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Oriental Hybrid Lily Lilium 'Mambo' © Shevaun Doherty 2015 |
‘We draw the spring into our hearts and feel that life is good’
Oscar Wilde
My studio this week has filled with sunshine, music and
flowers. I’m not dancing but painting
the Mambo, a beautiful purple Oriental lily with a seductive sweet scent. This
flower is such a sassy diva that I knew that I had to paint it as soon as I
laid eyes on it.
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| Ah, there really is nothing quite as pleasant painting with the intoxicating scent of flowers in sunshine. |
The
biggest challenge of course was going to be capturing that striking colour. I
have quite a good range of pinks, reds and purples but this was a good
opportunity to play with some of the Daniel Smith dot charts. For those who don’t
know what a dot chart is, it’s a tester chart with a splodges of watercolour.
Daniel Smith paints have quite intense colours and a little seems to go a very
long way.
As always, I was surprised at how different the same paint name differs from brand to brand. Daniel Smith Perylene violet is now definitely on my wishlist, although the W&N Perylene violet is still a favourite. Quinacridone fuschia, Rhodonite and Permanent violet are now all on my wishlist. I just can't get enough colour.
I pulled apart a flower and painted a single petal. It was not easy to get that rich colour! I was going to have to paint so many layers
of paint! I was also struggling to get back into painting on paper and using bigger
brushes with wetter washes. I did a quick study of an opening flower to get my
head back into that style of painting.
It’s a good idea when drawing out a flower to take the outer
measurements. I often find that my drawings grow on the
page and that's so annoying. An easy way to stop this from happening is to draw a
simple box and make the flower fit. This isn’t a botanical illustration so I wasn’t too worried about getting precise measurements. (Apologies to the purists out there!)
