Day 4, Yes, it's Another Bulb!

OK this is looking a bit like the 30 day bulb challenge but I promise to paint something else eventually! This evenings effort was a tulip from Amsterdam...other than that I've no idea what type it is but the spouting tip had a nice bit of red on it which made it more interesting....the reddening is probably caused by stress because it should really be in the ground rather than rolling around on my desk!

Todays sprouting tulip bulb painted on a scrap of Kelmscott vellum size 11 x 15cm. All paints were W & N  pans which I prefer for vellum. You can see I like to use the tape and cardboard support to test colour and dry off the brush. David Jackson's brushes ( The Brushman) are the best when it comes to fine lines on vellum!

Starts off looking frightenly scruffy! For the initial wash I used some cerulean blue for the highlight, a bit of cobalt violet for the reflected light and a mix of transparent yellow and perylene maroon for the basic hue

Thereafter I build up the colour and use the modelling dry brush technique using a few different brushes, including the the Rosemary & Co short flat and spotter size 1 and 2. Thin thin transparent layers of colour are layered to create the form shadow. I also added some scarlet lake to the mix on the shade side where it's warmer, on the right side the mix is more yellow. The fine veins are picked out with a pointed brush and the basic hue mix.

Finishing off the bulb I added some purple to the mix, I don't know what it is other than it's Japanese and the most amazing deep violet colour which was asking to be used for something!  No idea about the permanence of this paint but I'm just playing around here so don't really care too much .... it's such a great colour though that I'll check it out properly. Finally I added the pale green shoot using a mix of lemon yellow and cobalt blue with perylene maroon for the red/brown colouration. Ultraviolet was used for the shadows and some van dyke brown and perylene maroon for the darkest fine details.

Tomorrow, maybe I'll break free from the bulbs or I might just stick with them for the week now...