20131010 - Clematis

Today I completed a painting on the watercolor paper canvas that I created yesterday. This is a pen & ink with watercolor of a purple Clematis. It is based on the Clematis by Nicola B., who graciously uploaded it to the Paint My Photo website, where photographers share "reference photos for creating derivative Artwork without copyright worries."

A bit of an apology. Yes, it has an iridescent medium on it. It's an inside joke in our family. My daughter loved things with purple sparkles. As I was painting this flower from the photograph, I was struck by how it almost seems to sparkle in the light. Well, it was only a short hop form that to purple with sparkles. In person the iridescence is not quite as annoying.

A little on the detail in painting this. I used Noodler's 54th Massachusetts, which is a blue-black ink for the outline of the petals. I used that same color to create the under painting of the shadows. I masked off the center of the flower. After I added the color, I removed the masking and used Noodler's Manjiro Nakahama Whaleman's Sepia on the center. I used M. Graham paints to add the coloring to the paint. After doing research, I discovered that I rather naturally use a CMY (Cyan Magenta Yellow) color wheel to choose colors. In this case, the green and purple are complementary (per the CMY color wheel). This system tends to yield much more vibrant colors than the tradition RBY (Red Blue Yellow) color wheel.

As I noted, I painted this on the watercolor paper canvas that I created yesterday (see my previous blog entry). I will still need to spray it with a UV Protectant Varnish. Since the back of the paper is open to the elements, I will need to spray both the front and back (as well as sides) of this canvas. Once that's done it can be hung "as is" without a frame, or put in a frame, such as is used for oil or acrylic paintings.