﻿Hi it’s Anna Mason, and in this watercolour mini class I’m going to show you
the process I followed when I painted this Mexican Ivy.
This detailed flower held just as much appeal to me as it did to the local insects.
Here’s how I went about painting it...
I worked from a photo I’d taken and began with the outline drawing,
which members of my online School are able to download and trace from.
Then I began the painting in a really relaxed way: by mapping out all of the
areas of different colour, but using really pale and watery versions of each colour.
Starting with some Winsor Lemon with a touch of Permanent Sap Green for the yellow greens in the sepals,
adding more Sap Green where needed.
Working with pale versions of the colours means you’ll be able to adjust these hues as you layer up:
which is vital because of the way that we perceive colours relative to the ones around them.
For the palest colours in the purplish parts of the sepals I used a mix of Quinacridone Violet and Burnt Sienna.
With the drawing as the guide, it’s fun to work within each
area and see the picture begin to come to life.
For the purples within the petals, I used a base of Quinacridone violet and then added Opera Rose where it needed to be more pink,
and Payne’s Grey or Burnt Sienna where it needed to be more muted.
I applied in the direction of the form of the petals so that where I got overlaps with my brushstrokes,
they would be helpful in creating 3D form.
I used the more muted mixes, with even more water to paint the filaments
Adding a touch of yellow into the mix at the bottom.
Then I used grey greens and yellow browns to paint the lightest parts of the anther.
Before also adding the lightest colours to the bee and ant.
Then with the paper dry, I began working on the darkest colours in
the petals, mixing Quinacradone Violet with Paynes Grey and Permanent Rose.
I watered it down where it was slightly lighter, and began to create some of the markings
I could see in stripes on the petals.
Then I used a brighter mix with Opera Rose in it for the brighter, but still very dark parts of the petal.
I used these two dark mixes to work in other areas I could see needed them,
adding in the shapes of the markings I could see there.
As I’d done that darkening I could begin to make tonal adjustments,
returning to my paler mixes to add a layer to the light parts of the petal.
And then using all the mixes I had on the go to alternate between working with dark colours
And light colours.
Back and forth, gradually building up depth and meeting in the middle with the midtones.
Then going back to the darkest tones and darkening them further as I could now see they needed it.
And making a couple more adjustments before tackling the sepals,
beginning with painting in the areas between the veins, to make the veins stand out
what’s known as ‘negative painting’, using green and more purple-brown mixes.
Then I darkened the yellow centre and used a smaller brush to add the darker
colours to the sepals, picking out detail as I went, and being sure to leave lighter
areas for the raindrops that I could see on the sepals in my reference photo.
With all that dry, I used a yellow-ochre mix to darken some of the veins a touch.
I continued to add detail and darken gradually in the process,
moving on to darken and define the filaments and anther all with a tiny brush now.
This was a time consuming but really enjoyable process. It’s so much fun to be really in the
flow of the moment, carefully observing the subject and painting like this.
Next I did another round of darkening and adding detail.
Darkening gradually like this really allows you to get your colour mixes just how you want them.
If you find you went too dull last time, add more of a brighter paint with this layer.
I painted in the dark stem and added more detail to the sepals
Before using my larger brush and a watery mix to gently apply a glaze to darken the whole
area, which stopped the veins from standing out too much.
Then I went through another round of darkening.
It’s so much fun to see the flower really popping off the paper now.
If your paintings are ever feeling flat, it’s likely you need to take a few areas darker
to help them to have contrast and really stand out.
Then I painted the dark areas of the bee,
the mids,
and the adjustments,
before using my pale grey, Davy’s Grey, to paint the buzzing wings.
Next it was the final adjustments and details including the dark ant that was also visiting this flower when I’d photo’d it.
I’d not wanted to paint it until now because I’d wanted to be sure the areas around it were as dark as they needed to be,
to ensure I didn’t need to darken around the ant which might have been tricky
and led it’s dark colour to bleed out of it's position.
I couldn’t resist a couple more adjustments,
and the painting was finished.
It had taken around 6 hours to do.
A set of video classes showing you how to paint the key sections of the Mexican Ivy
is available now in my online School where members have been getting great results with the full painting.
If you’ve enjoyed this class, please Subscribe to my YouTube channel
and then buzz on over to AnnaMasonArt.com where you can take a full length video class FOR FREE and find masses
of resources to help you pick up your brush and paint the way you’ve always wanted to.
Thanks so much for watching and I’ll see you soon to help you create more watercolours with “wow”.