Painting Rich Colour, Texture and Detail: Rudbeckia

This week I painted the second in a series of four illustrations, a Rudbeckia inflorescence, a cultivar called "Summerina Brown", which has dark golden brown velvety 'petals' (ray florets). This type of colour and texture can be challenging and in order to achieve such a finish it's necessary to understand two things. Firstly, the importance of underlying and interacting colours and secondly the necessary of different watercolour techniques to maintain underlying colours and build texture. Here is a little about my process.

Lighting

These flowers are incredibly obliging for the painter, they flower for months and last a long time once cut, towards the end of summer they start to yellow producing amazing autumnal colours. I began by lighting the plant to make the most of its colour, using a 5,500 k daylight lamp with a CRI (colour render index) of over 90. I wanted to bring out the full range of colours and the velvety texture, without good lighting this isn't possible, is I played with the light until I created the desired look but kept in mind the true colour of the flower at all times. I took many reference photographs in case the flower wilted, but it didn't! 

The flower: I used a few different flowers for reference, this one had a slightly gnarled centre, so I used one with a fresher looking centre. I lit the flower dramatically to bring out the golden colour and to make more of the highlights which had a contrasting violet appearance in places, these contrasting colours work to enhance each other. 

Research 

I made sketches and notes about the plant and other Rudbeckias in my garden. It's a member of Asteraceae, which have an inflorescence comprising a central disc of tiny flowers, surrounded by the petal like ray florets. In this Rudbeckia the stem is ridged and hairy, leaves are simple and hairy on both sides. I also made sketches of other Rudbeckia from the garden as seen below, but this Summerina Brown is my favourite and I loved the way the petals twist and turn, it makes a much more interesting composition than the one below, which is nice but quite stiff.

Sketchbook studies: A different Rudbeckia, gorgeous colours but not such an appealing shape.

Process 

Colour matching is the first task and I do this in good natural daylight. I identify any underlying colours, there are violets and golden yellows. and dark red/browns in the ray florets.
I begin by painting in the underlying colours in the petals, I identify rich violets mixed from Indanthrene Blue and Quinacridone Magenta and also a warmer mix of Indanthrene Blue and Permanent Carmine (mostly carmine). I also drop in a few small highlights of a lighter Manganese Blue which makes the violet pop.

Putting in the underlying colours also creates form and structure in the early stages of the painting

As a slight aside, I can't miss out the central disc structure. I plotted this by lightly drawing in the two spirals, one is clockwise and the other counterclockwise, you can probably see below that one spiral is not as steep as the other. This is actually easier than it looks if you sketch the spirals in and then paint around the little flowers, towards the centre of the disk they disappear into a furry type of appearance.  I paint the spirals in first but not as straight lines but painting around the little bumps of the flower and add a the violet wash over the top, varying the colour slightly from a blue violet to a red violet by altering the ratio of blue and red. I leave the yellow pollen areas clear of paint and add yellow later. Finally. I deepen between the flowers where necessary using creamier darker mixes, which are almost black using the same colours as the painting develops, the colours are Indanthrene Blue, Permanent Carmine and a touch of Transparent Yellow.

This is a typical composite Inflorescence. Here you can see the two spirals in the central disk, which comprises many tiny flowers, the yellow is the pollen from the open flowers at the outer edge. Flower opening is sequential and this maximises a chance of pollination over a long period. Each tiny flower can develop into a single seed if successfully pollinated. 

After painting in the underlying violet colours I start to add selective areas of the golden colour, I do this by dampening the area where I want this colour to shine through and apply by dropping a condensed creamy mix of Transparent Yellow mixed with a touch of Scarlet Lake into the brighter areas. It's important to control the intensity and spread, so dampening the area with the right amount of water is important.
I also start to add the darker reds, using a combination of 3 reds. The reds in this flower vary from cooler to warmer mixes depending on the light. The three reds used in this painting are Quinacridone Magenta (cool), Scarlet Lake (the brightest 'hot' red) and Permanent Carmine (darker warm red). I also mix very rich dark purples for the deepest shadow areas using the Carmine and Indanthrene.

Adding the bright colours, yellows and reds.

At this stage, I begin to build the petal colour and texture. Using transparent yellow, scarlet lake and Permanent Carmine in different ratios of mixes, I continue to build colour by what I refer to as 'selective application' wetting/dampening small areas with clean water  and dropping in colour. In fact I seldom add a wash of any one colour all over any subject and use this selective approach all of the the time, its more like a 'patchwork' painting.

building up the petal veins with soft veins 

As I build colour less and less water is used, ironically water can be the enemy of the watercolour botanical artist, too much in a flower like this will spread and dilute colour, it can also flatten the intensity of the colour and smother the underlying colours that we want to preserve,  making them dirty (not to mention the problem of ragged and hard edges) - too little water makes unsightly thick paint, so I find dampening the the most useful approach.
There are deep ridges and soft veins in the ray florets/ 'petals' and I dampen the area and paint these using a fairly thick mix of paint onto a pre dampened area so that lines are soft. To define edges I wet the outer edge where the hard line is needed and drop creamy paint at the edge and soften inwards. I use dry (damp brush is probably a better description) on a slightly dampened surface to create the velvety surface texture.  There is much selective layering and building of colour, some needs to be overlaid and other areas preserved - at this stage I find that I have to be brave and keep going! adding small amounts of reds, violets and brown using these techniques but still using the same colours by dampening and dry approach interchangeably to control the colour. At this stage I must keep a close eye on the light and shade in the flower to see the bumps and crevices in the 'petals' and elsewhere. I try not to make assumptions and keep looking at the subject for clues.  I find consistent lighting from a lamp and squinting helps me to see the lights and darks yet I always use a magnifier to see and paint the detail.

Bring up to this stage using the red/brown mixes for the colour building. I use dry on damp and dry on dry depending on the desired outcome, dry on damp is great for those soft veins. A wetter surface is needed for creating a sharp edges and dry on dry can create more texture.

I add the stem and this looks almost finished but I continue to add more colour as the actual flower is richer. Definition is still needed in the center and edges.  

 I add the green stem and a single leaf, for this mix I use underlying blue on the light side of the stem (Manganese Blue) and underlying violet at the shade areas (Manganese Blue and Quinacridone Magenta) these subtle colours are hardly visible but do make a difference. I use a mix of Indanthrene blue, transparent yellow and a touch of quinacridone magenta for the green mix (yes the same colours as used elsewhere) I paint in the darker ridges and than add a yellow biased green mix first, followed by a richer darker green (more blue and red in the mix) - using the same colours in the flower and the greens creates more 'unity in a painting. I never find the need to use ready made greens, some greens contain black and other pigments that flatten the colour especially when mixed. Don't get me wrong some ready mixed greens are probably ok but I never find the need for them.
Finally, I add the fine hairs at the edge that are on the white paper using a mix of manganese blue, quinacridone magenta and transparent yellow to mix a grey, where the pale hairs are on the green, I use some white gouache and add a small amount of the same colour. I also paint a small shadow line under some of the hairs using a violet mix. At this point I put the panting away for a day and then review.

Rudbeckia watercolour size 28 x 18 cm The finished painting, slightly deeper colour  added all over.

Materials 

Paints, Windsor & Newton artist quality: 

Reds: Quinacridone Magenta, Scarlet Lake and Permanent Carmine

Yellows: Transparent Yellow 

Blues: Manganese Blue and Indanthrene Blue 

Brushes:

Winsor and Newton series 7 Miniature size 4 and 2 

Paper:

Saunders Waterford  140lb (300gsm) HP  High white 

I've been using this paper for all my tutorials and paintings over the last few months and find that it's pretty robust. so for the moment will stick with it.  I seldom need a heavier paper as I don't use much water, I only use heavier paper if working on large paintings, such a a full imperial sheet size. 

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!

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.