This week i treat myself with a bouquet of carnation and eucalyptus. And of course i painted it ! Perfect subject to exercise my observation skill.
My picture is isn’t showing the full beauty of it… It was such a nice and long bouquet to have at home ! I had to fight a little bit with Arya (my cat) because she wanted to snif and chew it… But anyway, it’s quite a simple bouquet in terms of colors so i focused my work on the shape of the flowers and leaves. Carnations have a very specific shape with lots of crumpled petals united by a long and bulky calyx. All those information i can see in my observation of the plant should be on my paper too so that the viewer is able to recognize the flower. Of course i don’t want to be realistic, that’s not my style, but i still want to add the right details to my painting in order to identify the carnation. Just enough details !
For the flowy effect of the flowers, i paint them with hard edges and soft edges. And i add different layers of red, because for me (i do not like to paint with red), it’s easier to build reds layers after layers and intensify the color slowly. The sucessives layers, always worked with soft and hard edges, will also add to the vaporous effect.
Painting carnation in video
Supplies :
Brushes : Escoda Aquario nº18, Rosemary & Co serie 39 1/2″, Raphaël petit gris le “803” nº2.
Paper : Canson héritage rough.
Colors : Indanthrene blue (Sennelier), Lunar blue (Daniel Smith), Quinacridone gold (Daniel Smith), Winsor red (Winsor & Newton).
And here you have the finished painting (click to enlarge) :
