For this week’s video i got inspired again by one of my creation for World watercolor month’s challenge : Cactus but very very easy !
Just above you can see my reference picture for this video and the tiny painting i made a few days ago for the challenge. As i want to paint something very easy i simplified a lot my reference image : there is no superposition in my painting just cactus at different level so that there is still some dynamic here.
Cactus have very simple shapes most of the time : round, oval, tube… The only difficulty here is to get the texture and the details right. So i have to work the color, the general shape and at last the most important detail : needles !
Another problem could be the background. Cactus are found in arid places so there isn’t lot’s of greenery around usually. So what to do with the background ? In the video i choose to go with a oposite color from the cactus, pink. Just flat pink around the green cactus is enough to bring them to life and create a dynamic image. If you want to go for a softer match you can try with an earth tone like yellow ochre very diluted. Or even let the background white !
Painting easy cactus in video
Supplies :
Brushes: Escoda Último 1″ flat, Rosemary & Co serie 39 1/2″.
Paper : Arches rough.
Colors : Indanthrene blue (Sennelier), Manganese blue (Daniel Smith), Amazonite genuine(Daniel Smith), Nickel azo yellow (Daniel Smith), Wisteria (Daniel Smith), Rose madder lake (Sennelier), Titanate yellow (Winsor & Newton), Opaque white (Schmincke).
And here you have the finished painting (click to enlarge) :
