I thought I’d do a quick step by step on how to go about mixing the colours, and illustrating this flower, not least because blue flowers pose their own challenges.

Pencil rough

I draw direct onto hot press watercolour paper, which has a very smooth surface.  This time I’m using Arches hot press.  I like to use mechanical pencils like the Pentel P205, with H or HB leads.  I use a soft eraser; those made by Factis are good.

First, draw up the flower.  Think about what shape you’d get if you drew a circle from the outside edges of the five petals.  It’d be more or less circular.  Bear this in mind as you plot the petals, but remember to draw the individual shape and folds of each one.

Draw the centre of the flower and note the pentagon with the stamens and sepal at the centre,  There are small triangles of blue tucked in there too.

When you’re happy with the pencil drawing, you can move onto mixing your paint.

Mixing the Blue

Rather surprisingly, the colour of this flower is really easy to mix.  I just mixed French ultramarine with Cobalt violet, and made a paler tint by diluting it with water.  I favour Winsor and Newton watercolour pans, and always use their Series 7 sable brushes (in this case a no. 1 size).

Avoid trying to make a watercolour mix paler by adding white; this changes the colour massively and makes it thick, non-transparent, and heavy.  Always dilute it with clean water instead.

Laying down the colour

I build up the colour with lots of tiny lines, following the line of growth of the petals.  There’s a clear gradation on each petal, from pale at the centre out to a darker mauve on the petal edges.  Each line painted echoes this.

The edge of each petal is marginally paler than the body of the petal.  Remember to leave these edges as white paper.

Try to keep the ends of your brush strokes to the petal edges, this is where the colour is deepest.

First top wash

Using the same mix or Cobalt violet and French ultramarine, dilute the colour with clear water.  Paint this over the lower half of each petal, leaving it really wet on the page.  Try to emphasize the gradation from white centre to purple edges by being subtle with this top wash.  It won’t lift all the lines you’ve painted, but will soften them, and add depth to the blue of the flower.

Be patient, and let the paint dry fully.  You can use a hair dryer or a fan heater to speed up the process if you’d like.

Second top wash

Once fully dry, dilute your purple-blue colour further (with clean water).  Apply this over the entire flower, except for the very centre.  Cover up those white petal margins with the pale wash, and the areas closer to the middle of the flower.  Lift off surplus paint with a twist of loo roll or tissue to make sure the centre of the flower is still significantly paler than the petals.

It goes without saying that everything you paint and draw needs to be informed by the flower in front of you.  It’s so much easier to illustrate something right there, rather than a photo! (Saying that, sometimes you need to use photo reference.  For more on how to do this, check out my blog.)

Allow this wash to dry completely.

Painting the centre of the flower

The middle of the periwinkle is a clear pentagon.  Inside the corolla tube, you can see five little blue-purple triangles.  Paint these in, paying close attention to their size and shape, and how they’re paler as you move further from the petals.

You’ll notice shadow within the pentagon.  Mix a neutral colour to plot in these areas.  I used Pthalo green and Cadmium orange.  (If you mix colours which are more or less opposite on the colour wheel, they tend to make wonderful neutral tints.)

I diluted this thoroughly with water, then plotted in the shadow; darker at the top of the corolla tube.

Finally, it’s time to paint the centre of the flower, the pistil and stamens.  This is a pale yellow colour.

I used Naples yellow with a touch of cadmium yellow for this.  Leave a highlight in the centre, then pop an incredibly light yellow tint on top of the whole of this tiny yellow area.  You might see a bit of pale yellow coming up the corolla tube; plot this in too, being very careful not to make it too obvious.

Finishing up

Double check your illustration against the flower.  Are the edges of the petals dark enough?  Is the centre pale enough?  Have your washes dried smoothly or left unsightly edges?  In my case, the wet washes had left a tide mark on two of the petals. I eased this effect with a dry-ish brush, used in tiny little circles.  It lifts enough of the colour to remove the stark line.

Finished.  This is a quick sketch, and I didn’t draw in leaves, the pink-flushed stem, or any flowers showing their beautiful shape from the side.  However, it was a real pleasure to work on, and despite being such lovely and delicate shade of blue, getting a colour match was really straight-forward.

For a brief guide to this step by step, all on one handy sheet, please visit my Pinterest site.  Thanks.

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One of the plants needing illustrating was the sweet pea.  While visiting a friend, I espied her sweet peas, and immediately begged some of the dark purple and bright red-pink ones from her.  I ended up with an enormous bunch of flowers as well (thanks to Layla who runs The Majestic Bus, a wonderful converted bus where you can stay, in the gorgeous hills near us in Hay); but the sweet peas went straight into the fridge to stay fresh until I could draw them the next day.

Getting ready to paint the Sweet pea

If you put cut plants into a closed plastic bag in the fridge, with a paper towel wet with water, it really extends their lives and keeps them fresh for illustrating.  Plants, paper and pencil ready, and most important of all, the cup of tea.  Good to go.

Drawing up the Sweet pea in pencil

The first step is to draw the plant in pencil (I use pentel P205 mechanical pencils).  Keeping the line crisp and simple helps avoid mess when you work into the illustration with watercolour.

When you draw a plant, it’s vital to think about its position on the page and the composition, as well as copying the plant itself.  I spend a while choosing what angle to draw the flower at; one that not only shows the aspects and form of the plant, but which is also aesthetically pleasing.

As you can tell, it’s the twirly tendrils on this sweet pea that I particularly loved drawing.

I also wanted to look at one of the pink sweetpeas, but decided this would be a study of the venation within the petals; a line drawing in watercolour, if you will.  This helps if asked to draw a sweet pea again; once the purple ones are complete, some of the detail will be swallowed up in the dark colours.

Getting going on the colour: Painting the stem

This is my trusty paintbox (what a mess) with me mixing up some purple to go into the green on the stem.  I favour Winsor & Newton paints, and much prefer using Winsor & Newton series 7 brushes to any other sort.

Having put down the initial green on the stem and calyx, I work into it, adding the flush of purple.  I try to keep my colours fresh and light, and don’t erase the pencil in these sketchbook studies, which gives me a little more freedom with the paint as it doens’t have to delineate any edges.

More detail on the stem and calyx, this is alizarin crimson and purple lake, with a touch of vandyke brown.

I simply loved painting these tendrils, the way they knot and twist is fascinating.  A simple green line either side then a very pale top wash suffices.  Here I’m adding some darker areas; the green mixed with prussian blue and purple.

Painting the Sweet pea petals

I start the flowers by plotting the veins, and working up a network of darker lines where the petals are deepest in colour.  This purple is alizarin crimson, purple lake, a touch of vandyke brown, and some violet doctor martin inks which add real kick to the mix.

Both flowers have now been drawn in paint.

All I’ve done now is to add some more depth to the darkest darks by putting more little lines in thse area.  These will help add depth when I put the watercolour wash over the top as this picks up pigment lying below it on the page.

Painting a top wash on the flowers

Mixing up the wash to go on the sweet pea.  This is a similar mix to before, but with much more water and no brown.

I apply the wash very wet, it naturally carries pigment to the edges but is supplemented by the colour already on the page.  Keep the pale areas pale, and be sure not to smudge the wash as it dries.

This is a detail of the flower once the wash has been applied.

Here the illustration is pretty much finished.  All that I altered is adding some darks.  With the purples, these were quite an extreme mix of purple, brown, and prussian blue.

This is the completed sketch.  This image is a scan rather than a photo; it’s interesting to note the difference in tone and colour due to the different ways of recording the illustration.  Generally, scans are lighter and yellower.  You can always adjust for discrepencies between colour of scans or photos and the true illustration’s colours in an image editing programme such as Adobe Photoshop.

The final sketchbook sheet. The map of veins of the pink sweet pea is complete, along with notes to remind myself of specifics of the plant.  I also test my colours on these sheets, and keep notes of them on the same page.  It’s important to keep notes of size and scale too.

You might be interested to take a look at the embroidery version of this illustration completed by Trish Burr Embroidery; I think the silky threads are a wonderful way of glorifying the beautiful sweet pea flower.  Here’s a link to Stitch magazine where her article based on (licensed) use of my illustration was published.

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One of the invasive plants I was asked to paint by Summersault Communications is the Himalayan balsam Impateins galndulifera, which is growing out of control along many of Britain’s water courses, out-competing native plants and clogging up drainage channels.

Although a truly problematic invasive species here in the UK, it is also very beautiful.  Following on from last week’s step-by-step tips on painting a leaf of Japanese Knotweed; this week I’ll be explaining how I go about painting the flowers of this gorgeous plant.

Finding reference

As always, the first step is to get decent reference to work from.  Although the Himalayan balsam isn’t currently in bloom, luckily I had lots of photo reference, and some detailed sketchbook studies to work from.

Pencil drawing of the plant

The first step is to draw up the plant, which I do in pencil.  This is a detail showing one of the flowers.  I’ve scanned it in so that you can see the dents where I drew it wrong and rubbed out then re-drew the line of the flower’s stem.

Painting the stem

The first step is to put a pale wash along the stem, then work into the details of the young seed pods; painting the darkest areas first.  I use a series 7 brush (no.2).  The pale green wash is sap green mixed with cadmium yellow and some yellow ochre (which I like as it makes greens less artificial).  The details are being put in with a darker version of the same.  In general, I tend to use Winsor and Newton or Daler Rowney watercolour paints from pan, or half pans.  If I need to do a large area of one colour I’ll work from a tube, normally mixing the colour on a chipped saucer purloined from the kitchen.

Adding colour to the stem

There are parts of plants that I take a great deal of pleasure in painting, and the way crimson or red hues flush onto stems is a weakness.  I’ve gone in with a mix of alizarin crimson, a purple, and a touch of van dyke brown.  The colour is bold and dark, so I make sure I observe carefully to see where it’s strongest, and where if blends out to.

Using a weaker wash of the same colour on top of these dark red areas (remembering to leave the palest areas pale) makes it look less drastic

I’ve worked some more into the seedpods here, very lightly bringing the flush of red down from the stem, and using a weak green wash to build up the colour of the pods.

Mixing the pinks for the flower

I’ve also overlaid the pale green stem with a pale red wash (alizarin crimson) and have started to work on the flower.  For a colour as blousy and pink as this one, I use a mix of watercolour paints and Doctor Martin’s inks which are incredibly intense in colour.  They are also in no way light-fast; so be aware that if you work with them your colours will fade over time.  This isn’t a problem for work created to be reproduced, but obviously is if a painting is intended for exhibiting and sale it needs to be borne in mind.

The colours used for this paint are doctor martin’s moss rose, a touch of watercolour purple, a touch of crimson lake and lots of water.  A similar colour can be achieved by mixing white gouache in with the moss pink, but I find the resulting colour heavy and chalky, even in a dilute wash.

Plotting the darker areas

Next I draw the edges and areas of dark with the brush, and then work into them with a watery wash of the same colour, to try and make the areas of transition between light and dark less abrupt.  (As an aside, you can see some masking tape on the edge of the paper.  I stretch my paintings with gummed tape as a rule, which stops the paper from buckling when wet washes are applied.  However, if there’s time pressure and I know there’s not going to be large areas of wash, I take the short cut of “stretching” the page with masking tape instead.  If you do the same, be terribly careful when removing the masking tape at the end!)

More pink washes

Here you can see I’ve worked more into the remaining areas of the flower, with increasingly pale and watery washes.  It takes very little colour to make an area clearly not white, so washes can be very dilute indeed and still effective.

Working into the flower  with darker colours

Once the main body of the flower is plotted in, I work into the areas of colour in more detail.  Here I’m applying a purple (straight from the pan) to show areas of shadow. Working into the painting with a darker colour can also be used to ease transition from very pale to very dark areas.

Darker hues for the details

Once I’m happy with the tone of the flower, I have the excitement and joy of working into the details.  The Himalayan balsam blooms are extraordinary; speckled with crimson spots and veins.  For these I’ve used a concentrated mix of alizarin crimson with a tiny touch of cadmium orange.  I also use an extremely dilute wash of the same colours in tiny areas around the detail, this helps to ground the spots and veins and make them blend in with the flower.

Here’s the final of the flower, with the bud plotted in as well.

The second flower: Plotting in the darks

Once one flower is completed it’s time to move onto the next; a really lovely prospect as it’s at a perfect angle to draw and is one of my favourite colours. The Himalayan balsam flowers vary in colour from almost white to a deep purple (although tend to be all the same colour on individual plants), so this sketchbook approach allows me to paint two blooms at differnt ends of the spectrum on the same page. This purple is a mixture of purple and doctor martin moss pink.  Again, in the first instance I’ve just built up the flower with lots of thin painted lines, being sure to leave plenty of white paper.

Knocking back the darkest areas with a diluted wash

As before, a dilute wash of the same colours is applied.  The paint itself also bleeds very slightly into the watery wash, which helps the blending.  I’ve also worked into the detail of the stem attachment and popped in the veins on the rear area of the flower.

Extra depth comes from extra layers of pale wash, and detail in the darkest areas

Here I’ve finished working over my initial painted lines with wash, and have worked a little more into the areas of darkest darks.  It’s getting close to finished, which is always a really good moment.

Completed illustration

This is the final.  It looks different as it’s a scan rather than a photo (and is less dark, and also shows up tiny white spots where the wash hasn’t soaked into the page) but you can see that I’ve plotted in the stem and surrounding area of the plant with very pale washes.  I’ve also used purple mixed with french ultramarine to work into the darkest shadows.

And here is the area of my paintbox I was mixing pinks in at the end of the Himalyan balsam painting.  In terms of time, it took 2 hours to draw the plant in pencil and a day to do the painting (and a lifetime of painting 9-5 every day to feel confident enough to accept that I’m more or less pleased with the end result!)

Again, my thanks are due to The Botanical Art Group for Beginners whose suggestions and support for my blog are invaluable.  Thankyou!

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