The considerations:-
- Edging – leave the edge of petals the colour of the paper.
- Curls on leaves and petals – where two lines cross and the top and underside of a leaf/petal are in view, use lights and darks to differentiate the two.
- Underpainting with yellow, an essential part of floral art, which you can then work wet on wet or in glazes.
- Using Gum Arabic – some leaves have a wonderful waxy quality and shine. Use Gum Arabic to achieve the shine – you can water the gum down slightly, if you apply it too thickly it will dry unsmoothly.
- Fibonacci Numbers – If you know this sequence of numbers it makes it rather more easy to count how many petals occur in each layer of petals in a round headed flower like a camellia. Sequence: 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, etc, add the previous two numbers together to get the next amount. Pine cones, pine apples, sunflower heads are good examples too.
- Approach – Vignette, no boundary to painting, or put the plant in its natural habitat, using complimentary colours that fade into the background, using wet on wet and light tones of colour.
- Layout for your drawing – Put the flower in a vase or any container that keeps it fairly upright, the best way to display a flower is if it appears “growing” – in my opinion and experience that is a good way to represent floral art.
- Lines – use a watercolour pencil, pencil lines have to be erased as you work (which I do but it is not really the most practical way to work). Using watercolour pencils – the pencil will dissipate into the water you add.
- Veins on leaves – Underpaint leave with yellow, apply your green colours (not one green, you can to make depth in this and using a body of colour instead of one will give your painting palette depth), let them soak into the paper, take a pencil and mark out the lines of the veins.
I used a combination of the above techniques in my painting.
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