Hydrangeas before and after breakfast
Posted: August 17, 2020 Filed under: Uncategorized 29 CommentsWhile I was weeding the garden the other day I discovered lots of hydrangea blooms hidden under some other plants. Since they flower too low to be seen from any other vantage point in the garden, I cut them and stuck them in a vase so I can enjoy them in the house.
This morning before breakfast I sketched them quickly in Procreate, on my iPad. I love how they flop out of the vase and bend in all directions. That’s likely because they were blooming on the ground so all of the flower heads are flattened on one side and a little bit odd.
After breakfast and a walk with Alice, I tried them in watercolour. I was hoping to keep the same simplicity of shapes as in my digital sketch. White blooms can be tricky because you want them to have a light side and a shadow side, but you still want them to be white. I used a variety of colours in the shadows but still tried to keep the values light. Painted on a block of Winsor & Newton Rough paper, 16″ x 12″.
Shari Blaukopf's Sketchbook 
It’s lovely! Love the pale colours.
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Thanks so much Gay.
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I think you’ve succeeded, Shari. They look beautiful both ways.
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Thanks so much Lois!
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They are lovely both ways but the glass is prettier in watercolor. I know nothing about Procreate so I don’t know the limitations, if any. But I love the way you paint a glass vase.
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Thanks Judy!
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Hydrangeas before and after breakfast
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..love the watercolor..what are your greens in this one..I’m playing w/viridian & aureolin & various reds..
Brenda
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I used some unusual combinations here. Lots of Cobalt Green in the background and then cerulean and cobalt blue with Winsor Yellow in the leaves. Thanks Brenda.
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As always, such beautiful use of color. Love how the colors in the shadows are also in the glass and the flowers. Great idea to use Procreate for the initial sketch followed by watercolor.
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Thanks Becky.
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Interesting. At first glance, before reading your post, I thought the first one was in gouache.
Both are wonderful impressionistic sketches of these great blooms.
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Thanks Alison!
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Stunning!
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Thanks so much Michele!
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Both are lovely, but my heart goes to the watercolor version. Glad you are getting lots of use from those cuttings. Enjoy!
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Thanks Denise!
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Your Hydrangeas are spot on. When I was a boy we were told the flowers were pink or blue depending on the alkaline/acid content of the soil. Ever heard that?
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I have heard of that Lee. We can’t grow the blue ones here unless we augment the soil with one of those, but I can’t remember which one. And then the following year they revert to white anyway!
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White flowers of any kind are difficult to pull off in watercolor. Your rendition is wonderful! They are lucious, yummy eye candy!
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Thanks Bernadette!
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Love the abstraction in the watercolor, and the colors harmonies!
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Thanks so much Jean!
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Both are good, but the watercolor shows the shapes of the petals more and the shapes in the vase really make the blooms stand out. I really like that one. Nicely done!!
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Thanks Joan!
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It’s so interesting to me how different these Hydrangea paintings are and yet both just as lovely.
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Thanks Laurie!
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Both renderings are spot on. The only difference with the Procreate approach is that it looks more like what opaque watercolor would look like. It was you that inspired me in the buying an 11” iPadPro where I’m teaching myself doing watercolors using Procreate. One can get some interesting washes with a lot of work ! I like using my iPad so much that I bought a second one which is the 11” IPadPro 2020 with the wide angle lenses. Check out my artist spider.blogspot.com I’m using for self training for my WORDPRESS site.
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Thanks James. I would love to check out your blog but this link doesn’t work. Is there another one?
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