Last year there were no poppies in the garden till October when two tiny flowers appeared out of nowhere. This year they are all over the place; amazing.
We’ve had lovely sunshine this week, perfect for drawing in the garden.
The buds of wild poppies look fragile but are really quite hardy and despite all of the wind, rain and even hailstones we’ve had over the last few weeks are still standing strong.
I tried painting a background on these buds; it doesn’t really show up but in life it is a pleasant sage green.
First watercolour poppy buds.
The perennial poppies come back every year (almost) last year the plant was overgrown and gave is no flowers at all. This year I’ve counted five buds so far.
First graphite poppy buds.
The day after drawing these buds the flowers burst open and we now have lovely poppies in the garden again.
First perennial poppy flower.
Hopefully the pink poppies will follow on soon, more drawing opportunities to come.
We’ve had some interesting weather this week. Bright sunshine, rain, hailstone then sunshine and hailstone all in one day! The rest of the week was dull and wet.
Not sure where the summer weather is, hopefully it’s on its way.
In-between showers I nipped out to draw some of the flowers blooming at the moment.
Geum has done quite well this year and is showing off lots of lovely red flowers.
Above a pencil sketch. Lately I’ve been liking 2b and 4b pencils, they’re a little darker and also a bit smudgy as soft graphite tends to be but I like the effect.
Below painted across two pages I used woodless watercolour pencils. I’m trying to put together a small kit for drawing outside. It needs to be light and easy to carry around so I’m trying various media to see how small a kit I can manage with.
Geum painted with watercolour.
In a small pot we have some wild violets. Mum had loads growing all over her garden so she gifted a few to me.
The flowers and leaves are painted with watercolour then the background painted around the outside with all of the colours mixed together.
Wild violet in watercolour.
Then I painted a small square with the rest of the background colour with the flower on top in a darkish colour and mixed a little gouache into the purple to paint in some highlights. The leaves were an after thought that I don’t really like.
A violet flower in watercolour & gouache.
I’m liking both approaches to these violets and maybe a small tube of white gouache would fit nicely into my little kit.
There are one or two more flowers I would like to draw if we have some nice weather. (hopefully before the flowers fade)
I had a guy’s card to make this week. For some reason I always have difficulty thinking what to put on a guys cards. They’re so difficult.
So what does he like? No sports or usual guy things, birds, maybe? I had thought about owls then I remembered, he likes lizards.
After a quick look around I settled on an iguana. They are quite magnificent.
With this one I wanted to use the gouache resist technique; I like the almost print like effect of the image.
Best to use 100% cotton paper for this as it is placed in a lot of water and scrubbed.
First paint inside the lines of the image with gouache using the right colours leaving the line work and anything that should be black unpainted then set aside to dry completely.
Some people like to add white to the colours to make it more opaque but I think it dilutes the colour so I use something slightly darker and paint it on thickly to resist the ink.
Gouache iguana, paint in the colours and leave to dry.
Next (the scary part) paint Indian ink all over the entire painting including the edges and leave it to dry completely again.
It has to be a waterproof ink or it will just wash away.
gouache iguana gently paint Indian ink over everything.
Once thoroughly dry place under water and gently scrub with a firm paint brush. A soft watercolour brush isn’t really strong enough and it will ruin the bristles so synthetic is best here.
The gouache and the ink covering it washes away leaving the inky line work and a lovely grungy washed out look.(don’t scrub too hard or all the colour will wash away)
(the finished image is at the top of the post) love the way this one turned out and I think it was appreciated by it’s recipient.
Making art has been slow lately. After a bout of flu and recurring colds (are we reinfecting each other?) it’s been enough just to manage he essentials.
Finally the viruses have subsided and we have even had some sunshine so it’s nice to sit outside and pick up the sketchbook again.
The quince tree is in flower now, they have beautiful blossom and big floppy leaves, lots of fun to draw.
My current sketchbook is very irritating, the paper is really absorbent so doesn’t work well with wet media. Ink pens feather and watercolour sinks in where it touches so I am experimenting with mixed media.
Coloured pencils were the first choice. These are watercolour pencils but I didn’t use them with water. The background was a quick wash of watercolour to take the white of the page.
They’re OK, a little pale and I don’t have many colours, good enough to give a general idea of what’s going on.
Another sketch in a pre-painted background. They’re actually a bit brighter than these scans show, maybe it cant pick up the colours too well.
It was drawn with a soft pencil making the lines quite dark. The flower is left blank showing the background colour and the leaves painted in gouache. The gouache is much thicker than watercolour and covers the page well. I like the effect of this but it’s only practical if I want to use my sketchbook at home.
Quince in graphite and gouache
This one has a background of chalk pastels and is drawn with a soft graphite pencil and a little coloured pencil. The colours don’t show up too well, more like a tint.
Finally I painted quite a strong colour over the background, the leaves are watercolour and the flower is white gouache.
I like this combination and a small tube of white gouache would be easy to tuck into a pencil case.
quince in watercolour and gouache
Lots of things to think about with these experiments, it was fun trying out different ways of making art.
For the past few weeks I have been painting in gouache from tutorials by Ruth Wilshaw. I decided I would try and paint something on my own to see if the lessons are having any effect.
It was valentines this week so I made up a card for the illustrious other half, a perfect time to test myself.
The composition is OK, nothing special and the content is slightly surreal, a capybara and a balloon in a leafy clearing.
I used left over paint on the palette so it is similar in colour to my recent paintings.
When I painted it everything looked a very similar mid-tone green and it was not until it was fully dry the next day that all of the mossy leafy parts became clear.
It turned out quite well considering and there are a few parts I really like.
It’s good to know the lessons are sinking in gradually.
The whishling A Birthday Card painted with gouache
Hi there, how are you?
First birthday of the year this week, I thought one of Ruth Wilshaw’s tutorials would fit the bill. The title is “The Wishling”, seems right for a birthday.
It took quite a while to paint this one; not because it’s harder than the others but because I didn’t want to muck it up so I left each layer to dry completely before starting the next.
The tutorial called for turquoise gouache but I don’t have any so used watercolour instead. To be fair the turquoise is pretty opaque any way so I don’t think it was too bad a substitution.
Very happy with the greens in this one. I’ve been using a cheap gouache set and the yellow ran out so I bought a winsor & newton tube to replace it. It has much more pigment (as you would expect by the price) and as I learned from my tests last week ”take a tiny bit of blue to the yellow” this way the yellow is not overpowered by the blue.
Very good advice so now I need to remember and follow it,
I’ll replace other colours in the set with better quality paint as I use the cheap paints up.
Sunnyfae 