just suggesting ferns.

 

Remember that when you are near the base where the basket is there is light coming in from behind so remember to use plenty of water to fade your shadows into the light area and leave it very light right at the base of the basket & where the shadow starts. Use the same dark color that you were using for the shadow of the basket.

As I said before, I went around my flowers twice with this dark color increasing the intensity and the value of my dark color because it is the darkness behind these flowers that makes them glow, if your color isn't a darker value than your leaves and petals this won't work, you have to not be afraid of the dark. Once you do this you're going to see drastic changes to this painting. If you have to go back and put another layer on do so, as always, it is better to sneak up on the dark then it is to try and go straight to the dark but the dark is necessary.

I have a little bit more to do on my ferns and some of the flowers so I will be finishing this up in our next class but basically this is done so you need to start looking for what you want to paint when you finish your project so we can finish out the rest of the semester working on our own projects and I will be doing demos on demand depending on what is needed as you start to paint your own projects keep painting and I will see you in class.

PV Week 2 Images: