Tip of the month – November 2007

The planning and painting process for this watercolor took place over a two week period. The color magenta can be difficult. It can be too garish or too dark and dull. After working on the OCTOBER TIP PAGE, I was ready to tackle this work. Each of the colors that I used is named in the steps below.

After making a contour drawing of the orchids, I moistened the paper. Aureolin and Gamboge were loosely applied in the negative space. Permanent Rose was painted into the orchids where the magenta would be. At the center of the principal orchid, I applied a little of the two yellows. I allowed the paper to dry. From this point forward, I would be moistening only the areas where I would be painting.

I like to make an area of dark early in the painting process. It becomes the basis of comparison for all values in the remainder of the painting. I made this dark close to the area of focus. For colors, I chose Permanent Rose, Cadmium Red, Alizarin Crimson, Quinacridone Violet and Dioxazine Purple. I moistened the shape where I would be painting and kept it wet while I applied these colors, starting with the Cadmium Red and Permanent Rose. The colors were charged in one at a time to the moist shape.

I knew that I would be working with a green compliment and I wanted to have this color in the painting at the beginning stages. Compliments are another form of contrast. I was looking for contrast of values and contrast of warm and cool, also.

I chose Winsor Green as my green to which I would add the yellows and reds that were being applied to the flower. Gamboge gave the Winsor Green a look of olive green. Dioxazine Purple cooled and muted the green.

I continued to add the different reds to the principal flower.

I like to work in the positive shapes and in the negative space together. The entire image will come to completion at the same time.

The negative space of the flower and the leaves was my next consideration. I like to use the colors that are in the subject in the negative space, too. I started with Cadmiun Red and Alizarin Crimson and charged in the Winsor Green. The red would dominate the mix.

I like to try this in a small shape in a bottom corner. If I do not like the result, it can be altered without affecting the subject.

I found that the resulting warm color competed too much with the red violet of the flower. I added Winsor Blue to the palette. I continued in the negative space with the blue. By adding the Winsor Blue to the lower warm negative space, the flower became more important again.

To unify the upper and lower negative spaces, I added some of the red/green mix to the upper negative space. Now it was time to return to the flower shapes. I lightly moistened each area where I would be applying color. The reds and the violets were charged into each shape in different amounts and in different orders.

The center of the main flower was detailed by adding shadows.

I returned to the negative space with Winsor Blue, Dioxazine Violet, Winsor Green and Gamboge. The application was diluted in the upper right corner to show a light source. In the lower right corner, the colors were applied in full saturation. The blue, green, and violet are transparent staining colors. They make wonderful jewel-like darks.

Satisfied with the negative space, I returned to complete the flowers. I decided that the petal shape in the upper left was too bright. Permanent Rose was muted with a small touch of Winsor Green and applied to that petal. I continued to moisten the shapes that I was working in and charged in the colors to Permanent Rose which I applied first.

As I continued working, I was always aware of the first dark petal that I had painted. I compared the values in each petal to that first one. Small negative spaces were painted in the green/blue/violet of the background.

I let the painting rest for a day and when I returned to assess it, I added additional finishing touches. The completed work VIRTUALLY VIOLET can be viewed in the floral gallery.

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