Roses and berries in watercolor

Rose e bacche, 2016. 38x56 cm Fabriano Artstico 300 gsm - pigments W&N, St Petrsburg

I wish you a sunny August with this painting from last year.

When I'm teaching watercolor classes I certainly put the emphasis on a painterly style
and also in my own paintings I want to keep it loose.

Flowers are one my all time favourite subjects!
According to the season I can find a lot of inspiration in my garden or in the nature.
If there's not enough I'll combine bought flowers to what I find for free....
Here I was trying out my 3 new St Petersburg colors: yellow, red and turquoise green
that together mix into a cool purple grey shade.

The best thing is that when the flowers are gone - the painting stays and reminds you of the beauty!

Spring flowers in watercolors - how to paint

Narcisi dal giardino, 2016 -38x56 cm fabiano 300gsm

Lately I have been concentrating on urban sketching and painting, but I usually love painting florals.

It's easy - they grow in my garden or I keep them on my table.

Earlier I painted realistic, even if not really botanical flowers, 

while I now prefer to simplify and catch the essence.

On the painting above you can notice a clear influence by the paintings of Jean Haines ;), 

only an impression of the flowers!

Floreale, 2016. 38x56 cm

I paint quite big, real size, which means that I often just  can't fit everything into the paper. 

That's one reason why I choose to paint only a part of them; 

the main reason is that I find it more dynamic and expressive as a composition.

This is how I proceed: 

I use a big brush, a lot of water and bright colors. 

Once the first wash is dry I will add darker details, little by little - trying not to overwork - 

this is the hardest part!

Then I leave it to rest, and some hours later, or even the next day I will see if I need to add something.

I some areas are too bright, I will use a glaze, often with a complementary color.

Thank you for reading,

Hope you enjoyed my spring flowers?!

Inspiring watercolours! Acquerelli per ispirare!

I've been busy painting and with workshops, and once again it's a looong time since I showed any watercolours! But I've been working a lot the last months so soon there will be more to see!

-

E stato un periodo intenso, ho dipinto e lavorato tanto ma ho  presto mostrerò altri miei lavori!

This particular painting was a lot of fun exploring the negative spaces 

during the workshop with my friend and one of my teachers, swedish artist Monica Mansson one week ago!

To learn how to do the negative painting, go to vinca-rosea-step-by-step.

-

Mi sono divertita tanto a realizzare questo studio (e altri)  dei spazi negativi, 

 partecipando al workshop di Monica Mansson, artista svedese, amica e una dei miei insegnanti! 

Per vedere come dipingere al negativo vai a  vinca-rosea-step-by-step.

Painting outdoors is always so peaceful and relaxing!

- 

Dipingere dal vero e en plein air è sempre bellissimo!

Cyclamen 2nd part - Ciclamini 2a parte

Ciclamini 28x38 cm, carta Fabriano artistico 300gr

Cyclamen, A loose floral painting from this winter

(you can see the process here in my earlier post).

This time I'm happy with how I kept the white for the light

 - even if I think that a terracotta pot could do a nice contrast! 

Have to wait for the autumn to get fresh flowers again!

Ciclamini, l'ho dipinto quest'inverno

(per vedere il processo nel mail precedente clicca qui ).

Questa volta sono contenta di aver conservato tanto bianco per dare luce 

- anche se penso che riproverò con dei vasi in terracotta.

Aspetterò i fiori freschi l'autunno prossimo!

Cyclamen 1st part - Ciclamini parte 1

Close up - Dettaglio 

. I started very loose and wet-in-wet making sure to preserve some white areas for contrast.

Ho iniziato con il bagnato su bagnato, avendo cura di conservare del bianco.

More details... I'll upload the final painting soon - have to take a new photo! 

- Altri dettagli... A breve  invierò la foto del dipinto finito (è venuto sfocato!)

P.S. The finished painting is here.

Ps.  vedi il dipinto finito qui!

Shadows... and tulips...- OMBRE

Painting 'black' tulips, I was more fascinated by the shadow... 

Probably that's why that turned out to be the best part of the painting!
-
I miei tulipani neri - ero più attratta  dall'ombra sul tavolo.
-Infatti è la parte che mi è riuscita meglio!

Paint what you love! Watercolour Lesson 4

A couple of close-ups of a sketch of my orchids!

When you've managed to get the materials that suit you personally, success is only a few steps away, here's the formula 

1. Do something you love
2. Learn life long
3. Repeat steps 1 & 2

I found it here, link to Watercolour Painter, where you can get more information and find step to step instructions as well!

A lot of fun just playing with colours, capturing the pattern and colours of my flowers!

Watercolours allow you to play freely and get fresh sketches more than any other medium!

 While this is a more traditional painting from some time ago! Link to my post here.

Peony Love - Watercolour painting ready - or not?!

This is my  insta photo from some time ago. I never managed to finish the painting, and now I don't know what to do... I need some suggestions from you!!

Now the painting looks like this, and I'm wondering what I should do: leave i this way, or...?

- what do you think!?

(I planned to add some more darks, some spring green to the leafs and stems, work on the water in the glass... and probably do some shadow/background...)

Because the flowers are gone and working from the photo is not so inspiring. 

AND the risk is always to overwork a watercolour painting...  I'm wandering if  I should just leave it the way it is while waiting for new peonies in my garden next year!? Please let me know your opinion!!

Lesson 1: The watercolour paper!

GINESTRA - watercolour 50x70cm

It happened again- once in a while I end up using  random paper( in this case Canson 200grs paper) instead of real watercolor paper. 

The reason usually is because I find it ready to hand, just in the right size - and I just plan to do a fast sketch anyway ;). 

But now, what happens when your sketch didn't turn out that bad, BUT you can't finish it...

Good watercolor paper is GOOD because it can take several layers of color and water. In this painting I feel like it would need some more depth and shadows using wet color - but this paper can't take it -I could draw on it , or paint with a very dry color - but that's not what I want!

On the other hand I don't really want to paint this subject again, even if I often do paint more versions, since I feel quite happy with the way I captured the esssence I was looking for! 

And also the flowers are on the compost now!!

So remember one of the very first lessons - ALWAYS use GOOD watercolor paper!!

Finished work!

This is the finished watercolor painting from last week. As I wanted to keep it loose, I just added some red on the flowers, and a few darker shadows on the leaves.

Work in progress - A Tribute to...

Work in progress...  Inspired by a beautiful painting of the great watercolor artist Kanta Harusaki.

The First washes, wet in wet.

I decided to add some red to the center of the flower and some plastic wrap for special effects...

I'll show you the final painting soon - I just noticed I didn't take a photo of it yet!

I decided to 'copy' freely the works and the styles of some artists I like, in order to develop my own way of painting. Especially I want to loosen up. I never liked copying artwork before, but noticed that this was a funny way of just painting without worrying about problems to resolve, like composition and choice of color! I really think that I'll be doing more of this!!

Floral - just sketching!

I often use my sketchbooks for playing around and painting early in the morning 

- even when I don't have time ! And yes, often it is floral!

Hibiscus - floral watercolor

I took a reference picture of this blue pot with a  yellow hibiscus, that I wanted to paint . 

I really enjoyed the painting session with bright colors - and I chose to add red for more contrast - as the original flowers were onlyt yellow . Unfortunately the photo doesn't  show the intense yellow - looked ok on my phone but not on the pc!

Waterlily - painting challenge!

I really wanted to take part in this new painting challenge by Lela of paintanddrawtogether.blogspot (click on the link to see the original photo and other paintings). 

I did a few sketches before I started with my watercolor!

 I started with painting wet in wet with the pink and roughly giving shape and color to the flower with its yellow stems, leaving part of the flower white.

Now I added some more color to define the other areas, keeping everything quite light. At this point I also wanted to try the plastic wrap technique - inspired by Jean Haines - so I pressed the plastic to the green areas while still wet to create some patterns on the leaves.

Working with the background, i.e. the water. The negative painting is used to determine the shape of the waterlily. I also played with some splashes on the leaves.

 Final shadows to define the shape of the waterlily. I also deepened some other colors, especiall the water, wanting to create more contrast and interest.

Some of the sketches and a couple of paintings. My way of painting is quite free and emotional. Unfortunately even if the original  subject photo is beautiful, I'm not too happy with the painting, as I feel that I wasn't able to 'make it mine' and capture  emotion and atmosphere in the painting! But painting is always a challenge and an adventure - and especially when painting with watercolors you have to keep in mind that the unpredictable is part of the joy - so even if you try hard sometimes you'll be less satisfied, sometimes more!

New watercolors and Tuesday sketches - floral of course.

My dear friend is on holiday, and I'm watching her orchids, a beautiful subject and a good occasion to do some sketching with my new set of watercolors.

 After many years of painting with just a few basic colors,  I finally decided for  a box with a set of many new colors. It was a very good buy, since the single colors would be much more expensive, and also I'm having a lot of fun experimenting with the new shades. 

I'm also experimenting with plastic wrap for textures. It's interesting with patterns and designs appearing so magically... Still want to do some more and decide where I can use it... This is a first layer I'm gonna continue with, either adding more watercolor or maybe with a pencil, since I do see many shapes inside it.

Flowerpot with succulent - playing with watercolors!

Due to the recent repeated earthquakes in this area I haven't been able to concentrate on painting, so this is from my small sketchbook some time ago - just playing around with watercolor... The subject is a small flower pot with a succulent that I got as a present. It was fun to try to capture the colors and shapes very quickly...

                                                    A closer detail  of the flowers.

Painting with masking fluid in my small sketchbook

Even if I don't have too much time to make full size finished paintings, I try to do daily painting in my sketchbook(s). I love to try different technics, and in my sketcbook it doesn't matter what the final result is, so I find that painting becomes free and more expressive. Often the subject is from my fantasy, as here.

 This time I started with painting directly with the masking fluid (that I usually don't use), and then added a few layers of colors...  

Some is wet-in-wet, some is wet-on-dry...

Finally I removed the masking fluid and added some more detail.

Working with the masking fluid allows you to paint very freely and that I like, even if the outlines of the white is quite hard, and you have to soften it either with color or water.

 Next time I want to do a larger painting, taking away and adding the masking fluid in different places while proceeding...

Negative painting with watercolors - Pomegranate

Now this one I painted a few years ago as a study in negative painting, which is one of the fundamental technichs of watercolor painting. Here I got inspiration from the blog of Brenda Swenson, that I can't find anymore - but if click on her name there is a link to her facebook page.

Floral sketchbook!

Yes, I love painting flowers, and I do a lot of floral sketches in my sketchbook. 

The sketchbook is ment for inspiration. It lays right there, easy to reach and use even every day, without any further planning or expectations. And even if the paper  - like in this case -isn't very suitable for watercolours, it allows me to test some ideas or new materials -

or just express the mood of the day!

Always sketching flowers!

 I love sketching and painting flowers in any style, and Alisa Burke is always a lot of inspiration for flowers and doodles and whatsoever! Her work and her blog just makes me happy!