Small works, Plants and Insects

It's been a busy few weeks, which included my first ever SBA selection day last month. While I was there inspecting almost 1000 paintings, I was intrigued by the small number of miniatures that had been entered and it crossed my mind that I could try entering a few of my butterfly paintings in the Royal Society of Miniature Painters annual open exhibition in October. I would like to broaden my horizons slightly by entering different exhibitions and this is something perhaps to focus on over the next year or so. Butterflies seem like a good option and can be combined with botanical subjects, they're also one of my favourite subjects and their size means that they should fit the entry criteria for the Miniature Society, which states that main subject should be no more than 2 inches in size. For more information take a look at the Society website http://www.royal-miniature-society.org.

Butterflies are a great subjects! here's a silent edited clip from one of my course videos, sorry it's a bit lengthy but it gives an idea of the process involved in working on small subjects on vellum.

Further inspiration to paint insects came after a visit to the Fitzwilliam Museum last weekend. They currently have an exhibition titled, 'Crawling with Life', it's a relatively small exhibition of Botanical subjects and insects by some of the finest botanical artists, including, George Dionysius Ehret, Maria Sibylla Merian and the Dietszch family amongst others. The exhibition runs until the 8th May and is well worth a look.

Poster from the Fitzwilliam exhibition, Crawling with Life, plus other goodies from the shop

Most of the works on display are on vellum, many have suffered considerable buckling over the years, which is not surprising given the age of some of the pieces but the actual paintwork is immaculate, vibrant and beautifully preserved, much more so than works on paper which seem to suffer more from fading, yellowing or foxing. I was particularly intrigued by the botanical works on vellum with black backgrounds, by the Dietzsch family. Their works span much of the 18th century yet despite their age, these paintings are incredibly vibrant and suffer no buckling whatsoever. The two Dietzsch sisters Barbara Regina, Margaretha Barbara and brother Johann Cristoph all produced works in this style, as shown in the exhibition poster, in fact it's difficult to tell them apart at times. 

I believe that the black backgrounds are painted with a type of gouache which is more opaque compared to watercolour and this is due to the larger pigment particle size which are suspended with a binding agent, usually gum Arabic, which gives good coverage, also a far higher pigment to water ratio makes for better coverage.  However I was perplexed about applying dark opaque paint to the vellum without creating a dreadful mess. 

An example of work with a painted black background by Margaretha Barbara Dietzsch, Apfelbten, 1795 copyright Wikimedia Commons

With all of this in mind I was inspired by both miniatures and black backgrounds on vellum and attempted to try both by painting a small tortoiseshell butterfly on vellum ( below) the work is about 2.5 inches square. I didn't have a great deal of success or time but haven't finished it because I'm suffering from a type of repetitive strain injury with my hand - so it needs to be rested for a few days - but I will persevere! Overall it's a bit untidy but I think i can refine it. I was very surprised though at how easy it was to lay down the black, albeit on a very small area. The best approach I think is to do it swiftly and not be tempted to go back over it. I also think it's better to paint the subject first and add the black last, simply because it proved quite easy to pick up black on the brush when working at the edge of a leaf. 

My first miniature, a work in progress! Small tortoiseshell butterfly on vellum with black background

I'll finish it off next week and maybe try one more on black, I'm not sure that I'll actually use the black background for the miniature society entries because I prefer the look of the vellum skin and it seems a shame to cover it but it's interesting to play with and of course to try new things. 

Painting Root Vegetables....and Growing the Leaves! The Turnip

Want to paint vegetables but found that you can't buy them with leaves?
The simple answer to this problem is to grow your own!.... but if you don't have the space or time, don't forget that it's actually very easy to grow leaves on root vegetables.....remember growing carrot tops at school?  I've been amusing some of my students with this particular experiment over the last few weeks ....and it's catching on!

Turnip watercolour May 2014

You can simply place a root vegetable over water and it will grow some new decent looking leaves in just a few weeks. Beetroot works pretty well! I planted it outdoors and it has some nice leaves, next came the turnip and now I'm onto the radish! To be fair they're not quite as good as the original leaves but still make for a more interesting vegetable painting than a poor old storage organ with no leaves.

One of my most recent efforts is the humble turnip, Brassica rapa subsp. rapa. I started growing the leaves about 7 weeks ago and it's now about to flower and go to seed. There's also the added bonus of beautiful roots!
Here's the painting process in a video ( about 5 mins long) 

How does this work?...very simple biology bit 
 Basically the edible part - we refer to as the 'vegetable' is actually a type of enlarged root/ storage organ. In turnips, radish and carrots it's a type of taproot. The turnip is a 'napiform'  which means it's wide at the top and tapers to a narrower root. If you put its tail end in a bit of water it will sprout leaves and roots. The part that was above ground in the turnip is purple from the effect of sunlight and is actually part of the stem tissue but is fused with the root. The below ground part is white with the tapered root.

Supermarket turnips with leaves chopped off placed over water, on the upper left you can see the leaf and flower stem growth. ( there's a radish  hiding there too!)

How to do it and the limitations
 Look for a healthy looking turnip in the supermarket, preferably one that still has a small amount of lower root.  Place the tail ( white) end in water and top up on a regular basis to make sure it doesn't dry out. After about a week you will see small leaves emerging. You can plant it in a pot of soil at this stage but I kept mine in water. The bottom part of the turnip, which has been below ground will become more purple towards the base from the effect of daylight. The lower tapered root won't grow like the original root but will sprout lots of smaller roots. After about 6 weeks it will throw up a  tall flowering stem. If kept indoors the stem will be green but if you put it outside for a couple of days it will turn a lovely purple colour, eventually it will produce the yellow flowers. .

Turnip base where the root has been cut off.

A bit more about the Turnip
I always think the turnip is overlooked. Pliny the elder certainly understood its importance and considered it to be one of the most important vegetables ( beneath beans). Being a biennial it can be kept in the ground for two years. In the first year the root grows and stores nutrients, in the second year it flowers, seeds and dies.  As a crop it has the potential to prevent famine as well as providing an important source of fodder for livestock. 

'Turnip' Townsend  and Four Field crop Rotation
The 2nd Viscount Townsend, known as 'Turnip Townsend' ( 1674- 1738) was a British Whig statesman and turnip fanatic! He's credited with introducing the four -field crop rotation system in England by adding turnips and clover to the existing rotation system which included wheat and barley, although there is some dispute over how influential he actually was....it's still a good story!

'Turnip' Townsend  Wikimedia Commons

The introduction of turnips was certainly important, the introduction of turnips had already reduced the area of fallow land. But the new 'four - field' system meant the no field ever had to lie fallow because the clover being a nitrogen fixing plant introduced the nitrates to the soil and acted as a soil improver. Together the turnips and clover also served a purpose as animal feed, and reduced fallow land so nothing went to waste. This development in agriculture  had a huge impact on crop yield. To highlight the importance in 1705 England exported 11.5 million quarters of wheat, in 1765 this had increased to 95 million quarters.
With this in mind and in homage I think clover will make a nice addition to the turnip painting.....just need to find out which type of clover....

More Frits.... Big Bold Crown Imperialis

It's a week today since I returned from exhibiting the Fritillaria meleagris paintings at the RHS London Orchid show. I was dying to get home to paint the much larger Fritillaria imperialis, a plant that I've always wanted to paint but one which just refused to flower in my garden in Scotland. This year I found some at the Trentham Gardens Estate and brought three home..... Makes a change to be painting such big bold flowers!

First flower head study, Fritillaria imperialis 'Rubra' finished on Thursday this week.

First up was the enormous orange F. imperialis 'Rubra',  but I also have a smaller 'Aurora' and the large yellow 'Lutea'. I started with 'Rubra' because it looked like the one most likely to go over first. It's quite red so I used a mix of Transparent Yellow and Scarlet Lake with the bias towards red/orange, then added Permanent Carmine for the deeper reds, I added some Violet Dioxide for the darker shadows. A little Cobalt Violet was used around the highlighted areas. The flowers become more red as they age, so this was something to keep an eye on.  Where the light shines through the petals at the back I kept the mix more yellow biased and light. On the left side of the flower (shade side) the red was deeper. 

The flowers are fairly simple to draw, they have huge nectaries which give the familiar 'square shouldered' look on the also seen in the F. meleagris flowers.

First washes

The flower interior, showing the reproductive parts and large nectaries. 

I want to paint all three plants if possible, but they were already in bud when I left for London and in full bloom when I returned, so I have to work fast on this project! The flower-heads need of all three need to be painted first because they don't last all that long, maybe a week or so. There's much more time with the leaves so I'll work on them later. I take lots of photograph from all aspects and make many drawings, the aim - to gather as much reference as possible! The initial position of this plant is very tall and upright but I chose to paint them as they lean over with the weight of the flowers and crown.

This is how the 'Rubra' the plant looked before I left for London

Having completed the first study of ' Rubra', I sat outdoors yesterday (17th April) and made rough drawings of  the yellow 'Lutea'. You can't beat the light outside for drawing and it was a beautiful day! also these plants have a very strong 'foxy' odour so outdoor working is good!

Drawing of F. imperialis 'Lutea'  made on Saturday 17th April

Yellow flowers aren't my favourite but this crown is a good shape with lots of flowers and more twists and turns in the crown leaves than 'Rubra' so today I'll paint it and see how it goes. It doesn't have the same interesting dark stem as 'Rubra' and 'Aurora' plants but it is still very impressive. 

'Lutea' in bud and starting to open. The yellow becomes much richer as the flowers fully open.

 This morning I started laying the first washes for the 'Lutea' painting but have to stop for a while while people come to view the house, which is very disruptive! This plant smells so bad it wasn't really possible to have it in the house while people are wandering around! I'm using the following colours: Cadmium Lemon, Winsor Yellow, Transparent Yellow and New Gamboge. Adding a very little Violet dioxide for the shade colours and a small amount of scarlet lake for the warmest yellows, I put it the shade colours first because this is a light flower and it helps to build form early on in the painting. I used combinations of the warmer yellows on the shade side and the cooler yellows  where the light hits the flower ( on the right) ....work will resume shortly.    

First washes on the flowers for 'Lutea'

More work, layering the yellow washes and adding the greens (update 20th April).

About the plant.

Fritillarias are all members if the Liliaceae family. F. imperialis is architecturally grand looking and the cultivated varieties I have are all derived from the species, the plant is more commonly known as the Crown Imperial or Kaiser's Crown in reference to the crown like top. It's native habitat is from Anatolia in Turkey and Iraq across the plateau to Iran up to Afghanistan and Pakistan, so covers a fairly wide geographic area. 

The plant was initially called the Turkish Fritillaria being introduced from Turkey to Vienna in the 1570's, as part if the first major introduction of of plants from the Turkish Empire to Western Europe. Ghiselin de Busbecq, the Holy Roman Emperor's ambassador to Constantinople was the first to recognise the wealth of botanical specimens available from the Turkish empire in the mid 1500's and he sent bulbs of F. imperialis and other species to his friend Carolus Clusius (Charles de Ecluse) in Vienna, Clusius circulated the bulbs throughout Europe and took them to Leiden when he moved there.

Doctor and Botanist, Clusius, distributed the bulbs of F. imperialis around Europe in the mid to late 1500's. Public domain Wikimedia Creative Commons

The name, 'Crown' imperialis was added as an association with the emperors of the Holy Roman Empire. It was the first plant featured in Sydney Parkinson's Patadise Terrestris in 1629, he wrote: The Crown Imperialis has the stately beautifulness, deserveth the first place in this our Garden of Delight'. Parkinson was aware of only one form but believed there was also a white form. The plant became hugely popular in the 17th and 18th centuries and at that time there were over a dozen varieties, including a variegated leaved vy of these have now died out but today they are popular again with several varieties available.

There are many paintings of F. imperialis, I found this beautiful illustration by the incredible Hendrik Reekers, painted in 1837,  not sure which variety this is but I this is one of my favourites! 

Hendrick Reekers, oil painting  of F. imperialis cultivar unknown Public domain Wikimedia Creative Commons) 

As a slight aside, I also painted another Frit this week, F. uva-vulpis. This one was for the Nature Sketchbook Exchange project...here's the Frit alongside a two coloured Muscari. Sorry not a great photo but thought I'd share it all the same.

F. uva-vulpis painted for the Nature Sketchbook exchange, will be on it's way to the Netherlands on Tuesday morning

   

......More on 'Lutea' later

Snake's Head Fritillary.....an old favourite

I know I've blogged about painting Fritillaria meleagris before but I do like it!.... and so do lots of other artists, most notable of course are Rory McEwen's paintings, which probably can't be bettered, but also Elizabeth Blackadder, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Pandora Sellars and many more have painted Fritillaries.

At the beginning of the month I decided to concentrate my efforts on this flower and have a number of pots to keep me going for the next few weeks. Over the last week several studies have been produced - although they are intended to be work towards a series of paintings....I haven't even started the actual paintings despite the fact that they're due to be exhibited during April! But today I painted this larger study ( x2). 

Study of flower head x2 in size ( 22 x 26 cm)

I even painted Fritillaries as part of the Nature Trail Sketchbook Exchange project this week.

Nature Trail Sketchbook pages for this month, showing a white and double headed forms. 

There's something unique about the colour and pattern in this plant, the colour varies between flowers and changes with the light, and, as the flower ages. The stems and leaves are elegant with beautiful curves and the hanging flowers are delicate. The tepals have the most interesting nectaries, which creates the distinctive square darker coloured 'shoulder'. A look inside the flower reveals the glistening nectary on the reverse of the 'shoulder'.
.

The petal showing the outside with the shoulder (top) and the inside with the nectary (bottom)

 F. meleagris is a member of the Liliaceae family, which grows in damp grassland and meadows. In Britain it is often referred to as a native species, however this is disputed by botanists, it was not recorded growing wild until 1736, prior to that it had only been recorded as a garden plant, so is now believed to be an introduced species and garden escapee which became naturalized. Although it was once commonplace, it was picked excessively and sold in markets as cut flower. Much of its habitat was lost after WWII due to the agricultural 'improvement' of the land, when ancient meadows were ploughed and turned over to food production. The plant is now deemed nationally scarce in Britain and only a few wild sites remain, including Magdalen College Oxford, Cricklade and the village of Ducklington.

It's a lovely flower to paint, the best approach is the lay down the washes first to form the basic shape of the flower. The colours range from cooler purples to fairly bright reds in places.  I used various combinations of Permanet Alizarin Crimson, Permanent Magenta and Permanent Carmine. In the really warm red areas I added a little Scarlet Lake. The warmer red shows through more prominently in some areas, such as near to the petal tips - also where the light shines through the back of petals. Yet in other light the colour is a cool purple.

Once the form is established the chequered pattern can be added on top, but remember that the pattern follows the contours of the petals and is also lighter or darker depending on where the light hits the flower. I mention this because I've seen patterns added on top of a form without enough consideration of the effect of light and shade on the pattern. 

I used Ultraviolet in the shadows and added Payne's Grey on the 'shoulder' and for the darks. A small amount of Manganese Blue Hue was used on the 'light' areas at the top of the petals and around the highlight on the shoulder. 

The first stages: washes are laid first to create form, the the pattern is added next.

Building up the pattern from light to dark,  pinks and purples but keeping a close eye on the light.

The stems are slender and elegant, they should be carefully observed because the way that the stem bends under the weight of the flower gives a very specific look. To keep the stem clean looking I draw slightly outside the area that I intend to paint and paint inside the line, this avoids painting over pencil lines, the pencil can be erased afterwards. The curve should be smooth and painted in flowing continuous strokes. Nothing looks worse than thick uneven stems on flowers like this. The colour of the stems is variable some are green and others have some red/brown in them but all are fairly light with a 'blue /grey' appearance. I use a mix for the basic green of colours with high light values. Manganese Blue Hue plus Winsor Lemon was used and a small amount of Permanent Alizarin Crimson added. I try as far as possible to use the same reds in a green mix as those used in the flower, this I believe gives continuity to the painting. 

   Above: detail of the stem and darker 'shoulder' areas

And then I came to a field where the springing grass
Was dulled by the hanging cups of fritillaries
Sullen and foreign looking, the snaky flower
Scarfed in dull purple, like Egyptian girls
Camping among the furze, staining the waste
With foreign colour, sulky-dark and quaint

from 'The Land' by Vita Sackville-West (1927)

And here's a late addition to the post, not quite finished but painted this morning

Pineapples Galore!

Last week saw the start of another pineapple painting for me.  I always recommend painting a subject more than once if you really want to get to grips with it.....this is my 5th pineapple! In fact many botanical artists seem to attempt a pineapple at some point! A quick Google search reveals a huge selection ....it's one of those 'must try' subjects.

Pineapple study page, February 2014

You can find any number of great examples of contemporary pineapple paintings, Coral Guest and Fiona Strickland to name a couple of the best.  Historical botanical illustrations documenting pineapples are also plentiful, Georg Dionysius Ehret, Maria Sibylla Merian and Marianne North all illustrated this exotic fruit. But why is the pineapple so appealing?

Pineapple and cockroaches 1701- c.1705 by Maria Sibylla Merian (Public domain Wikimedia Commons)

 Firstly, it's a pretty good subject. Technically quite challenging with its 'Fibonacci' spirals ( more about that later) so requires some discipline in the drawing and also has great texture and colour too. Perhaps for todays botanical artist the work of master illustrators add that extra appeal.....to paint what they painted? Except today this one time rare and much sought after fruit is readily available for us to buy and try with very little effort. The pineapple has an incredibly rich history and that bit of scientific curiosity too, so I guess all-in-all it's very appealing .....

Here's some pineapple trivia followed by a quick tutorial for anyone that fancies a go.

The Pineapple:
The pineapple, Ananas comosus is a member of the Bromeliaceae family. Thought to originate from the Orinoco basin in South America. Prior to introduction in Europe they were distributed throughout the tropics and this caused some confusion about their origin.  The pineapple is desiccation-tolerant with adaptations, including CAM photosynthesis (stomata opening at night), all of which allows the plant to cope with drought..... this probably explains why the pineapple is so successful!

 During development the fruit produces up to 200 flowers. Once it flowers, the individual fruits of form what is known collectively as the pineapple. Whereby the ovaries develop into berries which form the large, compact, multiple accessory fruit. 

Pineapple flowers (img. Wikimedia Commons  2.5 Generic Licence)

In cultivation pineapples are propagated by vegetative reproduction - in fact you can cut the crown off a pineapple and grow a new one! Pollination is by hummingbirds, beetles and bats but this is not a favourable method of reproduction in crops because the seed production reduces the quality of the fruit. ....in fact the importation of hummingbirds is, I believe, banned in Hawaii because of the impact on crops.

History: When Christopher Columbus  arrived at the island of Guadeloupe in 1493, the ships crew stumbled across piles of fruits, including pineapples as well as pots of human body parts! The European sailors first recorded the fruit which had an rough, segmented exterior rather like a pine cone and a pulp like an apple.

John Parkinson (1567–1650), Royal Botanist to Charles I, later described the pineapple as: 

Scaly like an Artichoke at the first view, but more like to a cone of the Pine tree, which we call a pineapple for the forme... being so sweete in smell... tasting... as if Wine, Rosewater and Sugar were mixed together. (Theatrum Botanicum)

The exact date of their introduction to Europe remains unknown but their is evidence that pineapples were being cultivated in the Netherlands by the mid to late 1600's. Once the fruit had arrived it quickly became a symbol of hospitality, power and wealth, the pineapple really was the celebrity of the fruit world; expensive, much sought after and often displayed in works of art and in dining room centrepieces topping towers of exotic fruit.

Still Life with Watermelons, Pineapple and Other fruit by Dutch artist Albert Eckhout (1610-1665) Eckhout's still-life paintings show Brazil's abundant crops in the 1600's ( Public domain  Wikimedia Creative Commons)

 The pineapple symbolism made it the subject of many works of art. The scene of  Charles II's head gardener, John Rose,  presenting the King with the first fruit grown in England was famously documented in this painting by Hendrik Danckerts, 1675.

Charles II being presented with the first pineapple by his gardener John Rose (Public domain Wikimedia Creative Commons)

The same symbolism was also used extensively in architecture. You can find pineapples used in all sorts of architectural features, on follies, gateposts and buildings. This extreme example at Dunmore House in Scotland, was added to the building sometime during the 1760's, they had a hot house of course and grew...... pineapples!  

The Fibonacci myth: The fruit of a pineapple is arranged in spirals ( see image below), this arrangement commonly found in nature, in pine cones, sunflower seed-heads and lots of other plants, it's commonly said to be a Fibonacci sequence. While some fruit do actually have the 5,8 and 13, or 8,13 and 21 arrangement of fruit in each spiral, all of  which are Fibonacci numbers, many do not.

Pineapple spirals, don't necessarily exhibit Fibonacci numbers

The Fibonacci sequence was first described by  mathematician Leonardo Pisano Bigollo (c. 1170 – c. 1250) as a mathematical sequence related to growth being 1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21 and so on - where each number is the sum of the two previous numbers. If you count the fruit on each spiral of some pineapples, they do indeed add up to these numbers. But this arrangement is not always the case and Fibonacci is no a magic formula or design in nature it just happens to be the most energy efficient growth pattern..... so Fibonacci's sequence is simply a model for growth and therefore a generalisation ( and a very useful one!). I've highlighted the spirals in red, white and blue on the fruit below, and as suspected they don't add up to a Fibonacci numbers. If you have nothing better to do why not go and count the spirals on pineapples in the greengrocers you will find that having checked a few - it's more often than not often not the case, but the general growth pattern looks much the same. So if you have tried and failed to understand the Fibonacci spiral in a pineapples and can't seem to get the numbers that you think it should add up to......it's not because you've missed something! it's because there is a lot of variation in nature during growth and only the most perfect pineapples exhibit Fibonacci numbers. Having said that pine cones and sunflowers are more likely to exhibit perfect sequences....yes I checked these too!  

What also appears to be true in some cases though is a Fibonacci type theorem whereby a pineapple being a cylinder made up of these hexagonal fruit has spirals in which the largest number of hexagons equals the sum of the sum of the two smaller numbers. A + B = C..... So it still makes the patten. But enough of all that. 

Finally The Painting. I've written this mini guide to a study for those of you that might want to try the pineapple. It's actually not so difficult as might be assumed. The spiral sequence is a simple one.
The most common errors are
1.getting the angle of the spirals wrong
2. Making it looks too flat.

First I map out the spirals by taking some basic measurements and looking at the angles. The spiral with the most fruits is less steep than the other.

The chosen one, a short and fairly round pinepple, I took some measurements, height, width, note there is no Fibonacci sequence etc.  

I make a rough drawing on tracing paper of the two main interlocking spirals - but taking to care to observe the perspective. The same type of pattern is seen in the leaves of the crown.

Drawing: Once I have the basic shape I add transfer the shape to a study page and add some detail to the drawing in the fruits and leaves.I use the same paper for the study page as I do on the final painting because otherwise the colours will be different.

Position and Lighting: The best position for the fruit is eye level. The fruit is placed it on top of a glass, my set up is a low-tech balancing act using a few empties! I position the lamp at the upper front right with a daylight bulb, to avoid working in my own light. I also use a tin can to reflect a bit of light back onto the fruit. Tin cans are great for all sorts!

The set up

Take photos for reference kept at hand on the laptop- remember pineapples ripen very quickly

Colour: To be honest I don't spend a huge amount of time doing colour samples unless I'm really struggling with a particular colour. I work out the basics an play with them on the rough study.

A few little 'rules' to keep it simple: 
Work out colour by finding each basic hue first, these are found in the mid tones where saturation is highest.
So I always start brighter than is needed and take it down in saturation, for the shades using a complimentary colour or with my own neutral tint mix.
I warm up or cool down the colours depending on the light.
Try to work with as few colours as possible.
Avoid opaques other than in the initial wash, thereafter use only transparent colours to preserve the luminosity.
Avoid colours with black, e.g. indigo, sepia  unless it's for dry brush detail. They make colours 'dead' if used in layered washes.

Early stages, finding the colours.

Continuing to work out the colour, the shades, techniques and glazes.

 Yellows
Gut instinct tells me that the basic yellow hue found in the fruits is: New Gamboge 
Warm it up with scarlet lake
Cool it down with  ultraviolet

add Neutral Tint to the mix the shade colours

Greens in the fruit
Cobalt Dp + Transparent yellow
Warm with New Gamboge
Cool with Ultraviolet 

The Browns -'bracts' on each fruit,
Raw umber
warm add v small amount of Scarlet Lake
cool it with Cerulean

Add Some Cerulean on the highlights

The Crown
 A very light wash of Cerulean and Ultraviolet to give the 'grey' effect applied as a wash first
Transparent yellow + Cerulean for the lighter brighter greens at the base of the crown
Cobalt Blue deep  and Transparent Yellow for the older leaves used selectively on areas of leaves most green e.g. leaf edges.

The Process
I work out the washes and watercolour techniques in order on the study page and make any notes
Keep an eye on the light at all times - remind yourself it's a spherical type object. Alternatively I could have painted a wash all over leaving out the main highlight but this doesn't work so well with a pineapple because of the many small areas where the light hits the fruits. So I paint each bract/ fruit individually to start with and add glazes later.

Bear in mind that the fruit ripens and changes colour rapidly - thank goodness for the photo reference!
Now I'm ready to start the painting.....  

But in true Blue Peter style, here's one I made earlier.....

Pineapple watercolour from 2010

A Word of warning for potential pineapple painters.  Alas there's a dark side to the modern pineapple! This once rare sybol of wealth can be purchased at the local supermarket for less than £1! I've never seen pineapples for that price before and competition between growers usually means there's much high price to be paid somewhere or other in order to secure supermarket contracts! Most supplies comes from Costa Rica, where growers may use pesticides which can affect soil quality and reduce biodiversity. Pesticides include organophosphates and known hormone disruptors which can affect workers' health and contaminate water supplies. The chemical are of course found in the fruit too!.... oh and the workers are not paid a fair wage.
To find out more read this article 'Bitter Fruit: The truth about supermarket pineapples' 

So if you're going to paint a pineapple please be careful about its origin and look for the Fair Trade symbol and organic fruit.

Which Watercolour Paper?

Choosing the right paper for your work is so important, it can make a huge difference to the end result, and, to your painting experience. I have to apologise if you find this blog post boring - my daughter tells me it's worse than dull! but I'm sure I might have appreciated it at one time when I was confused about which paper to use. Paper varies so much in colour, texture, absorbency and weight and this makes the problem of  finding the right one for you very complicated!

I've tried so many papers over the years and have my favourites but please bear in mind that paper choice is a very personal thing and the best approach is to try as many as possible. Like most botanical painters I use Hot Press paper because of its smooth surface but papers also come in NOT or CP  ( meaning NOT Hot Pressed, also referred to as Cold Pressed, it has a slightly textured surface) some painters like this slightly textured surface but I don't care for it. Rough surfaced papers are also available but more suited to landscapes etc. 
Hot Pressed (HP) paper is the most suited to botanical work because its smooth surface enables the artist to achieve the good clean edges for precion work. HP paper is manufactured using a glazing or sizing process which is traditionally applied via pressure applied through heated steel surfaces.  Sizing is applied to the body of the paper and the surface as a gelatin. Therefore the level of sizing impacts on the papers level of absorbency.


The paper used should be of the best possible quality, 100% cotton rag papers are the best quality being made from the cotton linters ( rag was originally used in the process). Papers with wood pulp are more economically produced using chemically processed wood fibres. A mix is used in some papers. Any paper used for painting must be pH neutral ( acid free) for long term stability of colour and durability. 

I've settled on Fabriano Artistico HP 140lbs, which I've been using for a few years now. Occasionally I use the 300lb version for larger pieces but I don't use a great deal of water so have no need for the heavier weight paper. It's generally recommended to use a heavier paper if you use a lot of water or stretch the paper. A few years back I  used to use Schoellershammer 4G  which is more suited to line and wash - it's a super smooth lovely surface perfect for clean crisp illustrations but very unforgiving to errors.. These days I like something a bit softer in appearance.
 

My preferred paper, Fabriano Artistico 140 lb, gives a clean sharp edge but retains some softness. I always think you can tell a good paper when painting stems, not sure why but it needs a sharp edge and be able to handle good gradation in a small area.

 Now that I've relocated in a city with a real art shop, I've had the opportunity to have another look at papers rather than buying online, so a few weeks back I purchased a range of papers. In addition to the ones I've already tried, here are some of my findings along with a bit of technical info where I can find it.  Will add more as I work my way through them.

Fabriano 5 -  50% cotton rag and 50% wood pulp, acid free available in pads and sheets.  I first tried this paper when the Society of Botanical Aritsts recommended it for the Diploma students. I absolutely hate this paper, it's my least favourite. I don't care for the surface it spoils easily in my opinion but lots of people love it, perhaps this is something to do with the fact that it's only 50% cotton - I'm not sure because it's supposed to have a hard sized finish which implies that it has good durability but maybe that glaze is thin and the internal sizing is not so good ( I don't really know to be honest). Most of all though I dislike the unnatural white colour and find it has a slightly blue look to it! Costs around £2.15 per imperial sheet. 

Fabriano Artistico - 100% cotton, acid free. Available in imperial size sheets. This is pretty much still my favourite paper. Just the right amount of smoothness and absorbency for my style of working and a nice off white colour, tub sized which means it's fairly easy to lift paint. Available in the traditional white or extra white ( I've not tried extra white so can't comment but if you like that extra white look of the Fabriano 5 it's the way to go). Costs about £3.30 per sheet. 

Arches Aquarelle HP - 100% cotton imperial size sheets and blocks. A very absorbent paper which makes lifting and shifting paint difficult.  I don't mind this because I seldom lift paint but I many artists like to move their paint around a  bit so it's worth a mention  The surface is pretty robust though and doesn't spoil easily from overworking.  One of the things that I have noticed is a variation in what are supposed to be the same paper in sheet and blocks form. I have used Arches HP blocks and found them to be too thirsty, acting more like blotting paper by sucking in the water and paint immediately. This put me off Arches but in the back of  my mind I was sure I'd used it before in sheet form. So having recently purchased it again in sheet form it is indeed very different. I can only assume that there is a difference in the external sizing? or perhaps I had a bad batch from the block?  Arches can vary slightly in colour too because the water used  to wash the paper comes from the river and is muddy at certain times of year! I found the one I used most recently to be more of a bright off -white, more so than Fabriano Artistico but not so white as Fabriano 5 whereas in the past it's been nearer to a cream colour.I prefer this paper for drawing. I always draw on HP watercolour paper.

On Arches, (loose sheet) bit of a dark photo, very clean edge but absorbs too much. I prefer it for drawing on because you can get great detail 

  

Drawing on Arches, block

 The Langton Daler Rowney Extra Smooth HP pad, 100% cotton, acid free. Available in Pads and blocks.  A lower cost paper I discovered this one last year and as far as pads go I like it!  Lovely smooth surface, not too absorbent off white colour. 12 sheets rrp £14.50 for the pad. I use this for practise work rather than finished paintings. You can get a good clean finish on it.

Preparatory work on Langton Extra smooth HP, apologies slightly dark photo but hopefully you can see it gives a sharp edge

Schoellershammer 4G. 100% cotton. A very smooth surfaced paper available in sheets 51 x 71 cm. Suitable for line and wash and dry brush illustration work that requires a slightly different approach. Only available in 115lbs weight is £2.82 per sheet (min order 5 sheets). Pretty nice white colour.  They also manufacture exceptionally smooth board at £7.99 per sheet for line and wash illustration work.

On Schoellershammer 4G, Good for illustration work. This is an old one! 

Sennelier HP  Imperial sheets 56 x76cm (21 x 29ins), 300gsm/140lb, Hot Pressed (NOT or Rough also available)  100% cotton, mould-made, acid-free and chlorine-free. 
I used this paper during the SBA Diploma course and quite like it, could be a little smoother for me though but all in all a good paper easy to lift paint from. There were some supply issues with this paper and I've not been able to source the sheets very easily but have just found it at Heaton Cooper Studio for £3.95 per sheet. The pads only go up to 12 x16 inches which is a bit limiting but I would use it again if it was easier to find.

Sennelier paper used in the old days of the SBA Diploma course, nice paper but hard to get, still not as good as Fabriano Artistico though.

Saunders Waterford HP 100% cotton, acid free. I used the 300lb imperial sheet and found it rather difficult to work on because it absorbs water very quickly and has a pretty rough almost sandpaper like surface which makes it difficult to get clean crisp edges. It also seems to dull the colour slightly. Having said all of that it give a softer finish, which having finished my painting I really like. It contains no optical brighteners which adds to it's stability. Quite cream in colour around £ 6.50 a sheet but also available in 200lb in high white.  It's the only paper to carry the Royal Watercolour Society seal of approval. It's tub sized and is very robust and pretty easy to lift paint from. My initial reaction was that I'm not using this paper again! but now it's framed and on the wall I think I'll give it another go and maybe try the 200lb version. Again available from Heaton Cooper.

Saunders Waterford 300lb HP. My goodness it was hard going and sucked up the paint like crazy. The edges are a bit soft for botanical work but I quite liked the softer finished look for this floral piece. Also it's a large painting ( A1 ) and can handle soft edges better, wouldnt work so well on smaller precision work. 

 Hahnemuhle  140 lb  (300 gsm) HP sheets. I bought these cheap off the Art Discount website. Admittedly not the highest quality paper they produce but it's dreadful! Talk about making hard work of a painting. The surface is very easily disturbed and the absorption of colour is excessive. It's ok for drawing on as long as you don't want to erase anything. I''ve not tried their better quality papers. I wont post a photo of a painting because I gave up! Will post a graphite at a later date. 

NOTE: I put some rough guides to prices, only really useful at this point in time but gives you an idea. 

More to follow....when and if I get around to it!

Painting on Vellum

I've been painting on Kelmscott vellum for a number of years but recently tried the natural vellum for the first time. Both are available from William Cowley in the UK. I like the look of this vellum because of the warm colour and venation but it's a slightly different experience to paint on compared to the Kelmscott.

Old Rose Hips, on vellum 2013

This is a slight aside from the recent posts but I thought a short piece about painting on different types of vellum might be of interest, given that I'm using vellum for my core work at the moment, and currently teaching an online vellum course. I've also been getting a lot of emails asking about different types of vellum, so maybe there's a renewed interest. I'm discussing the Natural and Kelmscott in this post, however you can also paint on the Classic calfskin and Manuscript vellum, refer to Cowley's website, which provides great information about all types of vellum and parchment too.

Guelder Rose, Virburnum opulus, on vellum, 2013

  To highlight the difference between the two vellum types, you can see in the image below, the darker natural vellum is on the lower right. The other two pieces are both Kelmscott.
Natural vellum does not have the chalk wash surface coating, is thinner, therefore more transparent, has unique venation and warm colouring, it also has a slightly more shiny surface than than Kelmscott. These properties make it more challenging to work on. You need to use even less water than when using Kelmscott. The coating applied to Kelmscott alters the appearance of the vellum making it slightly more opaque but the luminosity is preserved. Kelmscott is no doubt the best surface for the botanical painter and is easier to paint on than natural vellum because you are painting on the surface coat rather than the actual skin. It's a very forgiving surface and errors can easily be removed by rubbing with fine grade pumice or by carefully scraping away a top layer of the coating with a scalpel. If you've never painted on vellum before always start with Kelmscott.

Vellum: Apologies for the boring photo!  The darker natural vellum can be seen bottom right, it's thinner and more transparent. The other two pieces are Kelmscott. The large piece is the Rory McEwen vellum, it has the edge of the skin on two sides and a thicker surface coating, prepared and applied by McEwen compared to the Cowley's Kelmscott on the upper right.  

  Back in 2007 I was gifted a piece of Rory McEwen's vellum,  the large piece seen in the photograph above. It was given to me by the late James White of the Hunt Institute, following the 12th International, which I participated in back in 2007. The Hunt Institute were given his vellum by the family, following McEwen's death in 1982. They gift  pieces to artists who show an interest in working on vellum, at their discretion. I've been a huge fan of Rory McEwen's work for many years,  so it was a great honour. However I haven't felt confident enough to paint on it yet but hope to make a start shortly. So I'm brushing up on my technique at the moment. I find it takes me a day or two to get into the method of painting on vellum. It  requires a very light touch and a lot of dry brush work. I've included some detailed images from my works below to demonstrate.

When working on vellum it's always a good idea to give it a rub down with fine grade pumice powder first. I put it in a small round bag, you can use muslin or I use a piece cut from a pair of ladies tights - works really well! Use small circular motions evenly over the surface.  This removes any grease and blemishes from the surface. I didn't prepare the first piece of natural vellum and it still worked OK but was a bit greasy in places and resisted the paint slightly, but if you work dry enough it's not a problem. For my second attempt I rubbed it down very lightly taking care not to apply any weight.

Detail from old rose hips, using dry brush over an initial wash

Detail from Guelder Rose

Detail of the leaf, showing dry brush and fine line work

Painting on Kelmscott vellum, First layer

Finished paintings on kelmscott

It's also difficult to draw on the natural vellum, I painted directly on to it free hand without drawing for the two paintings shown above. I made a pale under-painting first but there's not much room for error so decided a better approach for more complex compositions would be to use a lightbox, or, if the image is drawn on paper first it could traced with the brush because the vellum is so thin. Pencil work should always be kept to a minimum whatever type of vellum is used because it can be difficult to remove. 

If you are just starting out with vellum. I would recommend starting with something small and simple, such as seed-heads or small fruits, leaves or flowers. The most difficult subjects are large shiny leaves and large smooth surfaced fruits. Building up paints to create such smooth surfaces is difficult territory until you get the hang of it....and wasting vellum is an expensive mistake! 
Always tape down the vellum, although for very small pieces you can actually get away with not securing it. I tape smaller pieces to thick card which is a couple of inches bigger than the vellum, so that I can rotate it. Don't leave tape on the vellum for too long though because it will mark the vellum edge. Large pieces of vellum should be secured to a frame. It can also be glued to a surface to keep it flat.

One of the biggest problems with vellum is buckling,  This is caused by incorrect storage, too hot, cold or damp or using too much water when painting. Water is most certainly the enemy of vellum, so always work fairly dry. I apply only one light 'wash' and then use various dry brush techniques. Pay particular attention to the edges, when applying the first wash - it's not like a typical watercolour wash, because unlike paper the surface of the vellum is non-porous, paint will sit on top - you want to avoid any pooling at the edges, if this happens you need to mop it up  it using a small dry brush, you need to achieve a fairly soft edge. If you get an hard edge  this will create problems later on when the paint becomes too thick, if you try to lift it later you will get into all sorts of problems. It's best to avoid this in the first place by using less water. Thereafter gradually build up the paint in layers of dry brush.  Most of all remember to work work lightly and keep water to a minimum!

Larger work on Kelmscott, life size foxglove, 2011

     

Cherry leaf on Kelmscott, 2010. The background has been lightened for print on this image but it is more cream in colour.

Finally, if you have never painted on vellum before, give it a try, its unique properties are a gift to the botanical painter! and once you become experienced with vellum, you can even buy whole skins and prepare them yourself!

For more information thers's also an article on my website about painting on vellum.