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?!

More summer flowers! - Ancora fioriture estive!

 28x38cm on fabriano artistico 300gsm

I have a lot of sunshine at my front door, so one of the few flowers that can get along in this area in the summer is hibiscus -that I love! 

This year it's orange, last year it was yellow if you like to see the painting click on the link yellow hibiscus here!

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Il sole scotta sulla mia porta d'ingresso; d'estate ci campano pochi fiori - una è l'ibisco!

Quest'anno è arancione, l'anno scorso era giallo, se vuoi vedere il dipinto, clicca qui!

It's finally summer! - Finalmente estate!

Pelargonium rosso - 18x25cm

With this small sketch from my garden I just want to wish a lovely summer to everybody! 

June and May has been quite cool months this year, but now with July the summer is here!

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Un saluto dal mio giardino e un bellissimo estate a tutti!

Dopo un maggio e giugno piuttosto freschi, finalmente luglio ci porta l'estate!

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!

Vinca Rosea Step-by-step

Negative painting

Dipingere in negativo

One way to paint light flowers is by negative painting... Here is a step-by-step demonstration.

Per dipingere i fiori chiari, a volte uso il metodo di pittura al negativo...

Sotto vi dimostro come procedo.

I start by a first wash wet-in wet. I just put down the lightest colours that I want to blend together. I also added  the central part of the flowers.

Il primo passo è una stesura bagnato su bagnato. Qui uso i colori più chiari che devono sfumare insieme. Ho anche aggiunto la parte centrale del fiore.

When the paper is dry, I start with the dark parts and shadows, just painting the OUTLINE of flowers and  leaves, blending the colour outwards ...

Quando la carta è asciutta, comincio a delimitare i fiori e le foglie dipingendo il contorno esterno e sfumando in fuori...

Just continue until you reach the contrast that makes the flowers stand out - this is negative painting!

Si continua fino al contrasto voluto per fare risaltare i fiori - 

 this is negative painting, and this technique is used commonly in watercolours. I hope you liked this tutorial !

 questa è la tecnica al negativo, si usa spesso nell'acquarello. Spero ti sia piaciuta!

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!
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I miei tulipani neri - ero più attratta  dall'ombra sul tavolo.
-Infatti è la parte che mi è riuscita meglio!

Playing with watercolours... Summer colours!

Alcea Rosea, watercolour 24x30cm on Fabriano Artistico 300grs paper

I have either been very busy or very lazy lately, so it's definitely time for a new post!

I painted this hollyhock (Alcea Rosea ) from my fantasy, last week,

when the flowers in my garden were already suffering the heat of July...

And this is what I did first, an underwash just playing with some colours. 

To be honest I wasn't really sure what it was going to develop into!

And yes, I admit I was definitely inspired by Jean Haines, if you don't know her work, click on the link for lots of inspiration.

 work in progress

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!!

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!

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.

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!

Colors in my garden!

I love painting in my garden - also with the plants, 

and I'm getting a lot of inspiration from Annavattenkanna. (click to view her blog in Swedish)

She uses the colours in her small garden like an artist in the artwork.

My photos don't compare with hers, that are really beautiful...

But I get inspiration to try new combos of colors with plants - and even for painting!

Watercolor flowers

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This is a floral watercolor that I painted on cardboard - 

Sketchbook Tuesday - inspiration!

I had these beautiful roses and flowers and a scented candle on my table... The composition was so inspiring that I grabbed the colors...and painted it right away, first thing in the morning, just a few days ago... Due to the early hours, the colors of photo didn't come out very well, but you get the idea!

Flowers in a vase - on a very special day!

This is a very loose flowerpainting that I painted out of my head enjoying the process a lot. Who cares if I forgot the water in the vase?! I use combinations of colors and shadow and light  that pleases me - and am very happy if  I manage to transmit some emotions with my paintings!

White Orchid in a pot

I love all plants and flowers - as well as cut flowers and flowers in pots! I really enjoy the flowers in my garden but don't very often have time to paint when the light is best - but with a plant in a pot I can paint where and when I want!