Hollyhocks in Watercolour

 Yellow ruffled Hollyhocks from my garden 

Painted in watercolour

A wonderful artist and now dear friend was on my workshops this week. They had asked me how to add detail to a first wash as they were getting stuck at that point. And so, during the one on one time in the teaching session I demonstrated how I would start a painting of  hollyhocks to add detail to. It was at this point that I realised the artist wasn't  actually getting to the point in the first wash where the subject was formed enough in the first stage.

So for anyone who is having the same kind of problem can I give a tip? When painting a loose first wash of a subject in watercolour, where you intend to add detail to finish off the painting. Try only stopping when you can actually see the subject in the wash. If you stop painting the wash far too soon you leave yourself the headache of not knowing what to do next or where to add detail. If you of course work a wash too far the result can become too tight. So the happy medium of stopping somewhere between too abstract and too far is a fine line. But practise makes perfect.

Practise, practise practise !

Penny, this post is for you. Here are the hollyhocks with soft, loose edges. Hints of  other flowers in the background. A stem appearing too but it isn't all there! And a lot of the painting is left to the viewers' imagination.

I hope this helps!

I am trying to work through some of the questions I was asked this week and share my answers on my blog to make up for my being away so long from it!

Happy painting!

Capturing sunlight on Hollyhocks with lost and found edges.

The real flower is on top of my painting. Cling wrap technique was used to create the main flower. 

As demonstrated in my DVD