Page 49 - The Decorative Painter Spring 2018

ACRYLIC
You now need to add some very light shadows. White flowers need very delicate light shadows. Each variety can go warmer or cooler in both the white and that effects the tone of the shadows. I chose to use just a hint of Midnite Green for my shading color. This is a slightly transparent blue/black and I love to use it, as it leaves you room to go darker, but we don’t need that in this case. Shadows always start in little pointy indents. Use a no. 6 flat, and very little color. Don’t make the mistake of thinking you’ll get a lighter load by working only on the tip edge of the brush. Slide into color only slightly and blend out, allowing at least half the length and all of the width of the brush to touch firmly against your palette surface. If you think you have too heavy a load, draw the brush lightly across the wet part of your paper towel pad to remove excess color. Tuck color into a tiny point or against, under an upper petal, then blend out only a little way, leaving no lines where the shadow ends. This is very important.
STEP 3
Note that I left off the addition of the petal at bottom left on this one, but added another leaf, which is more like the original full pattern is. Sideload a no. 6 flat shader with Plantation Pine and beginning in against the center vein, lightly drag the loaded corner downward and outward to create subtle side veins. Detail additional shading as desired.
Add the reddish edging on each of the rose petals. This is optional. I used Brandy Wine but you could use any reds you like. Just test it out to be sure you like the color. Sideload a no. 6 flat softly into the color. Turning the piece so that the outside edge is to my left, I skipped color along the edge beginning on the outside petals. I just sort of bounced along, leaving very small space so it looks more ragged and irregular.
Add hard shines on your petals with Snow (Titanium) White using a no. 4 flat. I sideloaded and then often just skipped color for shines also. I often will immediately blur shines that are too strong using a finger before it has a chance to set up. Curved or curled petals have this shine right down the center. You might want to use that finger by pulling the length of the roll to blur and blend it a bit. Or, if you like to dry brush softer shines first, use the scumbler I've listed or your own personal favorite. I usually do both, adding hard shines last.
DEWDROPS
Sideload a no. 2 flat very sparingly along the far side of the brush, then float a small C-curve from the imaginary center left and slide along under the imagined water drop with the darkest value of the surface the dewdrop is on. Use Midnite Green on the flower and Plantation Pine on the leaves. Load the near side of the brush with Snow (Titanium)White sparingly for the flower and Bleached Sand for the leaves. Float just a hint of color just inside the lower left and bottom against the shadow cast by the dewdrop for a faint reflected light. Note that you already can see the transparent shape of the drop when you drop a tiny dot of white in the upper right area of the drop. No need to paint-in the whole outside circle of the drop. Less is more, and the viewer does it all alone and that’s it!
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