Painting succulents is fun but how to interpret it on the paper depends on the light reflected on it. There are many types of succulents and after browsing through those beautiful images, I wanted to draw all of them. With that excitement, I began with a rose succulent. And in this blog, I wanted to share my process with you all. I have also recorded the entire process and you can watch it here
Before I explain the entire process, I wanted to let you know that I usually draw animals and birds more as compared to florals and botanicals. But succulents were on my list for a long time because of their attractive colors. Many of the succulents primarily have two main colors which blend beautifully together keeping their own identities as well. And this is the reason why I wanted to draw and paint a succulent.
So here is the process…
The photo used as a reference was a photo on Pinterest and I tried to find the photographer but couldn’t find it as no watermark was available. I would also like to point out one more important thing before painting a succulent is to choose a photo that clearly shows all the parts/ leaves in light and has less strong shadows. If one is painting it for the first time or just learning to paint, then this eases the drawing process and you will be able to see the colors and colors blended. Solid shadows sometimes shift the focus and may become confusing too.
I sketched the succulent using the grid method. It initially takes time but later becomes easy as you have to replicate and follow the intersections of the subject and the grid.
The colors used are Winsor and Newton’s half-pan watercolors; Mauve lake, Ultramarine Blue, Prussian Blue, and Dioxine Violet. The painting technique used here is a wet-on-wet method. All the leaves of this rose succulent are painted separately, which means no under-painting is done for the entire sketch. After applying water to the leaf, I start painting blue from the inner side. I try to spread the color with the water gradually taking it near the top of the petal. Till the time I paint purple color, the paper is semi-dry which prevents it from spreading to a larger area but also blends with blue seamlessly.
Since the succulent I am painting, has two colors, the wet-on-wet method allows me to blend two colors on paper and create some other colors too. This makes the artwork look more interesting, because, I am painting each leaf differently and each leaf creates different color blocks on the leaves.
Some artists prefer to do under-painting, meaning, they will paint the entire subject with the first layer where most of the dark and light areas and color changes are blocked.
As per the reference image, the light is falling from the top of the succulent creating shadows at the base of the leaf. So to create the same effect, I use the lifting technique. After painting the entire leaf, a clean brush that is not dipped into the water is used to lift some paint creating a tonal gradient.
After painting the entire succulent, I added shadows using a very dilute violet color. Adding shadows is done only after the entire painting is completely dry as I wanted the shadow lines seen on the succulent leaves.
I have uploaded a video on my YouTube channel demonstrating the entire painting process of this rose succulent which you can watch here.
After watching the video if you feel inspired to paint using any medium, then you can get the sketch in the freebies section. You can download from there, print, and start painting right away.
Please do share the images here in the comments section and let’s see creativity come together.
Commentaires