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!

Ready to paint

Although you can't see it, I now have a fully detailed sketch on my watercolor paper, and I am ready for the first layer of paint.  The pencil lines are so faint even I can hardly see them, but this is intentional.  They only serve as guides for the first wash of color.  And when I lay down that wash, I will first erase the lines completely, one teeny section at a time.  This is so that in the end, there will be no traces of the graphite, which is such an essential tool in getting it 'right' but would be a distraction in the finished painting. 

Onward!

Studio Tricks

When you looked at my finished drawing of the oak branch, done on tracing paper, did you wonder how I was going to reproduce that image with paint on watercolor paper?  Some artists can sit down with paintbrush in hand and set paint to paper without any guidelines.  I'm not that talented . . . I need all the references and clues and guidelines I can get!  I will now reveal to you my first nifty piece of Studio equipment . . . the light box.  What a great invention!!  I used to have to take my rough drawing, place it on a piece of carbon paper on top of the watercolor paper and 'draw' with a stylus to get a carbon image traced onto the good paper.  Aside from the mess factor, it was really difficult to see and keep track of what I had or had not drawn.  The light box changed everything.  First you tape down the drawing on the light box.  The good paper is placed over the rough drawing, and because it is backlit, the image shows through the paper.  I can easily and quickly and accurately draw the image very lightly on the good paper.  I use a very hard pencil to make a very faint line.  It is only a guide and will ultimately be erased.  But the guidelines are crucial for accuracy.  And accuracy is everything in botanical art!

The Blank Paper

I want you all to consider where I am starting . . . with a blank piece of paper.  Anyone undertaking a creative endeavor begins here, with the slate wiped clean.  A song, a painting, a lecture, a story . . . whatever it is, if it is a creative thing, it starts from nothing on the page.  Well, not nothing, exactly.  For me, it is a whisper of an idea in my imagination.  Usually I can visualize a part of it but it takes a while for the whole thing to take shape.  I sketch and play around with the composition until I get it just the way I want it, and then I am ready to begin the painting.  By this time the idea is fully formed.  Some folks are terrified of the empty whiteness of a blank page.  But for me, I get excited taking out a fresh, new stiff piece of watercolor paper, knowing how much time I'm going to spend hunched over it, transforming it.  I wonder what serendipity will happen.  What will it look like when I'm done?

Sometimes when we look at a finished painting or hear beautiful music or taste an amazing meal or read something profound, we forget that it began as nothing more than a glimmer of an idea.  Somehow the creative mind took that idea and played with it, tested it, tried it this way and that.  Perhaps many previous bad ideas were discarded along the way before this inspiration took hold. And then, by slow degrees, the creative soul executes the idea, word by word, brush stroke by brush stroke, note by note, putting one foot in front of the other, aiming for the far distant finish line.  I think it was Thomas Edison who said genius is one part inspiration and 99 parts perspiration.  He was right.  Sometimes beautiful things seem so perfect, as if they were always here, always just so, and we forget about the creative process that lovingly and patiently coaxed it into its fully formed, complete being. 

For my paintings, I use Arches 300# lb. hot press watercolor paper.   You can't tell anything from this scan, but it is stiff, with a slight 'tooth' and a beautiful feathery deckled edge.  It is a work of art just as it is!  And so with my first pencil mark, this empty paper with endless possibilities will be limited to just one, and a journey begins. 

Introducing Quercus alba

For those of you who are getting slightly annoyed that hollysdailydraw isn't exactly every day, but you keep checking up on me anyway, today you will be rewarded.  Allow me to introduce you to one of my favorite trees, Quercus alba, the mighty White oak.  I love this tree because it grows to such magnificence -- tall, sturdy, and elegant.  The pale gray bark is fissured but not too deeply.  Its large, lobed leaves wear a changing rainbow of colors through spring, summer and fall, and don't drop to the ground until the very end of winter.  And who doesn't love acorns?  Traditional uses of White oak wood include hardwood flooring, whiskey barrels and boat building.  The famouse Revolutionary War frigate, USS Constitution, "Old Ironsides", was made of White oak.  Who knew?

On our property, we have a number of White oaks, but one in particular, which is just outside my studio, is our favorite.  It is the oldest and has the most beautiful spread of branches.  Several years ago now, I promised Peter I'd paint him a series of paintings of White oak, through the seasons.  So in 2008, I successfully completed two of them (autumn and winter).  And then Life took over and I haven't returned to the project in three years.  Now is the time!  I did a completed pencil drawing back in 2008, which I'll post here.  This took hours and hours, working out the composition, studying the leaf structure and actually doing the drawing.  Now I will take you through the process of making a painting!  Don't hold your breath; it takes rediculously long!  And don't worry, I won't only post Quercus alba updates for the next two months.  I'll keep going with quick daily drawings, too.  Enjoy!

for Alice

I am creating another card for Alice the music teacher, who is also retiring at the end of this school year.  Alice not only has directed the lower school music program at our school for many many years, she has also played the piano at every school musical, every school ceremony, and every holiday program.  Can't imagine how we'll get along without her!  One thing that will always remind me of Alice is handbells.  She teaches a select group of third and fourth graders to play handbells every year, and they play with such pride and sense of accomplishment!  Not only do they learn about reading the music and the technique of ringing, they learn to care for the precious instruments.  Nobody messes with Alice's bell tables!  I love the sight of the little people, in their school vests and white gloves, standing at full attention behind the tables.  And those shiny bells do make a beautiful sound!

for Bonnie

I am creating a card for Bonnie the art teacher, who is retiring at the end of this school year.  Since she is a painter, I thought I'd draw an image of an old tube of paint.  Oh dear!  It looks like a tube of toothpaste!  I think I need to add just a dribble of paint spilling on to the table.  What do you think?