Caryopteris

 

Peter Ward was kind enough to give me this lovely photo of  caryopteris. I have had it a while and had every intention of trying to paint from it. I should have known better!!

Anyway. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, but I do find these plants made up of lots of tiny parts very difficult to interpret.I think it is all about getting the general flower head shape right and then adding just enough detail to suggest what is going on in the centre
With this in mind I put an initial wash onto some 300g rough paper and let it thoroughly dry. I intended to paint the flowers without any drawing, so I just started with the darker areas and painted in the buds.

This seemed to be fine, but then I sort of got cold feet, and was afraid that by drawing the flowers with paint, I could get the shapes totally wrong, so I then drew in the opening blooms with pencil so that I could be sure the would be ok.

Once this was done, I added details into the flower heads, starting at the top and working down. Some of the flowers were identified by painting darker around them so defining their shape, others were painted with a mixture of Cobalt blue and white Acrylic Gouache'. I worked gradually down the painting, adding more buds and open flowers, some stems and leaves.

I used an architects pen to draw in the dark stamens and then enhanced the background with some darks and some magenta to try to warm up the image. At this stage it seemed quite a cool painting. Even now that it is finished I wish it had more warmth to it. I also think I should have used a lot more Cobalt blue and a lot less Anthraquinachridone and Ultramarine Blues.

Too late to change it now, but a lesson learnt for the next time I give it a go.

 

 

'Caryopteris'

 

Watercolour on Fabriano Artistico Extra White Rough 300g paper