"ROSE DEMO"

No. 280 in my 365/2010 painting series.

Title: "ROSE DEMO"

Size. 7.5X 10.5 inches

Medium: Watercolor on 140 lb. cold press paper.

I couldn't resist counting this as one of my 365 paintings.

The other day one of my former private students asked me to show her how to paint roses. Here's what I did, in about 5 mins. This is how I start my roses and sometimes they are just good enough to keep on the first cut.

I wet the paper and put on the color gray, background first, the splotch in the color for the rose. Then I take two lenghts of paper towel and fold into a double fold length wise. then I Begin to crumple it up between my fingers at the middle of the rose, like I was going to make a paper rose. leaving the exposed edge loose and crumpling it even more as I go around and rounds the center gathering and going out further each time to make the size of the rose I want to make. Then I just turn the paper rose over and press it onto the west colored rose. then I speckled salt for background texture. The I took one brush load of yellow ochre and thalo blue making green and put in the stem. Then with and two strokes (CALOGRAPHIC STROKES) for each leaf. Then I use the handle of the brush to scratch out one side of the stem and the middle of each leaf.

There you have a basic watercolor lesson. If I wanted to take this to realism, I simple find the edges of the rose petals and add my darks and lights to create the forms.

I do hope you like what I do.

Comments and/or remarks are appreciated. Posting this early today....