The Tea Wash

The first year I studied botanical art I took a class from Anne Marie Evans, a famous Brittish artist and pioneer in the field of botanical art education.  She developed a 5-step method for botanical watercolor painting,  which I still follow, more or less.  The first stage is called the Tea Stage.  You carefully eliminate your guidelines and lay down a very faint wash of color blocking out the entire composition.  The color you choose is taken from the lightest hue in the object you are painting.  But you dilute the paint in so much water that the result looks as if you were painting with tea.  This is fun and fast and satisfying, a nice way to begin.  I'm using a lemon yellow wash on everything but the stem.  When I get there, I think I'll use Indian red.  So sorry you can't really make out much with this scan.  In real life it isn't this invisible, thankfully.  Stay tuned!  Very visible green is just around the corner!