Thursday, September 20, 2012

Colour charts and a red nasturtium ....

Im studying Natural History Illustration by correspondance, which is great in terms of flexability but a tad dangerous for the ol procrastination and general delaying of the inevitable. I was doing ok until we hit watercolours, and therefore some colour theory.  My usual painting technique involves seeing what colours I have and making the best of them. For the course we had to buy specific colours and then ensued very specific colour mixing charts, eek! I was afeared of them somewhat, being more comfortable in black and white. So 3 months (I know) and several attempts later, theyre finally done!

Now I can move on to the assessment excercise in colour. So first up is a tonal master drawing and then a colour sketch, which basically maps out all the ingredients, with a swatch of each colour mixed. That gets sent in for comments and then I can proceed to add watercolours to master drawing. It all seemed very anal to me at first, but having completed half of the process i can see the sense to it now. Any mess ups are made on the colour sketch, not the original drawing.

So I chose a red nasturtium, Tropaeolum majus to be more formal. Its the first flower from the seedlings I pinched off someones front garden, it was so abounding in them I doubt anyone even noticed. Its symbolic of my struggle to get vegies and herbs going in seaside environs which is actually coming along this spring! Still, a very proud mother, hence the illustration.


 Spring blessings to southerners, and happy growing wherever on the planet you find yourself!

1 comment:

  1. I love the fact that your vision of the nasturtium isn't just photographic. You've taken a bit of freedom with the shapes and the lines. Extending the stems beyond the original photo and making the second stem cross behind the first turns them into the legs of a Nasturtium Ballerina. I half expect her to twirl for our entertainment!

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