I've begun painting a series of watercolor paintings of Phalaenopsis orchids. The hybrid varieties come in a large array of colors and markings, everything from white to magenta, spotted, like this one, striped combinations of both or just plain color. They are also called "Moth Orchids", because they look like a bunch of moths flying. The orchids are easy to grow and their flowers last a long time, giving me time to paint them in detail.
I use hot press blocks of Arches watercolor paper because I like the smooth surface for this detailed work. The hot press is less forgiving, the colors are harder to lift if you make a mistake, but I like the results.I usually lay down an ink stain undercoating, such as a lemon yellow for the leaves and stems. It makes the overall color more vibrant, as if lit with sunshine. Using inks also makes it much easier to paint over with out lifting the layer underneath. I did try some mediums to "fix" the color, but the results were fairly disastrous. I guess that I am not using them correctly. The medium mad it difficult to paint over again, the watercolor resisting to flow down on to the surface. I'll just do it the way I've always painted.
I've added a flying Ermine moth to this painting. It looks so much like this miniature, spotted orchid, flying in sequence with the flowers.
I'm fascinated by moths. I've also painted and drawn moths and butterflies with their interesting markings.Like leaves blown together on the ground in the fall, I painted yellow and orange butterflies, their wing patterns repeated in various positions and variations of tone and tint, bodies stacked one on top of another.
Now my problem is that the leaves are beginning to turn color and I love painting them too! I'm having a difficult time resisting picking them up on my daily walks. The pattern of the veins on the leaves, that persist as a skeleton of the original after the rest of the leaf fall away is amazingly beautiful and delicate.
Do you like collecting things with patterns too, leaves, rocks, shells or bird feathers? What do you do with them?
Take a few photos, then you can paint any of it at your leisure. Very cool you're doing this too. At the very least I can say that typing out your thoughts helps you to realize things even -you- didn't know. At least, that was my experience when I started mine. Gets to be hard to maintain daily, but if you stay at it its pretty rewarding :)
ReplyDeleteThank you, Daniel, for your insights! I do take a lot of photos, but I am never satisfied with the amount of information in them. I have also done little sketched and notes on the scene, but when it comes to painting these botanical subjects, I might as well just paint the subject.
ReplyDeleteAs for the blog, I had started to write on a commercial blog on a regular basis, and found that it was hard to keep it up, but it made me a better writer. It did organize my thoughts better. I hope that this blog will organize my thoughts on my art and try to focus it on one direction, with all of your help.