Globe Thistles

The appalling weather has made it easy to spend plenty of time in the studio, and it was nice to look for something floral to paint after spending time on a couple of other things. These Globe Thistles are illustrated in one of my favourite books and as I do not often paint blue floral studies I thought I would give them a go.

In order to get the prickly heads with my usual dark background, I decided to paint the background first and then use Acrylic Gouache to paint parts of the flowers.

In order to identify the flower shapes, I painted a strong wash over the whole paper, using a mixture of Anthraquinachridone, and Ultramarine blues with some Pthalo Blue and Green. I also added some Indigo into the bottom dark corners. I realised that I would not be able to change the background once I had started painting the flowers, so it was important to get the strength right, remembering that it would dry paler in colour!

Whilst the wash was still very wet, I used Sea Salt to identify the flowers, sprinkling generous amounts in circles, where I wanted the flower heads to be. At this stage the salt looks very dark as it absorbs the pigment beneath it.  I left the painting overnight, as it is vital that the salt is absolutely dry before it is removed.
The following morning I used a small plastic glue spatula to remove the salt from the paper.

I lightly sketched in the leaves and stems, and then proceeded to fill in the flower heads. It was a bit like dots and dashes to give the texture to the globes, using various blues and some Quinachridone Magenta and Pthalo Blue to give variety.

I lightened each flower on the top and to the  right and finished of with Acrylic Gouache to give the highlights

                                                          (Detail)

I added the leaves and the stems, and finally added a dark wash of Ultramarine Blue and Moonglow to the darker side of each globe for the shadows. Whilst this was still wet I scratched a little paint out from the wash to give some dark spikes to the undersides. I used the ferrule of an old paint brush which had lost all its hairs!

I am pleased with the outcome and really like the pale passage in the background in the middle of the lower half of the painting, but I wish I had had the courage to make the dark background passages even darker.