Ever since I can remember, everywhere that I have lived my garden has always had a few hibiscus trees (except UK!) And my present garden is no exception we have hibiscus of all different colours and species. We have the single flower type along with double petal ones and the kind that looks like a Chinese lantern.
Over the years I have often included hibiscus in sketches for different pieces but for some reason or other they never make it to the finished work.
I painted in the darkest areas of the flower around the base of the stamen and in the creases of the petals using Cobalt Violet paint. This colour is quite transparent and dries very dark - almost black. So then I continued with a dark pink in Rose, trying to add form and contours with the brush strokes. My plan was that this initial laying down of the colours in light and dark would show through the next 'all over' layer....
Using the brush strokes as a starting point I started to define the swirls and wavy lines with a very fine brush and black paint. The lines looked too stark however so I found that smudging them with a finger gave a nice shadowy glow. The more smudging I did the darker the background became so I added some white and more lime green and yellow to the background colours.
I have been wanting to put a hibiscus in my work for so long that this week I just went for it!
I started by painting in a green background. Initially I was going for an abstract leafy look, but it ended up in a swirly pattern!
As I have mentioned before in previous posts I am not so good at realistic perspective so I really took my time studying the flowers in different lights, trying to get an idea of colour and depth.
I did do a pencil sketch and played with colour using coloured pencils - I used this sketch as the outline for the hibiscus on the canvas.
As you can see above I started adding in some hints of blue and lighter shades of greens to the background here and there.
Using the brush strokes as a starting point I started to define the swirls and wavy lines with a very fine brush and black paint. The lines looked too stark however so I found that smudging them with a finger gave a nice shadowy glow. The more smudging I did the darker the background became so I added some white and more lime green and yellow to the background colours.
I filled in the petals with a vibrant bright pink and added a stripe of orange down the center of each petal with touches of yellow midway for highlights to help add contour to the petals. I went back with my dark violet and added more depth to the center and a few veins to the petals. My petals were still looking a little flat so I tried to deepen the shadows by lightening areas of the petals with a lighter pink - at this point I threw caution to the wind and dabbed a little blue here and there and was happy with the effect. I was scared to ruin what I had done so restraint myself from added too much detail (veins) in the petals.
I outlined one petal with a fine black line but wasn't happy with the way it made the flower 'pop' from the background so I outlined the whole flower with a charcoal pencil that I smudged with my finger especially around the bottom to create shadow and in the points at where the petals overlapped. And then painted each petal with a thicker black outline in paint.
Lastly I finished the pollen bits at the end of the stamen in ochre, yellow and black and added a few hints of Rose -pink to the background.
And here it is - the finished painting!
20x20cm Acrylic on canvas. Prints are available on canvas and Giclee Paper in a variety sizes - simply drop me an email for more info.
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