Painters Online

FLOWERS www.painters-online.co.uk 10 EXPLORE WATERCOLOUR 2020 Step 15 1 At this point, stand back and assess your painting. I was not happy with the way the paint was travelling, and it looks to me as though the jug was floating in mid-air. Bring in some turquoise, now mixed mainly from ultramarine turquoise and some indigo and green gold. 2 To ground the jug, paint in a shadow underneath it using a strong mix of shadow violet; wash it out into the turquoise with clean water, being careful to not leave hard edges as it dries. Step 14 1 To make the white flowers really stand out, wash in darker colours on the left-hand side. I used indigo, green gold and violet, then dropped in plenty of clean water to soften the edge and then dropped in some vivid violet. In fact, I later changed this area of background (see steps 16 and 17 opposite) so you may decide to skip step 14 if you prefer the alternative background. 2 Continue the dark background down and around the left-hand flowers: I like the way the dark colour is showing off the white flowers, and the way the two colours are softly merging. Again, use plenty of clean water to soften the edge in the bottom left-hand corner. 3 When the paint is dry, step back and assess your work. I was not happy with it. I really liked the right-hand side, but in my opinion the left- hand side was not working. But I’m stubborn and won’t be beaten! I decided to change direction and make the jug sit on a surface and divide the background. To do this, draw in a horizontal line to represent the surface’s edge and a vertical line that divides the upper section in two.