Demo Tulips step 4

Now I've gone down to begin foliage leaves. Using a mix of arylide yellow and Prussian on my 1" flat sable I'm going in between stems being careful to have the same value/color on both sides of a line. This is called the Rabbit Rule: If a rabbit goes to a tree and stops, he will keep going on past the tree on the other side. So you don't want your color to stop at a line; you want the viewer's eye to follow through.

Demo Tulips step 3

In this photo I've done the background wall all the way left to the edge of the oil painting's frame. Usually I only put down one application when painting directly alla prima, but can see I'll need to re-glaze the greenish midtones here.

Demo Tulips step 2

I'm continuing on across the dry paper with a very wet 1.5" flat Robert Simmons brush, loaded with Prussian blue, phthalo green, and small amount of permanet magenta (Daniel Smith). I'm cutting around tulip tops and down in between with the darkest pigments letting the colors mix and mingle.

Demo Tulips step 1

Starting with a vivid photograph of my tulips, I've sketched in the basic drawing directly onto dry Saunders 140 lb cold press (NOT) paper. Beginning with darks first on dry paper I'm laying in Prussian blue mixed with small amount of phthalo green by DaVinci. I don't always start with the background first but will with this painting. Feel free to ask questions as we go along.

Petal Pushers - Tulips Demo

15x22 watercolor of still life tulips set up in my dining room by an old oil painting. The light from the window behind illuminated the spring blooms perfectly. My hunter green wall adds a complementary punch to the vivid orange reds. I will be posting each step here as a demo lesson; this is the finished Petal Pushers on Saunders 140 lb paper.

Pals

5x7 watercolor of two friends, Saunie's gray tabby cat and her lovely large brown dog, basking in the early morning sunshine. This is on Saunders 140 lb paper with American Journey paints.

Time for Lilies

11x15 watercolor of one of my speckled red and white tiger lilies, just in time for almost-Spring. It is painted wet in wet on 140 lb paper, DS/DV paints.