Project 4 Themes and series - Painting 1 - Christmas Cactus

While giving thought to how I was going to approach the final assignment I decided to spend some time working in sketchbooks of various sizes exploring the Christmas Cactus. This is another plant that amazes me! The succulent leaves suddenly develop buds seemingly into fresh air - and how these are supported on the end of the leaves once the plant is in flower is beyond me! The blooms are fragile and delicate with stunning colourways.

The above is the first stage in a painting experiment - here I have sprinkled white and turquoise brusho onto wet watercolour paper.

I then worked into the painting using chines white paint, sometime wet and sometimes fairly dry. I had really enjoyed working with chinese white in a tube earlier in this Assignment so I wanted the find an opportunity to use it again. I am quite pleased with the finished result, although the photograph isn't brilliant - I may take another in better light and add it later on.

Slightly better photograph

This painting is an A4 tonal interpretation of the Christmas Cactus using just Alizairin Crimson, I laid many many tonal washes over tis one and really enjoyed looking at the curves and shapes within the magnified image.

Pencil and watercolour study on A4 - I really love the waxy greens here and the fragility of the connections between the leaves and buds.

Close up of the pencil and watercolour study

Christmas cactus (and my pink doc martens!!)

A5 Sketch - Background is blurred wash with salt to create texture, then overpainted using Annilinky Ink blocks, detail in pen and ink

Brusho scattered onto wet paper, with close up of leaf and bud in soluble graphite - A5

Final Tonal Painting - A3

This was a painting I really didn't want to rush. I painted this painting over a couple of days, ensuring my tonal layers were dry between washes. I was really keen to capture the bleeding nature of the colour on this flower. I also felt that the darker and bolder the dark areas of the painting were the lighter and brighter the masked out area of the painting would appear. I then removed the masking fluid, and worked into some of the brighter areas with a fairly dark wash to neaten up the appearance of the painting. I think my progress with tonal washes can be seen in this painting, when I first approached tonal painting back in assignment two I found the process slow and fairly unsatisfying however I think I have definitely learned patience while working through this module and really enjoyed the slow and meditative nature of painting this painting.