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.

2014 Plans and Inspirations

My last post was a summary of work from 2013. So I'm starting 2014 with a few plans for the new year - inspired by my friend Shevaun Doherty in her recent blog post.

This is my 50th year (eek!) so it really is time to at least try to be a bit more organised. Have been a bit shy of over planning the last couple of years because life has been slightly chaotic! but I always did like to set a goal or two.

There are two...or maybe three strands of work for me- commissioned illustration, teaching and the work that I call my own.  The first take precedence and supports the latter. So sometimes with the best will in the world plans have to change because illustration work comes along unexpectedly, I estimate that the 80:20 rule applies, with the lesser being the amount of time dedicated to my own work at the moment. Most of the illustration work is natural history based and painting things that aren't necessarily my own choice and prove to be challenging are good for me!

He is my Top Ten Plan for 2014 and the inspiration behind it.....

 1. Paint or draw every day. A few years ago I heard a comment in a documentary about one of my favourite artists, Lucian Freud, which stated that he painted every day of his life! I'm not altogether sure how accurate it was but it struck a chord and stayed with me. When I went to see his 'Portraits' exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in 2012 the incredible development of his work over the years was so clear to see and his sheer dedication was apparent- sometimes no douby at the expense of other things in his life. This exhibition, which was was shortly after his death made me think about how important it is to paint frequently, and, how much time I've wasted thinking about what to do rather than time actually doing it! So to the point! I intend to carry on as I have over the last year and will endeavour paint or draw something everyday, no matter how small. I know being an illustrator isn't quite the same as being a real 'artist'  but the dedication to do better is the same for everything. Some of my work will be illustration and some will be my own work but it's all good practice. I've started the year with another 15 marine species paintings for Macduff Marine Aquarium, it's a warm up ......here's a glimpse.

Marine species illustrations completed Jan 2014

2. Don't leave it until the last minute ....... Well that speaks for itself! I MUST improve my time management regarding the balance between the different strands of work! Oh and don't take on too many things. When I tell people I'm an artist/ illustrator they seem to think it's some relaxing easy job or part time'hobby'. Sometimes it is  relaxing but it can be pretty pressurised when clients want work yesterday! I wouldn't change it for any other job in the world even though it pays badly and means long hours.  

3. Submit work for the SBA annual exhibit at Westminster, in May. I've been exhibiting on and off with the SBA since 2000. I was elected a full member in 2012 but last year I was gutted not to exhibiti following acceptance. I figured I had an excuse given that life had turned a bit upside-down, but it's no excuse for neglecting things because of a few unsettling life events! So a good  kick in the backside is in order for missing that one, and, for feeling sorry for myself! 

It had always been a goal of mine to become an SBA member but for practical reasons I'd been inconsistent with submitting the required number of works over the years. I worked really hard at having the 5 paintings accepted in 2010, 2011 which gave me associate membership and then again in 2012. I was delighted to receive the phone call from former President Vicki Marsh, informing me that I'd been elected as a full member.... and on my birthday too! I felt I'd let myself down by not exhibiting. This year I won't be submitting 5 and I'm pretty relieved that I don't have to submit so many anymore! I'm hoping to complete a large piece on vellum for the show based on autumnal garden finds. The theme this year is the Botanical Garden, I think the autumn garden is as interesting as in summer, so this will be the focus of my work. 

Preparatory work for SBA show

 4. Prepare work for RHS London Orchid Show.  This one is a bit daunting! I've always wanted to do this show and despite the fact that I've been exhibiting with the RHS since around 2004 ( accepted by the Picture Committee in 2002 ) I've  never been offered it before. Funny really because I even wasn't going to apply this year but received an email reminding me to apply for space the day before the deadline and thought....Ok one more! so there you go.....  refer to no. 2. I'll tell you later what I'm submitting for the show

5. Paint the Jade Vine for the Sydney Royal Botanic Garden Florelegium. Really delighted to have been be  invited to become a member of the Society in a letter that arrived out of the blue from Beverly Allen last year. I was issued with the plant list and chose the Jade Vine because it's big, bold and beautiful ....that's a bit of a challenge for me!  I was too late to paint it last year but sourced the plant and it's my BIG challenge this year. Not sure yet but think I may paint it on vellum.

Jade vine flower

6. Take Part in the Nature Sketchbook Exchange  How nice to be invited to take part in this initiative, whereby a group of 15 artists all have a Stillman & Birn sketchbook. Each artist will draw or paint something every month then pass it on to the next artist.  Great idea! 

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Banner for the Nature Sketchbook Exchange project

7. If time permits another 30 Day Challenge would be good. Really enjoyed this last year because so many other artists joined in.  Not sure if I have time for it this year and perhaps somebody else will take the lead.

8. Develop my Teaching. Website resources and classes. I created a new website in 2013 for my students and to enable better access to botanical art tuition. For years I wanted to have some art tuition in botanical art and never could, for all sorts of reasons it was outside my grasp, whether it was having young children, living miles from anywhere or simply not having the funds for some of the very expensive botanical art courses, which felt a bit elitist to me. Also some courses don't cover the fundamental skills or 'building blocks' required in watercolour so I wanted to take a slightly different approach. I have some brilliant students and really look forward to developing this area of work over the coming year.  
 I'll also be running a class from the 20th to the 26th July back in Aberdeenshire, Scotland at a fantastic venue on the Moray Firth Coast, the  Creative Retreat

More additions to the teaching website, click to view

9. Blog a bit more often. I did a lot more last year than in previous years, largely due to the 30 day challenge and it's great to see so many other botanical artists blogging nowadays. Writing things down and asking myself questions is the best thing for the thought process! :)    

10.  Finally.....Enjoy it, try to be a better painter, don't get stressed and don't make excuses!  I know that's 4 things really...... but it's my list ! stress serves no purpose whatsoever, so it has no place!

That's it........Simple!

My Year in Paintings, 2013.....100 plus works!

As the year comes to an end I thought it might be good to look back over the year to remind myself what I've been up to all year .....a bit of an end of year  'stock take'.  It feels slightly self indulgent but it's not intended to be, it's more of a comment on how painting always returns after lean periods....painting really is the constant!

All-in-all it's been a better year for painting than the previous one, 2012 was a tricky year with not a lot of painting and it took some time to readjust and get back into the swing of things after lots of upheaval. I missed most of the annual shows in 2013 year and made a bit of a bad job of the ones that I did do.... but life settled down and I managed to get back into work. This blog post is a summary  of some of the work completed in 2013, some of which is ongoing.

30 small works. Natural objects from the 30 day Challenge

There's no chronological order here, instead I've started with the most significant and enjoyable little project, which was purely for fun!. It was the 30 Day Challenge, which I undertook in late September. It was a spur of the moment idea, which was triggered by a visit to Norfolk and some old and new found natural objects and it felt like a good idea to kick starting the painting. I've tried 30 day Challenges before but never quite finished them - this one was different because lots of other artists joined in, and it was a broader subject area. It was so encouraging and inspiring to see such enthusiasm! It didn't matter whether everybody did all 30, the important part was the sense of community from people with a shared interest who are brought together from all over the world.

I also completed 6 paintings for the RHS show at Malvern in May. I forgot to photograph them so there's only this one as a record  because I've since lost all 6 paintings! 

Bleeding Heart Reproductive mechanism, and oversized painting ( x 4). One of 6 dissection paintings of reproductive mechanisms.

Other work has included some Collections pieces and even more rosehips, completed during October and November. Collections paintings are ongoing when I can find the time.

Some paintings of collections of Autumn finds

large Collection work in progress....on hold

........and some paintings on vellum

Paintings of Autumn finds on kelmscott and natural vellum

some miniatures vellum set into jewellery

Miniatures on vellum

Some miscellaneous paintings, lots of pinks and purples

Bits and pieces in pinks and purples

And lots and lots of fish, starting early 2013 with seahorses and most recently in November 30 fish. Here's a small selection of over 40 images of sealife completed this year.

Some of the 45  sealife illustrations

To round the year off and into 2014, I'm working on a range of illustrations for an new range of organic food products. Three down and 27 to go!  Can't share these yet but here are small snippets from the roughs.

Food illustrations completed last week of December

I estimate that's in excess of 100 works, so if you think you haven't achieved during the year it's worth a look back in time to see what you have actually done. Admittedly some of mine were pretty small efforts but they all count. The main thing to keep in mind if you're struggling to get going or in a lull is do something small and try to paint or draw on every available day.....even if it's just a doodle.  

That's about it for my year! Hopefully I'll paint some larger works next year.

New Website for Online Botanical Courses!

Finally managed to build a new dedicated website for Botanical Art Online, my online courses! I  decided last week that it was high time I got to grips with this job and made some decisions, so I've been neglecting the painting this week and focused my concentration on the website. It's still in infancy and no doubt in need of a bit of editing here and there.... but I've started! Most important though is the fact that this means I can now deliver materials, videos and and documents to my students via a password protected area for each course rather than by email. Hopefully this will make life so much easier for all and the real beauty of it is that you can just keep adding and changing materials so that it doesn't become 'stagnant'! Passwords will be sent out this week and I'll just have to wait to see what the students make of it.

Home page for Botanical Art Online, courses in watercolour, vellum and graphite, click on the image to access the website.

 I've wanted to do this for several years and feel that technology just isn't taken full advantage of in education, surprisingly even in distance learning programmes it's still under used. Over the years I've tried just about every method of learning and teaching possible and have to admit to being a bit of a course addict at one time! After leaving University I worked for a while in a large education authority developing ways of using technology to deliver education materials and information over a large geographic area. Of course that geographic area wasn't global but today pretty much anything is possible anywhere and it really is a small world! Technology is increasingly user friendly it's a great asset to take advantage of if you like a learning curve.  

The three courses currently on offer, details and the teaching programme can now be downloaded directly from the site.

 There is of course an argument that online learning can never match up to learning in a class environment where you can see a real demonstration. I don't disagree with that at all but in my opinion online learning isn't intended to be a substitute for a class, it's just another method of learning and teaching, and, for all sorts of reasons it's not always possible for indivduals to attend classes. The Open University have been delivering online courses very successfully for a number of years. I've done a few in the past myself and always found the more tech savvy tutors and interactive courses are the better ones- but then I prefer electronic documents over paper anytime, not just because it's a bit greener but also because I lose everything and have a small house!

Examples shown here from the  Watercolour course

I wanted to be mindful of my own experience of distance learning in that it can be very isolating, this is something that I want to avoid because it's not a good feeling when you're studying. I believe learning has to be brought up to date rather than using the more 'old school' correspondence course approach, otherwise people feel too alone and this is a reason for drop out. Social media provides another great opportunity for sharing and I also use it with my group of students, it's easy to be critical of it but it's a brilliant way to deliver, discuss and share and it's a bit of fun too.


These days it seems many artists do some teaching and being an artist generally means lots of diversification....with websites, blogs and social media all becoming part of the daily tasks for the jobbing artist.... it's a wonder we have any time at all for painting! To highlight the diversity I have switch jobs again tomorrow and it's back to illustration with a commission for 30 fish to complete before the end of year! .....never seems to be two days the same!

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!

New Work.... Old Theme and SBA Exhibition Planning Time!

Much as I'm enjoying these mini painting challenges I'm now way overdue in planning towards next years exhibitions. It's time to start a new work for the the Society of Botanical Artists (SBA) annual exhibition, titled, The Botanical Garden. which takes place in May next year at Westminster Halls. The handing in date is later than usual being the 17th March..... This later date is definitely a good thing for a disorganised painter!

 I've been exhibiting with the SBA for a number of years on and off since around 2000. I missed last years show due to the general upheavals of life......these upheavals shouldn't be allowed to interfere with painting but sometimes they do. The big question as always is ..... what should I paint or draw?

So here's the beginnings of a plan:

Beginnings..... Planning the layout and colours starts with a rough layout' painting.

I'm trying to link things together here, so instead of moving onto a completely blank sheet I'm sticking with the recent autumnal theme of the Challenge and will work on one large final piece, which will be on vellum. For this work I'm going to draw inspiration from the 30 day challenge and collection pieces by attempting a more complex work with much overlapping of the subjects.
While my local park/garden may be nothing special in the botanical world .... with no national collections or rarities; parks and gardens such as this late 19th century one, were established in a highly industrialised areas for the benefit of the people. They were at one time the only contact with parks and gardens for many people and shouldn't be overlooked as a source of worthwhile material. Also the autumn /winter garden is just as interesting as the summer herbaceous border in any botanic garden! So this might just work for one of the SBA submissions if it turns out OK.....but lets see how it goes...if it's looking a reasonable effort, who know I might even try another one! but with only 4 months to prepare that might be overly optimistic! 

Work started on Monday.  Reviewing the 30 day challenge subjects as contenders for inclusion in a  new work 

After reviewing the 30 day paintings and rummaging through yet another bag of old leaves and fruits on Monday. I started by drawing rough layouts on a roll of scrap paper on Tuesday. I want the final piece to be large and so working at A1 size . This work will probably take many weeks, possibly months because vellum painting is quite slow.
The rough layouts were completed in pencil, I traced some of the components to move them around which is my usual approach but I soon realised that with so many components there were issues with the balance of the colours, so decided that the way forward in this case is to complete a rough watercolour first to establish whether or not the composition works. I'm doing it this way because of the sheer quantity of material, colours and overlaps. It's more work initially but the only way to tell if a work is balanced, and, in the long term the better the planning the easier the painting!
I estimate that this preparatory work will take about a week, maybe more.  Once the rough is completed I will be able to see what needs to be moved, and whether or not it's worth pursuing as an idea! if  all is good the necessary readjustments will be applied accordingly, if not, I'll start over.
 Once I'm happy with the final layout will be transferred on to natural vellum for painting. I know wont be easy! the natural vellum is very thin and will have to be stretched on a frame or secured to board....still thinking about the options for that one!

Today, I'll continue with the panting, and order the vellum with optimism.

A little bit more progress

.....Will keep you posted on the progress, more photos later today. 

No. 3 Collections Series....More Park Life

I'm a bit behind for reasons explained later but here's the painting started last week .... finally finished late last night. It's yet another small painting on vellum of objects found in Queens Park, Staffs.

No. 3 More Park Life, Horse Chestnut and Oak finds. Size 7 x 5, watercolour on  Kelmscott vellum

No 3. Detail

 Been a funny week having had some problems painting due to troublesome hand injury from a while back. Painting seems to aggravate it so a few days off were required. I think we painters need to be careful with the hands because of repetitive strain problems. So last week I started a blog post on patterns in nature instead.... this has turned into a much larger project than expected and is now ongoing....sometimes ideas just grow arms and legs! I'll post it sometime up ahead!
Yesterday I finally decided to take up the paint brush again and finish Collection piece no. 3 before the leaves broke up completely. I normally put the leaves into a plastic bag and spray them with water and place outside (when it's cool) but forgot over the weekend!

Another point worth mentioning is that these paintings on vellum are very difficult to photograph. The light isn't great today but it's not right to make the background to white on a painting on vellum, because it's not a true representation....the vellum being an integral part of the painting. I'm afraid these images have come out rather blue so I'll try to photograph them again on a better day. I don't much care to see watercolour backgrounds taken too white either because the paper isn't really that white. I think the basic rule when to adjusting an image in a photo editing programme, such as Photoshop is that you need a fairly decent photograph to start with.....that all comes down to having good natural light. Bit like painting really.

I might add the colours to this post later. The New Gamboge works a treat on the rich golden yellows on the Horse chestnut leaves though.

 Ok here are the colours:
Horse chestnut leaf: First wash: Transparent Yellow and Burnt Sienna.
Dry brush with green, a mix of Fr Ultramarine and Transparent Yellow
Add veins, Burnt sienna and raw Umber for brown veins adding in Indanthrene Blue for the darker central vein. A more concentrate mix of the green mix for green veins.
For the areas where the light shines through the leaf, creating a more intense yellow, I used New Gamboge with a tiny amount of Permanent rose in places.
Shadow, a warm the brown mix as above with more blue and a little Permanent Carmine. 
Build up the colours and model the surface of the leaf using dry brush.
Add details and blemishes using the various brown mixes as appropriate.
 
 Oak Leaf
First wash.  A mix of Permanent Carmine and transparent yellow was used for the initial brown colour.
A mix of Transparent Yellow and Sap Green was used for the light green wash. A little green Gold was added in the more yellow areas.  For the dark blemishes I used Indanthrene Blue and Permanent Carmine.  The browns were built up using Burnt Sienna and added Neutral Tint in the darkest areas

Green Acorns
Very light wash of Cerulean Blue and Cobalt Blue. Build up colour varying the mix and using the Cerulean for the highlight and reflected light. Use dry brush in a drawing style to delineate the indents and ridges on the acorn. Raw Sienna was used for the browns

Conker 
Actual conker, an initial wash of Gold Ochre and Scarlet Lake was applied first leaving the highlight clear. Cerulean Blue and Cobalt violet was used for the reflected light areas. Burnt Sienna and was used to build up the colour and some ultraviolet added for the richer brown areas.

Shadow was ultraviolet and Cobalt Blue.
Conker exterior green, a  mix of Cobalt Blue and Lemon Yellow.
Dark Blemishes,  a mix of Indanthrene Blue plus Permanent Carmine plus a very small quantity of Transparent Yellow. 
The flesh, A combination of Lemon yellow, Cerulean Blue and Raw Umber.

Collections Series, no. 2. Remnants from the 30 Day Challenge

This is my second work as part of the Collections series. I didn't want too many items on the page but feel this is a bit sparse. The subjects are left- overs from those collected for the 30 day challenge. All came from Longton Park in Staffodshire.

Collections Series no. 2. Remnants,  Size 16 x 25 cm

  I didn't spend an awful lot of time planning this piece and simply arranged the subjects on a sheet of white paper to work from - moving them around a little until they looked roughly balanced. My only reference point was to make the objects at the outer edges broadly in line, somehow the beech seed ended up in the wrong place, being lower down than the lichen!  I notice now that I naturally alternate the direction of the subjects in rows but didn't give this any particular thought at the time. Putting an image on screen is very useful because I can clearly see where the subjects might have been better placed. I often look at composition ideas on screen - it helps me to spot errors.  However these works are not intended to take very long, not much more than a half day per to a day per work -  so no such planning or over planning because this is just an add on activity intended to improve my painting by regular working in set time limits.  Hopefully I'll get the hang of arranging these collections as I progress.

Detail of lichen encrusted twig

Detail of lichen and moss

 I chose to add a shadow beneath each item, which is not something that I'd normally do. The general consensus seems to be that there's no place for shadows in botanical art,  yet if you attend the annual SBA or other botanical shows you will usually find a number of paintings with shadows.  Personally I don't see the problem with having a shadow in a ' nature' based painting like this, it's not a botanical illustration and doesn't interfere with the subject in any way. Shadow is only a problem if you were to add one to a work that is intended to be a more traditional style botanical illustration - i.e. for plant identification purposes, I think too much fuss is made about the inclusion of shadows....but I'm undecided on whether to use shadow for next weeks painting.

The acorns

Empty conker