Demonstration: Holiday Ecstasy

Introduction:

This demo shares the steps I took to paint this poinsettia for Christmas.  I wanted a little something different from your traditional colors of white or red and decided on multiple colors you would find during the holiday season.

Note:  Due to variations in means of capturing images and individual monitor color calibration, colors showing may not be true compared to the actual painting.

PLEASE READ INSTRUCTIONS THROUGH AT LEAST ONCE BEFORE BEGINNING

Colors: 

New Gamboge, Cobalt Blue, Permanent Rose, Sap green mixed with Olive Green and a touch of Permanent Rose, Winsor Green (BS) plus Burnt Umber,  and Winsor Blue (GS) plus Burnt Umber.

Brush: 

1/2" Synthetic Slanted Flat or Angular

Technique: 

Numerous glazes of light color slowly building to the values of choice. 

NOTE:  Some of the colors were used individually and sometimes mixed with other colors for variation.  In addition, I might elect to glaze one single pigment over another.  In reality I had no true pattern I followed but instead just what came to mind at that moment.   My recommendation would be to play as I did trying to achieve the variations while at the same time thinking about the brighter more vivid colors towards the focal area and the muted or grayed colors elsewhere. 

When mixing violets, I personally find mixing blues with reds less desirable than violets created by glazing one color pigment over the other.  But that's just me and how I view them.  Mixing the two colors may be more than satisfactory to you. 

Reaching the desired values is a matter of preference.  You may decide to go with only a few layers of color or several.  My example is many layers to achieve the rich dark values as shown in the final illustration. 

Regardless of how many layers you decide to paint before stopping, it is important you allow each layer to completely dry.  Otherwise, you will end up with what many refer to as "mud" or lifeless or unclean color.

Method:

Working one leaf petal at a time,  pre-wet with clean water, allowing water to soak into the paper until the shine begins to disappear.  Waiting until the shine starts to disappear allows for better control of the pigment; otherwise, the color will spread out and often disappear altogether.

NOTE:  Normally on my very first color layer, I will  pre-wet twice waiting until the shine disappears with the first application and close to shine disappearing on the second.  It is really a matter of preference but something I have fallen into a habit of doing. 

Before putting brush to paper, have an idea of where your focal point will be.  In my example I chose the top left where you see the yellow. 

Colors are randomly placed concentrating on dropping color close to the edges of each petal and allowing the pigment to spread and blend on its own.  With a few of the petals, carry that color down toward the center but staying close to the edges.  Mentally evaluate with each color placement which leaf petal lies below the next and place your darker values accordingly to help separate each layer and where your shadows will be.  Try to keep in mind light against dark throughout.

Allow this first layer of color to completely dry before attempting to add subsequent glazes.  You can work around using the same technique with other leaf petals but make sure you do not work with one touching the petal that is drying.  To do so will cause both of your petal's colors to merge.

At any time the petals around the center are dry, you can start to paint the berries.  In the focal area, I chose to go with permanent rose using a light to medium value.  No need to pre-wet considering the size area you are working with.  Make sure you leave a white unpainted area for the light reflection.  Later after I painted a few more leaf petals, I went back and darkened the edges giving the berries a more rounded look.  To make sure that section is brightest, you can add a touch of yellow over the Perm Rose once everything is dry.

Continue one leaf at a time until you reach the desired effect you are after.  At any time you can start adding the background using the same technique only this time you will be working one section at a time between leaf petals.  Again keeping variation in mind, I just randomly placed the colors with each layer getting darker and darker but taking care my darks didn't become lifeless.  Do not fiddle or over mix.   A few areas are almost black but upon close examination, you can see other colors.........particularly greens and blues.

NOTE:  For the darkest sections, I primarily used the Winsor Green and Winsor Blue with other colors.  These two are staining and can go very dark.  Adding Perm Rose to the Winsor Green will make an almost black green.  Experiment on a scrap piece of paper before placing these staining colors on your actual painting.

When you have achieved the desired values of petals and background, you can then go back and add details by darkening around the light veins and adding petal shadows.  At this point I use the blending method by placing pigment where I want the darkest value and blending the outer edge with a damp clean brush.......taking care not to over-work where it might disturb the underlying layer of paint. 

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Paintings, Tutorials & Text are © Susan Bronsak 2007