June Sunflower

11x15 watercolor on Strathmore 140 lb cold press block done this past week, working on its composition for about 3 days. Lots of negative painting of the leaves and in the background. Daniel Smith paints were used. COPYRIGHT 2021 Kay Smith

Brusho Sunflowers

11x15 Brusho/watercolor on Lanaquarelle 140 lb hot press paper begun yesterday then completed today.  These imaginary sunflowers were negatively painted with a 1" flat brush.  Brusho was applied first to a very wet blank sheet using Burnt Sienna, Yellow Ochre, Moss Green, and Gamboge, then plastic wrap put on top and let dry overnight.  That was removed and then blooms, petals, and leaves were painted around doing their edges until a composition emerged, so no pencil drawing and no reference used.  Burnt Sienna Brusho made very nice sunflower centers.
COPYRIGHT 2019 Kay Smith

Sunflower Southwest Colors

10x10 watercolor and ink line (Micron 01 pen) done before and after another trip to the southwest. In this imaginary floral the hot colors dance across the paper and blue-purple background sets it off nicely.
COPYRIGHT 2019 Kay Smith

Sunflower Jungle

4x6 alcohol inks on glossy photo paper done today as a last ditch effort to save a blue green abstract marked design.  What to do? Add yellow for petals then dark brown/black for centers and voila! you have sunflowers growing and glowing.  Too much fun are these inks.
COPYRIGHT 2019 Kay Smith

Dewi's Sunflowers

12x9 mixed media on Bristol board 300 series (colored pencils, Inktense pencils, Brusho, watercolor, India ink) from a WetCanvas online challenge.  Photo courtesy Dewi.  I sketched the sunflowers using Magic multi-lead colored pencils then filled in with the other media in this loose floral.
COPYRIGHT 2018 Kay Smith

Sunflower Jewels

8.5x10.5 alcohol inks on white freezer paper done today.  Using no reference and no pencil the inks were applied by putting drops onto slick surface and adding 91% alcohol or blending solution.  Inks mix best on Yupo or freezer paper as those supports have no tooth.
Image COPYRIGHT 2017 Kay Smith.

Large Sunflower Fence

22x30 watercolor on 140 lb cold press Saunders paper.  This grouping of different sunflowers was growing by a fence in Ruidoso, NM, that I photographed years ago, painted, then SOLD.Image is COPYRIGHT 2016 Kay Smith.

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.

Red Sky Sunflowers - WIP watercolor

This work in progress starts out using 3 yellows, splashed wet in wet on 140 lb cold press watercolor paper.  I used aureolin, new gamboge, and quinacridone gold.  When dry I drew various sunflower heads, leaves, and stems free handed.  My goal is to have a red toned background rather than a blue sky.

You can see the yellow washes better in this step in which I began laying in mixed greens using same yellows and gold along with Prussian blue and ultramarine.

Sunflower

15x22 watercolor from a bowed head sunflower photo taken in Odessa, TX.  I first painted it in acrylics on canvas years ago and now have done in another medium.  Its title is "Sun Worshipper" and is largely yellow and blue.

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.

WIP sunflowers continuing

Continuing on across and down I work the background and begin petals and sunflower centers weaving warms and cools as my brush progresses, not knowing how it will end up.

WIP Watermedia beginning painting

Now is time to begin laying in color, the fun part, behind the lower right sunflower and background.  I will probably leave in the white areas left that were under the coffee filters as that might be a nice suprise element.  With no photo references to guide me, this one will be pure intuition and color sense, or just plain nonsense!

South of the Border

22x15 watercolor done a few years ago. Yesterday I saw a similar clay pitcher of sunflowers in an antique store. This simple still life scene has been SOLD.

Sunflower Power - a reworked watercolor

15x22 watercolor over a failed vertical figure painting of my neighbor Jan in a purple suit with hat. Done while in the mountains for the 4th of July holiday, this one I thought would be another disaster but do like its idiosyncrasies. Look closely and you can see her eyes in the large green leaf upper right. After I return home I'll upload the original BEFORE version for comparison. This is on Fabriano 140 lb hot press paper that I scrubbed most of the paint off before drawing the flower in pencil.