I have a love/hate relationship with spring. On the one hand, I love all the new growth. When all of the brown and drab of a dry winter turns a lovely shade of green. All of the spring flowers popping up in colorful clumps from a slowly awakening earth emerge. Feeling the sun's warmth as the cold north winds slowly change their course.
It's beautiful.
My allergies, on the other hand, despise spring and all the pollen it brings! Pollen, that dusty stuff that clings to cars in a thick green layer. The puddles of rain ringed in the villainous green stuff. My sinuses rebel like the rebel alliance in Star Wars. It wages an ugly war with my head that leaves me irritated and sometimes unable to do any art work!
But, despite all that, spring is still a wonderful time of year and presents a wonderful opportunity to paint. All those vibrant spring flowers throwing pollen in my face like confetti just yearn to be put to the brush!
Like tulips. Nothing says spring more than when tulips start blooming.
Tulips are beautiful, colorful and exciting. All that green with a crown of color is magical. So I decided to devise a composition with tulips and then paint!
It's beautiful.
My allergies, on the other hand, despise spring and all the pollen it brings! Pollen, that dusty stuff that clings to cars in a thick green layer. The puddles of rain ringed in the villainous green stuff. My sinuses rebel like the rebel alliance in Star Wars. It wages an ugly war with my head that leaves me irritated and sometimes unable to do any art work!
But, despite all that, spring is still a wonderful time of year and presents a wonderful opportunity to paint. All those vibrant spring flowers throwing pollen in my face like confetti just yearn to be put to the brush!
Like tulips. Nothing says spring more than when tulips start blooming.
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| Tulips sketch with watercolor pencils |
I always like to start out with a sketch. It lets me tinker with composition and color. Next, I find the colors I want to use. For this painting I chose Lemon Yellow (Sennelier), Hooker's Green (Winsor & Newton), Cadmium Orange (Da Vinci), and Ultramarine Blue (Da Vinci).
I started off with a wash of Lemon Yellow. A light yellow undertone to bring out the vibrancy of the rest of my layers. After letting it dry, I began to paint the stems and leaves of the tulips.
Using a mix Hooker's Green and Lemon Yellow, I began painting in the leaves. I also lightly dropped in Cadmium Orange into the green. Note: When mixing colors, don't be afraid to mix a generous amount, especially if you know you'll be using that color quite a bit. Something else to keep in mind is, watercolor tends to dry lighter on your paper.
Next, I added in the tulip flower petals using Lemon Yellow and Cadmium Orange. I started painting from the bottom up with the orange and dropping yellow in at the top and letting that naturally mingle with each other. I let that dry and worked a little on my background, using my green mix and some Cad. Orange. Let that dry. Note: when layering with watercolor, you want to let each layer completely dry before you start on the next. This avoids backwash and potentially muddying your colors.
After letting the background dry, I began layering in the rest of the painting, getting darker where needed. For the shadowy parts, Ultramarine Blue was added into the green mix. My light source come from the left and so painted darker towards the right and bottom.
I hope this was informative to anyone using watercolor. It's a fantastic medium to paint with!
The finished piece is very cheerful, just like spring! To see the finished painting and others, please visit my FineArtAmerica webpage: Rebecca L. Davis
Until next time, stay creative!
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