More orchids
Posted: February 19, 2013 Filed under: Uncategorized 14 CommentsPainting flowers in watercolour is so difficult. The last thing you want is for them to be stiff and dry-looking and full of picky little details. So I have been trying to treat them as a mass instead of painting each blossom individually. The other thing you want to have is some stems and some leaves to connect them, but in this horizontal format the leaves were a mile away. This is my practice from today.
Shari Blaukopf's Sketchbook 
I like these. Could you tell me please the paint colors you used for the flower parts?
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Thanks Verla. I used permanent magenta, winsor violet and rose madder with a bit of new gamboge in the centres.
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Lovely and loose!
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Thanks Delft. Loose. That was what I was aiming for.
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Absolutely gorgeous, Shari. What lovely watercolour for a grey day.
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I guess you had the same weather in Ottawa as we did here. Yes, pretty ugly.
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i love the free, splattered effect of More orchids #2, Shari, but i think the only other way you may close the big gap between the blooms and their leaves might be to paint it from above 🙂
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I was thinking the same thing Mary. Otherwise there’s a big white space between them.
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Very elegant composition and colouring, and so similar to the orchids from a fortnight ago… hold on.
[3 minutes later] No, it’s OK… they were so similar to those previous orchids that I thought you might have cropped them and adjusted them in Photoshop… you know, maybe got too busy for painting today. But these ones are definitely different… everything is fine. : )
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Phew : )
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Yes, it would not be a good look to be outed on your own blog. So, is that what you meant by “keeping you on your toes”?
And, surely you must realize that while you may describe this painting as “my practice from today”, a lot of your followers (including me) are shaking their heads in because, if they did it, they may well describe it as “the best watercolour painting that I am likely to do in my whole life”. : )
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Yes, that’s exactly what I mean about keeping me on my toes.
As for the rest of your comment, stop! You are embarrassing me!
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This is beautiful! I coincidentally been looking at how to paint flowers in watercolour (I am PAINFULLY new to the medium) and these are some of the prettiest I’ve seen. I prefer when they look wild and natural opposed to precise and “photographic”.
I especially like the half-open bud on the right. Just the right amount of detail and I get a sense of motion from it, if that makes sense.
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Thanks you so much Jenn. Yes, flowers are so hard to paint in watercolour. I love the wild and natural look too and I am always trying to keep them fresh and loose. So glad you like them and happy that you let me know.
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