In Living Color 16 - Trumpet Flowers

Our next project was a drawing of Trumpet Flowers.  With this painting we were able to put into practice the leaf exercise from the week before and learn the technique of making flowers and stems as well.  It was fun working on the flowers, trying to get the correct shading and contour, but found I was still struggling with the leaves.  We also learned how to make veins on the flower blossom by drawing the lines onto the wet painted paper using a mechanical pencil without the lead.  This made a small grove that the paint is drawn into causing it to become darker than the surrounding area.  Much easier that trying to paint each line in on a small painting.  Next came the back ground where we learned to paint ghost leaves.  First a wash was painted over the entire background and left to dry.  Then the ghost leaf was made by using a slightly darker color and painting in the top edge of the leaf then fading it out by diluting the brush with water as you complete the leaf.  Over all I like ghost leaves but was completely unhappy with my choice of color for the background since it did not complement the colors used for the floral.  Another lesson learned.

Trumpet Flowers - Watercolor