Botanical Art -- Week 5 of 5

For the last two weeks we were supposed to work on one last big drawing. Add color, add texture. Ok. I finally found a plant I could work on for two weeks.

Marie brought some paper she bought at an estate sale. It's BIG (22x28"). Turns out it's horrible paper. I think it has no sizing. The watercolor soaks in instantly and I couldn't move it around or get it off and it got wavy.

And it's white. Ugh. I painted the background just to cover up the white before I started drawing (all the blotchy stuff in the background).

Enough complaining. It is paper after all. If we have to hibernate indoors for a few weeks because of COVID-19 I'll probably end up painting and drawing on all kinds of surfaces. I hope I can go in the yard.

Here is what my editing eye sees: Composition looks okay, it looks like a plant, colors sort of look like close to real. It needs a focal point. It needs some other color that isn't there in nature to give it something like that focal point. A bit of turquoise blue or opera pink maybe. Admittedly this is not a scientific botanical drawing; it's an interpretive botanical drainting (drawing+painting; or maybe a prainting? a prawnting?).

I had a weird brown smear in the background and tried to wash it out, bleach it out, hydrogen peroxide it out, gouache it over, and gesso it over. Nothing worked. Finally I painted a brown leaf over the spot and it bugs me less.

Still thinking about the focal point and really there is no texture there. Tomorrow I'll work on texture with pen and ink and then maybe some white ink or gouache to make some contrast bits.