Lupin in Watercolour 2016

 "Defying All Odds"

White lupin in watercolour

The second wash from my three daily warm ups today was a white lupin. You can see the first wash below on my easel before any detail was added.

 

 This mornings three warm up washes.

I began to add detail little by little to my first wash of the white lupin as seen above.

Below you can see I worked a negative edge on either side of my white flower to bring its form clearly to life. I also started adding detail to each individual small segment of the plant itself. I have used Cascade Green and Cadmium Yellow, with Cerulean Blue as the background colour to represent summer which this blue does so well.

 

Gradually adding detail to my first wash.

I love the small green buds at the top of this plant so they were added next.

 Almost complete but not quite.

The final painting is below. 

I have given this painting the title " Defying All Odds" because it is a summer flower. Despite the cold weather we now have it is bravely putting on the most wonderful display ever. It has decided it is still summer. And I not only applaud it, I have painted it to remind myself that summer hasn't completely gone.

Titles of a painting are fascinating don't you think? If you saw this title for this flower in an exhibition you wouldn't understand why it had such a name. But doesn't that title sound far better than " White Lupin" ? In itself that is a great tip. Choose interesting titles for your paintings. Don't paint something wonderful then saddle it with a boring name!

And now I want to paint a huge piece. A massive flower bed full of white lupins. That would be magical. Just painting three warm up washes then working on top of them can lead you to amazing new ideas. Never underestimate time spent on these experiments. I am convinced my art is improving because of them. And yours can too!

Time to paint!

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