Workshop in a Box - Painting A Stargazer Lily with Ali Hargreaves | SAA Archives

So let's paint a stargazer lily. I'm going to first of all show you how to draw it and I'm going to make it really simple. I'm not going to use photograph, I'm just going to talk you through this. So what I would do first of all is think about where the petals are going to go and a stargazer lily has six petals, it has three so I'm putting a line there, a line there and a line fairly equally spaced like that. Then I'm going to think about the shape of the petals and they come out like this, they come right round quite wide and then they go pointy at the top, out and in. Then do the same again, don't worry if it goes wrong you can always erase it, out like this, to the top like that and then round and remember also you can always look at this video again and try it again. So out like this, to the top and in. They do not have to be perfectly the same because nature's not like that, you know they are slightly wobbly sometimes. Now we're going to put the other three in so this is easier and just put the line in between a bit like a windmill, in fact they are very like a windmill if you've ever made one. So like that and then we've got the other petals it's just the end like this fitted in between so going like that round like that, like that and then we've got our lily shape. I'm just going to erase those light lines so it's important to put them on really lightly so that they will erase out well. So this shows you that you can erase over the top of watercolour paper, and now I'm just left with the petals. As you can see I have done it fairly light, I haven't pressed down hard with the pencil because I don't really want that to show too much but it helps us to know where the lily's going. Now the first bit is the most exciting bit, I love this it's really great so watch first and then pause the video and have a go. So what we're going to do is wet each petal one at a time with water so make sure that your water is clean, change the water that really matters that you've got clean water. Wet it almost up to the edge but not quite, all of this area is water, not quite up to the edge and then get the alizarin crimson, you know now how to mix that, nice strong colour and just put a line to the middle and look at that I just love it it's so exciting, maybe a little bit more colour if you want to down the middle. That's what they look like, you know stargazer lilies. So then a bit more water on this, not quite up to the edge, get the alizarin crimson and just put that line going up like that. They do look like this in nature, they really do, you know they're not perfectly the same all the way around so this is quite quite natural looking. Water all over, brush, get the red, one line, be quick with it, point at the brush just go straight down like that maybe another one if it's not quite down, it's not spread out quite the same I think it's just because there's not enough water so you can get that back by adding a little bit more water on it like that. This is troubleshooting and then putting some more colour on, there we go, now it's now it's spreading out that's better. So that's troubleshooting and sorting it out, I'm just going to press that off, that's what we're doing, lifting off technique just to make sure that's not too wet. This is much more careful now, I need to go on the inside of the petal here wet, just that bit is wet, leaving the shape of the petal around there, I know you can't see what I'm doing but hopefully you can see I'm going up to the pencil line but not going over it then wetting that area. Now that didn't work as well because it wasn't as wet, I've put two layers of water on the other that's why it happened so two layers again would be good and so there, get the red and again just put the colour on up like that and look it follows the line of the petal, it's like magic, I just love it, I get really excited every time. So water on here, again going round the petal, round the petal, this brush is fantastic for that, it's got a really good point on it and then bring the water down here, add a bit more water so that it really is nice and wet and then very quickly with the point of the brush straight down like that, don't labour it, if you go slowly like this it'll just fill it all and that's not really what we want, in fact you could even put another line to here whilst it's starting, it's still a bit damp and just get an extra line on there and one more, so water on here, very carefully with the point of the brush, leaving the petal behind and then water all over here up to there but not quite up to the edge, we don't want it to fill, we want the white edge of the petal, so if it hasn't gone swimmingly the first time please don't worry, it really doesn't matter, don't think this is a painting for the wall or an exhibition straight away, we need to practice it and then from the middle straight up, lovely, again that wasn't quite as wet so I'm going to do the same thing again, I'm going to wet that area a little bit, add a bit more water and add that colour again and it'll spread out a bit more, lovely, so we've got the main part of the flower done, now the middle of the star gazer lily is green and it's a very bright green so this leaf green is actually quite a good colour, however I do want it to be a little bit more yellow and I'm going to mix it in the palette because I need this to be wet because we're going to use the pulling out method, so I'm going to mix it in the palette, leaf green, plenty of water, add lots of water in there and then I'm going to add some lemon yellow to it, so again lots of water, add that to the leaf green, if you feel you need to practice somewhere with the colour and make sure it's the colour that you want and then I'm going to have my ruling pen ready or your barbecue stick or whatever you're going to use to lift it out and put this puddle of colour in the middle, plenty of it, so look how I'm adding more and more of this colour so it's really nice and wet otherwise it won't pull out and then pull out like this, one fell swoop pulling that colour out, if it's not coming out very well make sure that you've got enough colour, you know you might need a bit more so I'm just mixing a bit more here and I can see actually the petals were still a little bit damp and what's happening is the colour is going into the flower, I actually love that, I'm very happy with that but if you want definite lines wait for the petals to be completely dry before, so I'm adding more colour, a bit stronger this time and I'm just going to go over the ones that haven't shown up so well, now what I'm going to do whilst it's still a bit wet, I'm just going to add a tiny bit of Prussian blue into the middle whilst it's still wet, a bit more, let it do the wetting work, look at that, I just love it, gorgeous, coming out and that gives the flower depth, that means that it makes it look a bit darker on the inside and so it looks a bit more 3D, pulling it in, now we want the petals to show, this is the next bit is putting the outside on, so the green foliage, I'm going to have a lighter side with less definition on this side and much stronger greens on here and I'm going to layer them up, remember how we made the greens, so we used the leaf green and a little bit of Viridian but then we added the blue and the yellow, so I'm now using the point of the brush to do a hard edge around the flower petals but I'm starting with a light green because I want to add dark green later, with watercolour you can't really do it the other way around, if you start with dark you won't be able to put light over the top so always think lighter colours first, remember how to make them lighter by adding water, so point of the brush very carefully around the petal like this, getting what we call a hard edge remember, right into there, going around using the point of the brush, whilst it's still wet use the side of the brush to pull that out, now that is a classic thing that can go wrong, you know if it goes wrong it doesn't matter, remember you're learning and you perhaps need to practice more but sometimes what can happen is a line and I will show you what to do about that in a minute but meanwhile I'm adding water and letting that come out, I'm leaving little bits of white, with watercolour it's really nice if you leave a bit of the paper coming through, now I'm going to show you a little bit of troubleshooting so what I'm going to do is put a line around here using the point of the brush but I'm going to let that dry this time, ideally do it this way but if it dries whilst you're being this really careful line I'm going to show you how to get that back, so I've gone right into there with the point of the brush, I'm now going to let that dry just to show you what we can do about it if that happens, meanwhile I'm going to do this as I would like it to be all the way around the edge so I've got more leaf green, I'm going to mix it with there, I'm going to add a little bit of lemon to it, the brush is wet I'm going around the edge of the petals like this and then whilst it's still wet use the side of the brush to pull that colour out over there, wet the brush dry it off once in the paper towel add the water let it go out you know you can get that lovely wet and wet so wet on dry wet and wet, more leaf green a bit wetter than that get rid of the excess on there and do this as well so go all the way around the petal and then the side of the brush to pull it out whilst it's still wet add some water leave a little bit of the paper showing pause the video if you need to I'm just going to add a little bit of lemon to this look at that gorgeous whilst it's still wet get some other colours coming out a little bit of prussian tiny little bit of prussian blue in there just to make it a bit different so it's still wet at the moment so if I put little bits this tiny bit of prussian blue in there look I can get some other greens but don't put a lot on because it's a very strong colour and it will overtake before you know it I've got the yellower green again I'm going to go around the edge so what we're doing is putting on the first layer of colour it's nice and light and I can go over it later but I'm actually as I said at the beginning going to keep this side quite light anyway I probably won't add a lot more to it a bit of water to let it carry on out you can actually see a little bit of cauliflowering happening here and that's because I added it whilst it was damp rather than wet if you're not keen on that put more colour on or leave it I love cauliflower I really like them but it's a matter of taste really a little bit of viridian in there as well but only a little bit this makes it more interesting by adding more colour remember if it's damp you're going to get cauliflowers if it's still wet then it will just be wet and wet but the more different colours and tones you have in here the more interesting it's going to look so just adding a little bit of viridian in there add the water going through to the white of the paper yeah a bit more of the leaf green on here going up to the edge so you can go over again it's now drier can go over it again with another layer and it makes it interesting this is now dried so watch what happens if I put water on now look I'm going to get a line it will move the colour if I do this it will move it but I'm still going to get a line and that is very common when you first start so what do we do about it it's fine don't panic we just get more colour wet the brush dry it off a little bit go over it again with the point of the brush go over the same colour that you did before the line that you did before and then pull it out as you should have done before whilst it's still wet a bit more colour on there it's a little bit stronger there so a bit more colour on side of brush to pull it out wet the brush dry it off once bring over and the line has gone I can add more colour in there stronger colour look etc and the line has gone I do need to be a bit more careful around there I want that to be very definite again wet the brush dry it bring it out so now I've done that I can continue and just finish that off so lime green coming around here so basically I've got one layer of very light green now what I want to do is start building up the layers of colour on here I want it to be much darker here and that way the flower will really stand out because it's about tone tonal values so getting dark against light the real contrast of very dark against the light so I'm going to add Prussian blue here really dark very strong colour I'm going to go with the point of the brush around there it's still a bit wet so it's doing the wet and wet thing the other side and I've got a hard edge next to the flower look how that petal now stands out much much more and go around this bit as well but I don't want it to be all blue I want some of the green shining through just as I had the white paper shining through there I want the green to shine through so I'm adding water just as we did before we're getting the wet and wet but some of the green is coming through now I'm going to start thinking about what's the foliage like behind maybe a few stalks in there so I could leave some stalk shapes behind like that just to give the idea of something that would continue down here so I need to think about that a bit more of the Prussian blue on there so it's really dark and then whilst it's still wet I'm going to add a little bit of Viridian why not because that's also a dark green notice it's doing the wet and wet because it's still damp that's great that's perfect timing around here again I've got a line at the moment but it's still wet so if I use the side of the brush I can pull that out don't forget my stalk then wet the brush dry it off pull that colour out now as I said before please don't worry if it doesn't work perfectly the first time second time even the third time try again maybe try with a different flower you know try different things and keep building up the layers so I'm going to on this side I'm adding some Prussian blue look how that petal stands out I'm going to show you something else if I wanted that to be even darker still whilst it's still wet I'm going to add a bit of the alizarin crimson that we've got in the flower that will then link up a little bit of the red going on here bring that stalk through don't go overboard with it but that can make it quite interesting and it makes it darker because it's the opposite colour to green red and green are opposite on the colour wheel and that will make it a bit darker but got just a tiny bit of red showing quite interesting I'm going to put more Prussian blue and more the Viridian around here so say I want this part to be dark and this to be light leaving some of the green coming through the different layers and even add a bit more leaf green look so I can put light colour over the top like that but it won't obliterate I couldn't put light over there and make it light right so now I'm going to carry on around the using some water to make that a bit lighter adding a bit of leaf green in there whilst it's still wet that will do the wet and wet but only if it's still wet that's the thing so this is really good practice for all those techniques this is a really dried a bit so I'm just going to add a bit of water to it because I want a little bit of wet and wet I'm going to add some crimson there gorgeous just a little bit of element of red that just pulls in that colour so what we're doing is linking the flower with the background but not overtaking the flower is the king of this picture you know it's really important that's what we want everyone to look at so I'm actually going to add a little bit of lemon here so this whilst it's still wet and it will it is still wet so it's doing that wetting wetting thing over the top maybe a bit more prussian blue here you know keep layering until you're happy the idea is that you've got lots of different tones lots of different greens and blues and yellows in there to make it interesting look at that lovely wetting wet that's occurring there and wet on dry they're wetting damp actually so probably get some cauliflower there I'm going to let it dry and then I'm going to lift off that bit of stalk and maybe add a couple bits more so a little bit more dark around here so that will show up and then I'll go back to that I want that to dry so I can do that technique meanwhile a little bit more of a medium tone so I can go over this I can leave some of the light green coming through instead of the white I'm leaving the green add water to pull this colour what I want now is these petals are very strong they're really standing out because of that wet on dry these do stand out a bit but I want them not to stand out too much so I'm just going to add a little bit of green on here and then I'm just going to add that to go into the petal a bit so it becomes a bit more smudgy if you preferred it as it was before then leave it as it was before you know this is about personal taste now so I'm just doing this it's a bit of a lifting off technique in a way just to make them a bit less sharp focus so it's the lifting off technique so using a damp brush just do this I could add a little bit more of the green and it will actually go into the petal a bit so the idea is that you've got a soft edge petals around here that are disappearing a little bit into the background whereas these are very definite and that helps us with the focus of the flower being here in the middle it also makes it a freer picture okay so I'm going to let that dry a little bit that needs to blink a little bit at the moment so adding water to that there we go that's better more of a transition now these here have dried these stamens and on the top they have that amazing bit of the pollination so I'm going to mix some burnt sienna and alizarin crimson in the palette here and that will make me a good colour for the top that needs to be nice and strong and then what we're going to do is actually literally print with the brush this is another technique on the end of this if you just literally place this down on top like that then you get the perfect shape though the end of the stamens a bit more it needs to be nice strong colour for this if you're not sure about putting on straight away you know maybe have a little practice now if you look at lilies they they're not all the same size some are shorter some are longer that makes it much more interesting by adding you know different lengths to them it makes it much more interesting and that's probably enough of that I've actually lost the middle of my flower there so I'm just going to add a hard edge now of prussian blue so that we get that middle you know lovely bit of depth in the flower and then one more technique for you is splattering so this is again a personal thing some people love it I do I love it but not everybody does but what it does is adds a bit of texture adds a bit of looseness to the painting so in order to do this well you need plenty of wet colour so lots of water on the brush then get something like another brush handle or a pencil something hard like that wet colour practice this before you do it on your painting especially if you're really proud so far because you know something might happen that you're not so happy with then just tap it gently like this and we get all these really interesting little colours like that now as you can see it's gone all over my flower if you're quick and do this it will lift off quite easily the other thing is to cover it with a paper towel before you do that you know if you really don't want it on the and then you can splatter to your heart's content I'm now going to make it a darker green by adding some prussian blue and look really interesting add some water you'll get bigger blobs and lighter blobs like that it's quite interesting for texture I'm going to put some more up there I actually don't mind it going over the petal um and I can get rid of the really bad ones like that or maybe I can't so what I can do with that is the lifting off technique so wet the brush then dry it off it needs to be damp and do this again prussian blue is quite a staining colour so I'm just going to have to live with that but learn from me if you don't want that there then then cover it up first okay so one more thing you need to get these stalks by the lifting off technique I'm going to put one in here remember this technique needs a damp brush like this and then go backwards and forwards backwards and forwards like this maybe a little bit more wet the brush dry it off and then clean towel like that and you've lifted off a little bit of a stalk here maybe do another one here see if that works better so up and down like this paper towel over the top that's worked a little bit better so it's quite interesting you can add a few stalks here maybe very lightly with the brush to add a bit more interest so what we're going to do now the last thing is to add a few dots on here because the stargazer lily has little spots on now there are various things you could do you could just use the end of your brush so if I wet that alizarin crimson put in the handle of the brush and then just do this I get lots of different size dots and they're perfect for the stargazer lily they do have small dots and large dots all over and it just adds that extra bit of texture and pattern to the lily another thing you can use is a barbecue stick or your ruling pen which I will add them again in a minute because that gives you smaller dots that's now drying up so I just need to wet it a bit more if you put them on and they're a little bit strong you can always just dab them off a bit like this a bit dry again so do keep this wet and now I'm going to show you how you can use the ruling pen to get some smaller dots from the end so there we have it stargazer I hope you enjoy painting it