Discovery Bay Rhododendron, Progress

This Rhododendron flower that I found growing on a wild Rhododendron bush along Highway 101 just west of Discovery Bay in Washington State, USA has been my early morning-late night project over the last ten days. It will probably require at least ten more days to finish it, depending on how much time I can set aside to work on it. 

The top flower portion of the painting is now complete. I have enjoyed working on this project because I'm using a technique that I was not previously aware of. In preparing for this painting I discovered the blending brush. This unique brush contains a chemical that dissolves the wax in the colored pencil, giving it a "wet" appearance. 

Though I teach watercolor in my Painting in Paradise workshop, I wanted to try the colored pencil technique with the blending tool and see how it works. Now that I'm familiar with it, I might even incorporate the blended colored pencil technique into my workshop. If people would rather apply color in a dry media, they would have that choice. It would make things much simpler when you're working away from your studio as we do in the Cook Islands. Plus, it think it's easier for most people to control a dry media than watercolor.

I'm still looking forward to moving into the dark background portion of the painting. At that point the flower will begin to stand out. With no low-key background color, the high-key flower colors are still suffering from a lack of contrast. 

Check back soon. The next thing you'll see will be a finished rhodie in the lower right, which is still in pencil. Then I will begin work on the background.

Have you seen my other blog? It's called The Trowbridge Chronicles.  

Discovery Bay Rhododendron Painting Progress

I'm making slow and steady progress on my Discovery Bay Rhododendron painting. Realistic studio paintings require a lot of patience since the progress moves so slowly. This is actually a colored pencil drawing that I'm "wetting" to make it look like a watercolor painting. This is my first attempt at this technique. I've found that it works very well, and allows for more mobility since colored pencils are much more transportable than watercolors or oil paint.

The wet technique is achieved by using a colored pencil blender. It's a two-ended brush containing a solution that dissolves the wax in the pencil, giving it a "wet" appearance.

There still is a lack of contrast in the painting since the white flower petals are all high key, making them disappear into the background. That will all suddenly change when I start applying the dark background colors.

The above painting will be posted on my Painting in Paradise web site. If you would like to learn how to paint flowers in a realistic fashion, my next watercolor workshop on the exotic South Sea Island of Rarotonga begins on March 30, 2014. There's more info here: www.PaintingInParadise.net