Poppies Watercolour Plus part 3

Poppies by Tessa Spanton  (c) mixed media

I have used techniques from the previous 2 posts. I used string for stems and buds, glued in place and painted with acrylic paint.

Poppies Watercolour Plus Tissue Paper Part 2

Red oriental Poppy by Tessa Spanton

This is a continuation from my previous post where more of the techniques were described with details of where the full demo can be found at Leisure Painter magazine

 1. Yellow and blue under washes were applied to watercolour paper. When dry tissue was glued over the whole piece leaving a yellow glow under the poppy. Or this can be done after gluing the tissue on.
 The poppy was outlined with pencil and a first wash of red was applied over the poppy.
More tissue was placed over individual petals followed by more painting.

 I mixed some greens using ultramarine and lemon yellow and covered the background.  I started with a big blob of both colours and vary the mixes as I go, to add interest.

 I loaded a hake with the two colours and painted back into the wet paint. 

 When thoroughly dry I created buds and stems by painting around their shapes with a stronger mix. 

I added some more tissue petals.
When dry I drew the hairs onto the buds and stem using a white oil pastel
I worked over the flower to add more depth. (see photo at top of post)

Poppies Watercolour Plus Tissue Paper Part 1

Tissue paper glued onto watercolour paper provides extra texture and is ideal for representing the delicate crumpled texture of poppy petals.
This is what I have given my watercolour classes for the last couple of weeks, as a topic to explore.

This is part of an article I wrote for Leisure Painter magazine Sept 2012, it may still be available to buy from the publisher as a back copy or digital file.

Watercolour paper and acid free tissue paper

The watercolour paper was painted with a 1 to 1 mix of PVA glue and water.
The wrinkled tissue paper was glued in place.

Painted with watercolour either while still wet or when it has dried. above
When dry a white oil pastel was gently used on it's side to leave some white highlights on the wrinkles on the poppy petals. below

For the next study the tissue was used on the petals only. below

Below, this time  the watercolour paper was painted first wet in wet. When dry the tissue petals were glued on and some painted.

Red Poppy flower close up below

Painting Lee Bay

Lee Bay watercolour (c) Tessa Spanton

I have just finished this today. It's a hidden part of Lee Bay near Lynton in North Devon. You have to climb over rocks to get there from the main beach and is one of my favourite beaches. Years ago I painted and sketched on that beach several times.

 It's painted on a hot pressed paper that has a lot of size on it which make the washes slip around on the paper so it won't take many layers without lifting the paint underneath. I made a start on it a long time ago and got it out this week to do a bit of work on the rocks as a demonstration for my classes. They are on that topic at the moment. I went on to finish it after they had gone home.

 The rocks and pebbles on that beach are a range of colours  from blue greys, green greys and pinkish greys. I have heightened the colours.

#NorthDevon  #Leebay #Leeabbey #watercolourclasses

Tulip Time

I grow tulips in my garden sometimes specially to paint. Parrot tulips are not always easy to find as cut flowers so I grow these to paint. They have extravagant showy flowers in exciting colours. Most of them don't flower again the next year.

Every year around 25,000 tulips are planted for the tulip festival at Pashley Manor Gardens in Sussex. I have some silk paintings cards and prints in the exhibition there, I usually include at least one painting a a tulip.

There is also a rose festival later in the year.

above Tulipa saxatalis Bakeri group, 'Lilac Wonder' aka Canadian tulip

This is the most prolific tulip I have ever grown. I started from a small packet of tiny bulbs given to me by a neighbour. It was a couple of years before they flowered and since then they have continued to multiply and flower. Each stem carries 2 or 3 flowers. I have them in several parts of the garden and have given bulbs away.

Below from the left a collection with coordinating colours from Sarah Raven

The others mostly came from Wilkinsons. Red Darwin tulips which are good for repeat flowering and Peach Blossom and Angelique.

 below Parrot tulip from a mixed pack.

Below Parrot Tulips original silk painting (c) Tessa Spanton SWA

In Silhouette

I have an article about painting silhouettes in the Leisure Painter Magazine for April. It is out now.

Problems with Water Soluble Outliner/Gutta in Silk Painting

THE PROBLEM

Recently I have had a problem with Pebeo's gold outliner (shown above) coming off at the final washing stage. I have noticed too that other silk painters are posting about it on the internet.

I have used this product for years without a problem. I usually iron fix a silk painting as soon as it is finished then wash it before ironing again and framing. However recently I finished a painting that had taken a long time to do and was not happy to see some of the carefully applied gold lines floating off in the water. This had not happened before. Usually it is the reverse, if a bit of the gold gets on clothing or the wrong part of the work, it is practically impossible to remove.
I rescued the work and reapplied the lines.

THE SOLUTION

On Pebeo's website there is a PDF about the product. It says leave for 2 days after iron fixing before washing. As I have not had this problem before I can only guess that maybe the product has changed. It would be helpful if Pebeo printed this on the tube.

For many years I have used water based outliners ('gutta') for resist lines when painting on silk.
 I have tried lots of different makes. I prefer them to spirit based gutta as they are odourless. The clear water based version can be removed with water whereas the spirit based one is removed by dry cleaning or solvent.

However the water based ones are not without other problems. They are more likely to leak especially when working very wet.
Sometimes there is a small gap in the gutta or the extra wetness starts to dissolve the line and allow colour to seep through.Often though it is just that the silk has become over saturated and over loaded so the colour spills over the line like when you try to carry an overfull teacup.

With some makes the metallic versions keep well in their tubes. Others don't they either become too thick and unusable or they separate in the tube so that when you come to use them a lot of clear liquid oozes out. They can't be stirred when in the tube,  you can try massaging the tube with the lid on but this doesn't usually help much.
I had one tube of Javanna metallic glitter that oozed clear liquid from the first time I used it leaving the metallic bits behind. It never worked properly and was probably past it when I bought it.
On the other hand I found a tube of  AV Vallejo black outliner which I bought about 25 years which is still working fine.

My recommendations

I am currently using Marabu contours and effects. Available from Silkcrafts
I have clear, gold, silver and a metallic glitter which has not separated. It is available in a squeezey bottle. The nozzle produces a fairly thick line so I attach a metal nib with a finer nozzle. The bottle is refillable from a larger container which makes it more economical.

Wax or solvent based gutta work best but both need an extra process to remove.
 I don't use solvent based gutta because of the smell.
I like using beeswax. It flows easily from a tjanting or kiska to give delicate lines or can be brushed, sponged or stamped on. I bought it from the local bee keepers group. Or you can get batik wax online.
Other silk painters speak well of Resistad which is only available mail order from New Zealand. I have some but haven't tried it yet.