Bring the Plumeria to Life

Come to Life

Bring the plumeria to life. After getting the plumeria’s color and shapes defined it becomes obvious that the white background is not going to work. The flowers are fading off into their background. I don’t want a completely solid background to the edges so I experiment as I go, applying very light washes of Sap Green first then Veridian or Thalo Green in spots.

Add various size drops of Hookers Green to keep it interesting, aiming for the shadow behind the flower.

As more area is filled with the greens in the background the petals of the plumeria begin to stand out and shine.

Now I begin adding some Royal Blue shadows along with Ultramarine Blue, and purples. Some depth is showing where one blossom overlaps another. These transparent washes really bring out real-looking shadows.

Note the difference when a shadow is added, where the red blossom overlaps the pink/orange blossom behind and where the white petal overlaps also.

Darkening places in the surroundings at the petal edges accentuate the depth of the background.

Done, it is confusing which way it should be hung, so I am happy that I don’t have to decide. Flattening the paper out overnight by wetting it on the backside and laying face down with a heavy board overnight and allowing it to dry. Then packing to send off in the mail. Hoping that it arrives on time for Jeanie Hollands Birthday! Love You, Jeannie!

More posts like this are under the “Watercolor” category.

Plumeria in Process

Plumeria White Ylw 02 — Plumeria White & Yellow 02

This watercolor of plumeria in process recreates how the flowers look when they are rinsed and spread across a kitchen table while stringing leis.

Notice the yellow-centered white plumerias have a brilliant center fading out to white edges and tip. To accomplish this I wet the entire petal area so I can do a wet-on-wet process with the paint. Fill a brush with Aurolean yellow. Begin applying by pulling from the tip on the outside edge of the petal to the interior in the center and lifting the brush. This leaves a wonderful puddle of light yellow bleeding out evenly and gradually to the outer edges of the petal. Do the other side of the petal.

The next shade is New Gambouge, which is a kind of orangish yellow. Same brush loaded with color, then pulling from about 3/4 or 1/2 of the petal length to the inside and lifting again at the center to produce that darker orange tint in the center. Do both sides of petal. In the image below, you can see how the New Gambouge further defines the radiance of that center area and push it into the distance.

Darken the Center

Apply using a light touch with a smaller brush of Daniel Smith Quinacridone Gold or an orange-brown to your liking, to emphasize edges and the center even more. I notice a darker shadow right under the edges of where the petal folds up on the sides remaining white. This underneath surface of the petal is where I apply the darker color sparingly.

Shadows

Finally, with the same small brush, I drop a little pool drop of Dioxazine Purple right in the middle where you would insert your needle to string a lei. Purples are a perfect “shadow maker” for yellows. The wet surface lets the purple bleed naturally out into the petal making an incredibly believable shadow and depth. I also use this same purple in very light washes to create drop shadows where the flowers overlap each other, edge outlines, and stem peek out from behind.

Reds and Pinks

The same steps are taken with the red plumeria sing the wet-on-wet process. Using a light wash of Alizarin Crimson, adding Purple Lake, touching with Vermillion then more Alizarin Crimson in the middle. Last is that drop of Dioxazine Purple in the center. For the pink the same steps but what I noticed is that there is almost a stripe effect with the different colors on each petal. I start with an Alizarin Chrimson, adding Vermillion, adding Pyrrol Orange, then Cadmium Yellow Pale in stripes that I let bleed into each other. Again, the last is that drop of Dioxazine Purple in the center.

More posts like these are under the category of “Watercolor”

PLUMERIA memories

PLUMERIA memories can be painted if you have enough pictures of them stored away in your mind. I used to make lei’s all the time. Before I know it, I am simply painting the colors and textures that I remember. I can almost see and smell the flowers in my hands and these memories seem to guide my brush.

plumeriaWhiteYlw — plumeria white and yellow

Right after I finished my client’s piece, I started on another plumeria memory for a birthday coming up. She is family who made many lei’s with me. Starting with multiple sketches of flowers until I arrive at an arrangement that suits me, the process begins.

The plumeria tree has big pointed dark green leaves and produces a thick stem that branches out to multiple pods, creating a bunch of blossoms. Plumeria is a 5 petal flower with pointed ends spreading out in an equal circular fashion. It has a sturdy tube from its petals-creating an easy-to-string tube stem that begins as a cone shape coming down from the blossom which then reduces into a smaller diameter where it anchors to the pod.

While picking, you have to take care to keep the milky sap off of yourself. It really is poisonous but honestly, I have never known anyone stupid (lo-lo) enough to eat that yucky tasting stuff. I remember doing the “wash your hands” thing right after picking or lei making. It was so sticky and tasted quite vile (pilau) if you ate something and licked your fingers afterward.

A Youth of Lei Making

Lei making is truly an art and many Hawaiians excel at creating gorgeous and fragrant creations that are a joy to see and wear. My favorite lei is puakinikini it has an almost magical entrancing aroma. In elementary school, lei designs were fun and simple. But in high school, things got serious to enter the May Day Lei Making contest at the state capitol.

We had large plumeria trees lining the dirt road in the front of our house. People used to come and knock on our door to ask permission to pick. Those trees provided the whole neighborhood.

There was a great big one that had thick white petals with bright yellow centers and a truly heavenly perfume. The thick petals allowed it to last the longest in a lei. Right next to it was an established old tree with blossoms that had a more slender and thinner type of petal. It had brilliant pinks and a yellow center, with not so sweet a fragrance, and didn’t last as long.

The only color missing was dark red, so I got a branch from a friend to plant in the backyard. It grew into a beautiful tree right in the guava orchard area. It took a couple of years before it was big enough to supply “a grocery sack-full” of flowers to work with, but even with little amounts of the dark reds some really interesting patterns and designs in our lei making through.

More posts like this are under the category of “Watercolors“.

Dahlia Progress is Slow

Step By Step Progress

dahlia watercolor progress 5 — dahlia watercolor progress

This dahlia watercolor progress is slow as I experiment with getting the bright colors and shading right. It has been a while since I painted flowers, even though they are one of my favorite things in life. Isn’t it funny that we get distracted from what we love with our work in life? This paining seems to be more of a study of the light and casted shadow on the various petal surfaces. It is truly amazing how many surfaces there are on a single blossom. I love the play of light and how it makes something seem so 3D whenever I get it right.

Pink, my kingdom for a pink

It is surprising that the most difficult areas so far have been getting the right pinks to appear. It requires that I actually get the right amount of water to dilute the paint with the main one being used as Alzarian Crimson, or Scarlet Lake, the darks are better with the violet or purple ranges added. My daughter shares my interest in flowers, she has a site named www.dahliasinbloom.net, a place worth checking out.

You can see why I feel so inspired by blossoms, each day as I walk through our garden, I not only see vegetables and fruits. Luckily, there are many blossoms to pause and smell as I do my daily chores.

Time out

At this point, I am not sure if I am liking the way this watercolor is coming out so I may put it on the shelf to rest while I get back to my real work. When you paint for work sometimes your personal paintings have to wait till there is time again. The most important thing to me is to not make a big stack of unfinished art in my shelf, so I keep working on my un-done stack every week to keep it real small. A uncluttered studio is a happy studio.

Dahlia Painting Outside

This afternoon shot is of a Dahlia painting, showing progress as I paint in the light outdoors, there is no better way to spend an afternoon.

We have a 20 x 20 deck on our house, that many people told us we were wasting too much space on, but I absolutely love it. During the warm months, I spend as much time as possible sitting out there painting and drawing because I find the sound of the wind calming, just like John Travolta in the movie called, “Phenomenon“. The birds and chipmunks and squirrels are truly entertaining.

Gazing down from our deck I can also look down over my domain anytime, now that we have cleared the patch of trees that shaded the garden too much. I look out over our property and wonder at the sky that is so pretty, now that the smoke has cleared and I so appreciate all the warm sunshine. The sky changes colors magnificently in the evening, making it almost impossible to capture unless you are able to paint lickety-split FAST!

Dahlia Painting

Having a bouquet of cut flowers right here makes it so much easier for me to see their beauty right, I hope to be able to get what I see down on the paper and do them justice.

I made myself a promise

I would do at least one image a week that I want to do, actually, paint what I feel drawn to create. Recent health issues have made me realize that time is not a guarantee, and I had better enjoy all the time I have left before I exit the scene. This week, all the blossoms in the garden are drawing me in close, to smell, touch and admire all of their brilliant colors. What fabulously bright creations they are!