I want to remind everyone that what we are doing this semester are studies, not complete paintings. Studies are something an artist should do to learn about the subjects they are painting, By only focusing on one thing, you get a better sense of what it is about and it is not strange territory when you go to paint it in your painting. Studies also helps you learn to see what is really in front of you because your brain will lie to you as in this instance, you brain tells you you are painting a white flower and it will balk when you start painting in shades of gray but it is those shades of gray that give the flower its texture and its depth otherwise, all we would need to do is paint around the outside and paint a center in and it would be perfect. Just doesn't work like that and you need to train yourself to see these subtle changes in value.
Look for the whitest white on each petal. Those areas are along the edges going towards the center, the rest of the petal is some shade of gray: blue gray or lavender gray, I went with a more blue gray. This goes for any time you are painting white: white, in watercolor, is the white of the paper and the shadows are blues and purples.
Use your value scale and lay in about in the middle of one of the petals, then squint your eyes as you move the scale across the petal slowly. When the hole in the middle of the shade of gray disappears, that is the value of gray you need to mix.
My basic mix for gray is ultramarine blue and burnt sienna using water to thin the mixture to make it lighter. I do not use white because it clouds up the color and black is a color killer. It is better to mix to a dark color because you have more control of the hue that you get.
Have a sheet of test paper or test it along the side of your paper, since this is a study you won't hurt anything but you do need to test the color for value and hue (color) you want a blue gray.
Most of the petals have white next to the petal next to them so you can paint around the flower, sometimes you have to skip over petals so that wet areas do not flow into other wet areas creating a bloom or back run.
What you should get is what is called a graded wash: Dark at the bottom and lighter as you go up. Do this on all the petals but please check your photo before you paint anything.
To define the outside edges of the flower use a darker color like blue, green or some other color that will get a dark version (I was using the ultramarine blue and a touch of purple), then use this dark color to create the ridges on the ends of the petals and the couple of spaces in between the petals near the center. It is the contrast between the dark and the light that makes the flower look like a white flower even though you know from painting it that it is a mostly gray flower.
Everything you used to paint this flower holds true for any other light or white thing you will paint, this is not exclusive to this one flower alone, another good thing about studies.
Next time we will be doing the leaf so please have your line drawing on your paper so we can get started painting when we come to class.
Keep painting and I will see you in class.
