The considerations:-

  1. Edging – leave the edge of petals the colour of the paper.
  2. 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.
  3. Underpainting with yellow, an essential part of floral art, which you can then work wet on wet or in glazes.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. 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.
  9. 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.