This week, i’m again painting something new, i’m painting a cactus, a prickly pear tree.
The big challenge here is that there isn’t much details to paint ! This plant is composed of big plain shapes so my reference picture looks a little bit simplistic. I’m more use to paint lots a greenery in a very dense disposition. With this subject, cactus, i’m a bit lost !
In order to beat this simplistic appearance, my strategy is to play with colors. I’ve used colors that are not very reallistic with violets and turquoise. And alos i’ve let my colors fuse in one another in order to get beautiful gradients. Having less details to paint made me focus more on my colors strategy and i needed to think a lot more what i was doing. Usually if i made a mistake i will blur it or cover it with greenery or leafy shapes, but here i have nothing with which cover them. I needed to think carefully each brushstrokes.
Painting a cactus with watercolor in video
Supplies :
Brushes : Escoda Aquario nº18, Raphaël le “803” nº2, Rosemary & Co Eclipse round nº4.
Paper : Canson Héritage rough.
Colors : Phtalo turquoise (Daniel Smith), Yellow ochre (Daniel Smith), Rose madder lake (Sennelier), Lunar blue (Daniel Smith), Lavander (Daniel Smith), White gouache (Winsor & Newton).
And here you have the finished painting (click to enlarge) :
