Is Summer Over Already?

| June Malone

Where has the sun gone?

This Hydrangea sketch is my attempt to defy indications that the British summer has already bowed out.  It’s still July and I’m not ready to put my sandals and sunglasses away just yet.

Based loosely on the principles of negative painting, I worked around the petals and leaves to define their shapes and bring them forward.

Hydrangea©Watercolouri

Transparent colours were used as several layers of increasingly deeper tone are required to develop the shapes.

For quick reference I use a Winsor & Newton chart of hand-painted professional waercolours which has proved invaluable to me.  It not only clearly demonstrates what each colour looks like from intense to watery pale, but it also lists whether they are transparent, semi-transparent or opaque.  It also saves me the bother of making my own chart.

Colour-Chart-W&N.fw

It is important to allow the paint to dry properly between each glaze…something I’m particularly bad at.

6 thoughts on “Is Summer Over Already?”

  1. hydrangea is a favorite flower and you’ve done a bang-up job here. I, too, have a problem waiting for the layers to dry.

    Summer here is in full swing with very high, hot, humid temps. Come on over. :)

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  3. Wow! I never even thought about negative space for hydrangea, June. This is beautiful! The splatter is really a nice touch on this, also. I am also impressed with the background fading to white at the bottom. Balances really well with the white on the flowers. Superb!

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  4. Praise indeed if Leslie…seeing as I never do backgrounds. It wasn’t by desigh tho’ just the only way I could think to make the white petals appear – so totally neglected the bit at the bottom.

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  5. I wanted to post a comment on the previous post, but it says “comments are closed” !! These flowers were so fresh, spontaneous and full of light! Love them! In this painting, I love the drama the dark background created in contrats with the flower! Well done!

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  6. Thank you for your kind, thoughtful remarks – your own paintings of flowers and vegetables are beautiful! The rapid comments closed is my over-reaction to the relentless spam/

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