Society of Botanical Artists - Assignment 5

As we move forward with new assignments, I've noticed that each one becomes slightly more challenging. Assignment 5 is all about the arrangement of stems and flower composition. I have come to realize that this is not my area of expertise. I usually only paint a single flower not multiple ones! I did a lot of research on this assignment by looking at all the master botanical artists and their beautiful works of art.

I headed to the flower shop to pick up some flowers. The florist picked three long stem roses for me to paint. Here are a few photos.

Here is my outlline of each rose on my watercolor paper below.

To begin I sketched each flower individually. I made sure that each flower was in a different angle and the back flower head is facing away.

The color mixes for the roses were Sennelier lemon yellow and Daniel Smith Quin Rose. I always mix all my colors in my color sketchbook for future reference.

The leaves were painted with Indanthrene Blue, Hansa Yellow Deep and a touch of Quin Rose. Under the leaves I used Sennelier lemon yellow, Cerulean Blue and a touch of Quin Rose. For the branches I used Indanthrene Blue and Perylene Maroon.

I must admit that this was such a challenging painting and one that I struggled with but with all paintings you learn and move on to the next one! onwards and upwards as i say to my kids!