Day Two of the botanical painting course and I only feel able to tackle a pansy. I take a deep blue one with a heart of black velvet.
The drawing I now approach in a Liz Leech fashion looking hard at what is underneath and sacrificing a flower in the process. Sandrine is no doubt hoping I won’t be doing this on the gorgeous chocolate coloured calla lilly she has brought for us to draw.
The watercolour technique that she makes look so easy is very different from my normal style of brushwork onto dry paper. It is watercolour carefully overlaid, one wash at a time into wet paper. She makes it look effortless. It is nothing of the sort.
For a dark colour, really dark, like the inside of my pansy, up to 15 washes need to be laid, carefully darkening the colour each time taking care not to disturb the colour underneath. On this first attempt I keep forgetting to wet the paper, get wobbly edges and not enough colour, but I persevere.
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Pansy 1
