I signed up for a 30 Days/30 Portraits (all in watercolor) again with Sktchy.com. They offer great courses and this will continue all week with different instructors. Looking forward to it because the last time I did this - back in October 2022, I learned a lot about watercolor portraits and I know I’ll learn more this time. So the madness continues in a different way through April! Ha ha
Until then, here is a little ginkgo study. Does anyone know why botanical artists never put shadows under their work? I put shadows here and then realized that they do not…they try to make the painting as realistic as possible but never put shadows under it.
The second painting is a comparison of the same subject on Arches hotpress paper 140# - the left side is watercolor and right side is gouache. I did this once before to compare and liked both sides equally. This time I think I have a preference, but only because the background I muddied up behind the watercolor made the flower look green! Isn’t that interesting?
5 comments:
Rhonda thanks for the tip on the botanical side of not putting shadows. Your paintings of the yellow tulip both in watercolor and gouache are lovely. The gouache appears deeper and a bit darker than the watercolor probably due to the opacity versus the transparency of watercolor. Looking forward to seeing your portraits. Hugs!
Gingko leaves are so pretty, and your study is lovely!
So interesting to see the studies side by side. Great colors!
Thanks, Debbie. It seems light gouache dries darker so maybe hard to ever get that transluscence of watercolor but it is still interesting and fun to play with gouache.
Thanks, Laura.
I think the shadows you added make it seem like you can pick the leaves off the page. Such beautiful shapes.
Thanks, Lisa. The true botanical artists don’t seem to put in shadow shapes, but I think it does ground them.
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