First, I brush in the major planes with a thin walnut oil wash. Sometimes I leave the quickly done brushwork so it’s visible in the final painting, but in this case, I rubbed the paint into the panel’s texture to leave just an overall color field in each of the larger shapes of sky, hills, and foreground.

Step 2

Then, it was time to establish the shadow pattern, especially where the bulk of the leaves would reside. Most of the darker shadow colors were made from a combination of ultramarine blue, alizarin crimson, transparent oxide (or earth) red, and phthalo or sap green.

The color choices depended on how warm or cool I wanted the color temperature of the shadows. How do we know when it should be warmer and when it should be cooler? A great question that can have multiple answers. In this case, the shadows farthest into the recesses were left warmer since they would get the least cool blue sky reflection. I added a bit more Sap Green to cool the color temperature in random places where I might place a leaf so it would suggest reflected light from the leaf that would lighten and cool the shadows.

Using vigorous bravura brushstrokes for the initial dark shadow masses adds interest and fun textures that will influence the drama of the final painting because a little or a lot of that texture will be visible behind the flowers.

Paint Vibrant Flowers Course and Mentoring

Lesson 4 Sky Strokes with Varied Loose Brushwork

Vigorous Bravura Brushstrokes Can Make Shadows Fun