Jill's Tulips

11x7.5 watercolor on 140 lb cold press paper, a demo done today of some imaginary mostly pink tulips.
When dry, splattering was done using a loaded brush on the background.
COPYRIGHT 2018 Kay Smith.

Work in Progress: Calling All Callas

24x18 watercolor WIP (work in progress), of a calla lily grouping I drew on Friday then began painting today.  I used Canson Montval block with Daniel Smith paints, wet on dry, encouraging drips and run-backs.  This is about 1.5 hours of work.  I still must finish the stems of mixed greens and one more lower right petal, then decide if a background color is needed or not.  Painting whites is such a challenge! But I love a challenge.  So stay tuned.

Next Step detail of WIP

Here's the next step, adding colors underneath the basket.  I've used quinacridone gold and burnt orange together with a bit of carbazole violet in this detail.

Sherbet Lilies

15x22 transparent watercolor on Arches 140 lb cold press, a demo done today for Snyder, TX Palette Club, located at their airport. They had requested a floral, and I was only too happy to oblige with this sherbet-hued daylily composition.  It was painted wet in wet with 1.5" brush for the most part, beginning with darks first, then midtones, then lights last.  Daniel Smith/American Journey paints were used.

Red Sky and Sunflowers

Finished! With the addition of partial black India ink line this gave the flowers and leaves some added strength.  All shapes appear more integrated using this common design element.  Size is 11x15, medium watercolor with ink.

Sunflower - WIP almost done

After intensifying the red background and leaves with additional washes or glazes, I loaded my 1/2" sable flat with gold, orange, red and blue paint then splattered each one randomly.  Tony Couch once told me if you are going to splatter, then do so over the entire composition and not in one isolated area.  Not done yet, but close.  Now I'm contemplating partial outlining in black India ink.  As this is an imaginary image I'm taking it slower than usual.  Stay tuned for the final episode.  It is at this stage that I select my next painting and began creative wheel turning, LOL!

Sunflower - WIP

This image shows my red background sky completed across the bottom half, but the painting still needs something else! But what? I must study it and will no doubt reglaze the green leaves as all of this is now too middle value in tone.

Sunflowers WIP continued

It is petal time now! The fun part begins.  Using same yellows and gold, I am putting light values next to middle values next to darks as with yellow everyone who paints knows you cannot darken yellow.  I will lightly dip into raw sienna, but very dilute, as it is an opaque and I enjoy its rich warmth.  Quin gold is more transparent but very close in value strength.  You can see I also used a small amount of transparent pyrrol orange by Daniel Smith, maybe my favorite color in the orange and red analogous color groups.  Time to close the studio and finish up tomorrow.

Sunflowers demo - WIP continued

Another detail of lower right large leaf shape in which the blooms or blossom runbacks can be easily seen while paint is still wet.

Sunflowers - WIP continued

The top half of the painting's green foliage is now laid in with wet, fresh paint in one direct application, using every blue including manganese and Midnight blue (American Journey) in my palette mixed with same yellows.  This bottom is a close up detail of lower left flower and its leaf at the side.  I am encouraging runbacks, or blossoms to form when more water is in the brush than paint and touched to an already pigmented area.

Sunflower Glowing

11x15 watercolor on Saunders 140 lb cold press of a mature sunflower; this was my demo yesterday for a workshop in San Angelo, TX.
I have painted several versions of this flower and one of those was all in pinks and is now sold.  Each version is more fun than the last. It was done wet in wet with transparent colors.

Morning Glories Top Flowers Detail WIP

With this view I've provided you can see a detail of the variegated markings on top blue and white flowers. There's a mix of blues, magenta and violets within their coloration. Paints are Manganese blue, UB, Cobalt, and quinacridone magenta. I'm almost done with the painting.

WIP Morning Glories Top Flower

Work on the top glory is slow going, adding its variegated striping and checking values as I go along. To get the right blue hue am having to mix cobalt with the other two colors of UB and Manganese. Stay tuned!

Morning Glories WIP Variegated Bloom

Continuing on to the top morning glory to add its blue variegated striping using cobalt blue, UB, and Manganese. Another glaze done to bottom white one plus the leaf.

More Work on Morning Glories WIP demo

Shadows and glazes were added to the white flower for the multiformed ones seen through its transparent petals. I used UB, Copper Kettle, quin gold, quin magenta, manganese blue. The large leaf needs more darks as its value is too light.

WIP Blue & White Morning Glories

These images show progression of the background from start to finish done yesterday in watercolor, wet on dry paper. Darks have to be put in first for me to be able to get values correct from darkest dark to medium to light. I've added alizarin crimson and a bit of quinacridone magenta to warm it up as it is pretty cool temp wise with all the blues. As I go along I'm doing negative painting of some curled stems of the glory vines that were not present in the photograph.