Since I had two tradesmen coming in today for repairs and maintenance, I took advantage of the waiting time to work further on the watercolor of Strelitzia. To refresh your memories, here it is where I left off on Tuesday afternoon:
Painting of Strelitzia at 3 pm on 26/1/10
By 9:30, the pod has more volume, and the fibrous surface of the stalk is defined:
Strelitzia at 0930 h on 29/1/10
An hour later, and the bluish-white bloom on the specimen is painted in with strokes of plain Chinese white. Chinese white watercolor is not truly opaque, but has a milky transluceny when dry. This allows the blue-green underneath to tint the white and optically mix to create the shade:
Watercolor of Strelitzia at 1040h on 29/1/10
Now it’s time to work more on the bracts, and especially, the blue petals:
Almost finished Strelitzia at 1600 h
The largest blue petals just need more definition, and the orange bracts a touch of shading and it’ll be done!
