Daffodils and Alstroemeria

 

I seem to have had a bit of a yellow thing going on at the moment. The local supermarket was selling bunches of daffodils for less than a pound each, and after inviting some friends to dine with us, they arrived with a beautiful bunch of mixed yellow flowers.

Once they were both in water, I could not resist having a go at the daffodils and the alstroemeria whilst they were still fresh.

I find any trumpet shaped flowers quite difficult, so they were both a bit of a challenge, as was keeping the colours as fresh as possible, especially in the shadow areas. I painted them both in the same way, I applied a pale loose wash to the lightly sprayed paper. In order to keep it fresh, I dropped the paint onto the paper and allowed the various colours to mix themsel;ves.

 

I then did a light pencil drawing to get the composition about right and then tackled the flowers themselves. I was aware that they could all end up very 'tight' so I did try to keep some lost edges and free washes, but I still think they both should have been a bit looser. Case of must keep trying, could do better!

 

Once the flowers were finished , I darkened the centre background to help throw the flowers forwards, erased the pencil lines where possible, and tweaked the odd shadows. Both paintings were worked on 'Leonardo Matt' paper and the only addition to my usual palette, was Serpentine Green from Daniel Smith.

 

 

 

  
                                                                         'Daffodils'

 

'Alstroemeria'

Apologies that the photos seem a bit too orange. The result of taking the photos at night I presume.