I have just a few comments to make about this watercolor of a coleus plant.
The subject was chosen as I work to use my own photographs for reference images. The picture you see on my computer screen was taken in my laundry room. It has the best sunlight for growing plants. By aiming the camera down from above, I achieved a simple image very suitable for a small painting.
After sketching with Prismacolor water soluble pencils, I added green-gold, Thalo blue, unltramarine blue and quinacridone magenta to a 4×6 piece of Fabriano cold-press paper.
It’s been a very long time since I have seen one of these in the wild:
Photograph by Mitch Zeissler
When I was a child roaming the woods in Ohio, we called this plant Jack-in-the-pulpit. This very wonderful photograph brought back memories and enticed me to try a watercolor version of it.
Sketch and initial wash on the background.
Finished painting
Most of the paints were Daniel Smith, a few Winsor & Newton. I used yellow ochre, green-gold, Winsor green, ultramarine blue, carbazole violet, alizarin crimson and quinacridone red. I also placed a few dabs of white gouache. Paper is Fabriano Studio cold press.
You may recall that I was back to experimenting in water color paint earlier this week. Working with carbazole violet, I laid down a wash and then lifted the paint back in vertical lines. Because these looked like tree outlines to me, I added some pencil lines to accentuate the effect.
Yesterday I returned to this sketch. Deciding that I would continue with one color, I started to layer up violet washes between the white lines. This went pretty well, except for the fact that some of the white trunks and branches got covered up. In my mind the painting was ruined. Instead of giving up on it, I let the paint dry and then, following the lines of the trunks, lifted up the paint to find some branches. I stroked some paint horizontally in the foreground to suggest tracks in the snow. Finally I dabbed water and dots of paint in upper area of the paper, splashed on more water and let it dry again. Now I was willing to sign this one.
GHOSTLY TREES
It’s interesting how much I am learning by doing with these little pieces. I guess it’s the idea that there is no price to pay for failure.
Daily Fiber 