I recently painted this hydrangea flower and took progress images to share how I tackled such a complicated painting.
The first step was to trace this ridiculously complicated photo! So many petals (or bracts, to be accurate) - there was n way on earth I'd be able to draw it freehand! I then started adding paint, with a wet in wet wash in places of Azo Yellow. Doing this wet in wet is important because it leaves soft edges. I then re-wet the background and dropped in the colours I was going to use in the flower - Pthalo blue, Quin. rose, Azo yellow, Ultramarine.
I started on the colourful bracts, using wet in wet and wet on dry, plus negative painting to leave light veins.
My method throughout didn't change, so from now I'l just post progress images!
A detail of the first step:
When I completed all the bracts I could see the background needed darkening, so I re-wet it and applied another wet in wet wash. Here is the finished painting!
