The Videos

Making videos has been a completely new thing for me to learn. It has been both frustrating and fun. Since the painting in the video takes long hours I am by myself and do not have anyone in the room with me. I talk to you even though you are not there with me which is a little weird and takes some getting used to. I have to remember to be thoughtful in choosing my words so that I am understood.

The first video I made was the “Drawing Flowers Realistically” video because we must start with good drawing skills before we can paint. If you are a good draftsman you have a terrific advantage with your botanical painting. If your drawing skills are not strong you will struggle. 

The second video was the “Peony Bud” video because I know what everyone really wants to see is a colorful flower! 

For beginners who want to learn how to draw from life using precise measuring I did the “Just Measuring” video which starts with a simple box and gets progressively more complicated ending with a flower. The drawings are finished in an outline form, there is no shading shown(shading is done in the “Drawing Flowers Realistically” video). 

The “Dry Brush” video shows how you can smooth an uneven wash. Every artist has different ways of doing this. There certainly is no one correct way to do this. The end result is what matters and what ever works for you is just fine! 

My technical skills at filming and editing are slowly improving. The first videos were filmed with a different camera than the last videos and I’ve been learning more about lighting and sound. If you have seen both the “Peony” video and the “Dry Brush” video this is probably evident. One large portion of filming the middle of the peony painting was out of focus and had to be cut out. That was a bad day and I thought about scrapping the whole video!

The series of videos should be approached in a particular order though you can jump in where ever you think you need help. Some things are covered repetitively, for example I dry brush in both the “Peony Bud” and “Hydrangea” videos but the entire video is dedicated to the technique in the “Dry Brush/Layering” video and explained extensively.

Here is the order the videos should be approached if you are a beginner:

Just Measuring

Drawing Flowers Realistically

Dry Brush/Layering

Watercolor Peony Bud

Watercolor Hydrangea Leaf 

Once the video is complete and edited I can’t bear to look at it again. As my daughter said when I started this, “You are really stepping out of your comfort zone!” and that is true. I guess that’s another reason I am the only one in the room while filming!

I’ve been thinking about the next video which will probably be another watercolor flower but I have ideas for some other specific subjects so stay tuned. Any suggestions?

Happy painting and Happy Spring!

To Dry Brush or not to Dry Brush

     In traditional watercolor painting the term “dry brush” refers to when the brush skips over the top of a bumpy cold pressed paper depositing paint on the hills of the paper and not in the valleys. In order to do this the brush is not sopping wet with paint or it would run down into those valleys and the effect would not be achieved (think Andrew Wyeth’s paintings).

     With botanical painting a smooth hot pressed paper is used because botanical artists are crazy for all the minute detail found in our subjects and it would be more difficult to paint if our brush was fighting the texture of a bumpy paper. For example it would be difficult to get a tiny straight line to look straight if it is going up and down through those hills and valleys.

     In my botanical painting I first layer washes of paint then later I smooth with what I call “dry brush” though it is not and does not look like traditional dry brush. I’ve always called it dry brush because the brush is drier than how I had it for the wash phase. Makes sense to me! A few years back I was asked to contribute to a Walter Foster book on watercolor. When I submitted my writing on my technique I was told “well that’s not really dry brush”. So we ended up calling it layering and then explained the dry brush technique.

     When dry brushing I am really drawing with the paint using mostly the tip of the brush. Your paint mixture should not be too watery (or you won’t make enough of a difference to see it), and not too dark(or you will see very distinct lines). I use this technique to get even tone and add detail. Because I can later even out the tone using dry brush my washes do not have to be perfect, just lighter in value than what I want in the finished painting. I show this smoothing out of tone in a small very uneven area in my Layering/Dry Brush video. Any mottled area of paint, no matter how uneven, can be smoothed using this technique.

…Happy Painting!