Lockdown Foxglove

Well, I like foxgloves..

 For Christmas 2018, I was given a roll of Arches hot pressed 300 gsm watercolour paper, 113 cm x 9.15 m. This is a slightly creamy white, rather than bright white and has a lovely surface which accepts the paint effectively.

Painting at scale allows you to experiment with different subjects. Trees are good. I have painted a foxglove approximately life size before and put that painting into the ESBA show at the RBGE last year. I am happy to say that someone bought the painting..

This time, I thought it would be interesting to include more foxglove leaves which are wonderfully textured and varied in shape and colour.

A whole foxglove takes longer to paint than the plant itself will last. Therefore, you will need to take lots of photographs to freeze the moment in time. I made a drawing directly from the specimen. There is a lot of turning your head and drawing sideways to contend with and to make things easier, I measured and drew in lightly what would be a vertical line in the finished painting. I used this as a reference to keep the drawing from wandering off to one side or another.

Opinions vary but I think 300 gsm paper should not really need to be stretched before use, although it does need to be weighted down. I screened off and protected most of the paper with A3 sheets of thin card, leaving just the area I was working on exposed.

I have found, and Winsor & Newton agree, that pretty much any colour can be mixed from primary colours, in other words, from reds, blues and yellows.

When using a six colour mixing system, Winsor & Newton  recommend Winsor Lemon, Winsor Yellow, French Ultramarine, Winsor Blue (Green Shade), Permanent Rose, and Scarlet Lake.

I use Indigo as an alternative blue, and also favour Cerulean Blue. Alizarin Crimson is an additional red. Cadmium Yellow and Cadmium Lemon are good if you want a strong yellow. To get the essential colour for the foxglove flowers, I used Permanent Rose and Winsor Violet.

Other than that, it’s just a matter of painting a leaf or a flower when the mood suits and slowly the painting will develop. You need to look at the whole thing from time to time to make sure it will form a coherent whole.

Some day, possibly quite soon, it will be finished..