Works in Progress - Watercolour

Here I will show you in photos the development of one of my botanical watercolour paintings "Horse Chestnut". In each photo, you will notice the steps I have used in this piece to bring the details into light. The criteria for judging botanical work is it's accuracy and artistic merit. That would include the proportions of one part of the plant to other parts, as well as average sizes. One of the fun parts of botanicals is drawing sketches and taking notes in the field. Sometimes even these notes and sketches are exhibited!

FIRST:

The subject matter in botanicals must be studied and all the details of it's shapes, colours and size noted. It is best to have the plant or bloom in front of you, but if not I rely on many, many photos. After drawing the various parts you want to include, you trace the individual images onto tracing paper and move them around to decide on positioning. Below is the final rendering on the Arches 300lb. cold press paper, done with a lighter pencil. I am careful not to press too hard, as I will be scoring the paper with a Staedtler Mars Plastic white eraser.

SECOND:

The underlying colour in the leaves is yellow. Here I used a lemon yellow. If you look closely, you can see the erase marks across the pencil lines (this lessens the amount of carbon left on the paper before paint is applied).

THIRD:

I have painted the concors (with the covering and without) and the tiny budding stems. A blueish shade was put on top of the leaves. I like imperfect specimens, so the leaves shave some signs of insect damage. It is also now established that the sun is coming from the right...as the left sides of the stems are painted darker.

FOURTH:

The covered pods with their protective bristles are developed more with sharp points added and a mottled surface for them to spring from. The blooms are starting to be filled in with a Payne's grey colour added to shape the individual petals. More work on layering a different green colour on the leaves.

FIFTH:

A section of the bloom, at the top of the painting is now showing the yellow centres in more detail and the stamens are painted in. The bristles on the split skin of the concor are painted in, with their direction carefully detailed.

SIXTH:

I loved painting the center bud! Each of the tiny leaves at the bottom were so colourful and differently shaped. The shadowing was important to pay attention to, as well as the veins in the baby leaves. The split concur pod is now filled in and the surface textured.

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SEVENTH:

The composition, to me, was a bit off...so I added two more stamens! Sometimes you just have to trust your artistic instincts and go for it.