What’s on my drawing board, March 06 2018

Drawing Board March 06 2018 ©KarenSmith
Drawing Board March 06 2018 ©KarenSmith

Tropical leaves.

This weeks drawing board has a new crop of watercolours in my tropical leaves series.

Top row: Colour swatch sketch book, open on my Winsor & Newton watercolours page, I find it a really handy reference when working out colour schemes for new paintings.  (Underneath sketch book) a tropical leaf painting I keep coming back to, its been on and off my board for a few months now. 2 x colour scheme test paintings, my current series of pictures are drawn with waterproof ink pen, and then painted with watercolours.  To set the tonal values and try out colours, I photocopy my pictures at the inked stage and then quickly add colour – its a great way to practice before working on the final piece. Sketchbook open at a quick beach scene, other sketchbooks below with flower designs and a simple agapanthus study.

Middle row: A finished tropical painting of monstera leaves beside and above another 5 that I have ready to go. I’m using a method of painting the lightest most vibrant tones first, and then working backward from the darkets tones to the bright ones (more details in another blog post). They are all approx 6 x 8′ and will be up for sale on my Etsy site soon.

Bottom row: Test colour swatch of Winsor & Newton paints. (more monstera pictures) working sketchbook with colour combinations for these paintings: Phthalo Green + Winsor Yellow for a pale cool green & Phthalo Green and Cadmium Yellow for a warm green. 2 test strips of watercolour paper – these are off cuts of the same paper I’m using for my paintings. I have a habit of trying out each new colour mix on these first before applying to the actual painting.