Roses On a Snowy Day

rose bouqet
bouquet of roses up close

Bouquet of Roses

Having roses on a snow day is wickedly awesome! If you know about the 12″ rule, then I know you fully understand what I mean about the snowy the day part. Having a husband who buys you roses and takes you to dinner on that day too, is ever so much more heavenly. You know, I got one heck of a keeper in Peter Woelk!

bouquet of roses on table
bouquet of roses on table

These soft petals are so gorgeous as they coax me to come sit by them. They are just sitting there saying, “Draw me, and paint me Val. By the way, I smell good too – if you’d like to come on over here and sniff.”

My mind says, “Okay, after I get the tomatoes canned today.”  But, the blossoms sit right there arguing with me some more, “Forget about those dang tomatoes”.

I take pictures of them and sniff their wonderful perfume every time I walk past them. Eventually, the flower wins out and I get a piece of paper and begin drawing them in pencil. Hours later, I notice that a lot of time has gone by. Wow, it goes way faster than I thought. Oh, so what. I don’t really have enough time to get the tomatoes done today anyhow and the light is so perfect on that red one right there. I’ll just get out a little watercolor block and try some watercolors because it is so perfect right here and now.

The layout flows easily onto the paper and I happily mix up so colors to wash in where the darker shadows appear. Before I know it, I realize that it is time to start dinner. Oops. I quickly put the paintings on the drying rack in the studio, and clean the brushes. I can pull a ready-to-eat dinner out of the freezer and microwave it, to get things going fast in the kitchen. Whew.

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.

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plumeria blossoms 01

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

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plumeria blossoms 02

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

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plumeria blossoms 05

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.

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plumeria blossoms 06

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.

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plumeria blossoms 06

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

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plumeria blossoms 08

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!

plumeriaJH09
plumeria blossoms 09

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