Painting a red rose wet in wet .A learning /participation demo

  If you would like to participate and paint along now or at anytime in the future you can download the ref photo  ( which is my own photo so there is no copyright issue) and the drawing (or do your own drawing from the ref photo.)
After doing the demo post your painting in the watercolour gallery.

1....Choose 2 reds , a light, warm shade for the main colour and a dark ,cool shade for the shadows and darks
2...Choose 2 greens , a light shade , a dark shade .

My reds...  WN ..Permenant Alizarin Crimson .. main colour
                WN..Purple Madder ..  darks/shadows
My greens..Sap green for the light underwash,
Windsor green  (blue shade),for the dark plus burnt sienna to make darker/shadow.

.My painting is 10 ins wide X  8 1/2ins high.
Arches 140#CP stretched.  Brushes nos 2, 4, 6,

~ Hints...With wet in wet the final result for each petal is largely detetrmined by the wetness of the paper and  pigment .
            You can manipulate the pigment to a certain extent to get the result you want but not completely so don't worry if your petal highlights/shadows do no look like the ref photo.
           * The fun of wet in wet is seeing what magic the wet paint decides to do.
           *While one petal is drying you can work on another, but not one that touches on the wet one.
           *Before you start each petal , observe where the highlights and shadows are , as each petal can                          be different and not all the shadows will be on the bottom nor the highlights on the top.*

Step 1.
 ~ make a puddle of wash from each of the reds
+the lightest red wash should be of med value
+the darker red should be fairly heavy pigmented and darker in value.
**If you have never painted wet in wet practice first on some scrap watercolour paper**

 Photo 1.. Paint a petal with clear water,  let dry till the gloss is gone but is still damp.
       * note... be sure to stay within the lines of the petal as the coloured wash will run where ever the water is painted.

photo 2.. paint the damp petal with a med wash of the main petal colour

photo 3..while the med .wash is still damp add the darker red of the shadow colour to shadow area of the petal ( in this example , the bottom of the petal).
   gently paint upwards a bit and then lift and slant the paper so the dark pigment will run toward
     the top of the petal but not all the way. The dark colour can be gently manipulated with a brush to incourage it to go where you want it to go

     #4..  lay flat to dry.

*Continue in this manner for all the petals.
* If need be you can later scrub out highlights or add darker shadows when the petals are perfectly dry.

The leaves...

*The technique for painting the leaves is different than the petals in that they will not
be painted wet in wet or washed with clear water first , but will be painted wet over dry.

* using sap green or a lighter green for an under wash will make good highlights when the
over wash is gently scrubbed out

Step #1

*.. mix a med value wash of your lightest green ( the underwash ), and a darker one for the over wash,
plus a thicker dark shade of green for the shadows. ( I added Burnt sienna to Windsor green to make the darker shade)

1.Wash a leaf with your underwash green , let dry completely.
2. Then paint over the underwash with the med wash leaving the veins and any hard edged highlights .Let dry.

** .Paint on the hard edged shadows , let dry

* when dry scrub out soft highlights and/or do any detail work you wish.
photos of side by side leaves
*You can see how the sap green shines through the top wash. 

Bottom photoshows how far  I am now , more later

Hope you do Priti .

Flowers can be intimidating because of all those petals but by doing them one at a time makes it easy .

If you do follow along and have any questions please ask me .

Thanks  Kathy , you're right, at this stage some adjustment to the leaves is needed .When the rose is finished I will adjust the leaf shadows/highlights/values in relation to the values of the rose ( or try to .) As the rose is heavily pigmented I will not want to disturb things there too much .

OK! I am finished . I am not too happy with the shadow of the rose , it is a bit too heavy looking and should look more transparent . have scrubbed it out a bit and will leave it as is ...... So, try not to get too much pigment in the shadow wash.

If anyone participates in painting this and has any questions (or needs help) please ask here in this thread and I will do my best to answer or give help

Pearl

Kathy .. I always appreciate critiques , thank you so very much . I had thought about putting green the compliment colour in the shadow but decided in the end to add blue to the rose colour to make a cool shadow as the rose tones are cool.( probably a bad choice )  My shadow wash had a bit too much pigment though to make the transparent shadow I was striving for so did some scrubbing out. I think if I do anything more to it I will really mess up so will leave it as is.

Jim.. Thank you .  I like to see other artists demos also, one can learn a lot that way.

Kim.. Big thanks . I enjoy doing demos as I learn something myself each time ,( like not having heavy pigment in shadow washes)

Thank you so much Kathy .

You are welcome Priti  and thank you .

 I would love to see the results if you or your students do this .

Pearl