Painting Demonstration 1
I start out by painting the midtones and shadows in a warm azo yellow. I've reserved some whites with wax crayon, but I'll reserve a few yellows after they've dried as well. I want this to be a very loose painting so I'm not using masking to reserve whites. I can always paint them back with gouache!
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Painting Demonstration 2
Bleeding in quinacridone gold gives a lovely warm glow to the underpainting. I do a few touches of warm on the cooler palm tree trunk, but mostly the warmth is in the leaves. I paint the sky very loosely in ultramarine blue, cobalt blue and a few hints of cobalt teal.
Painting Demonstration 3
I start really piling on the darks here! Lots of rich (but not too heavy) ultramarine blue. Some burnt sienna warms up the shadows. Don't forget to negative paint!
Artist Tips
If an object looks layered, paint in multiple layers, drying between washes.
Painting Demonstration 4
A few greens (pthalo green mixed with azo yellow) to brighten everything up! I'm pulling out some details with burnt sienna.
Painting Demonstration 5
Some very strong darks start making the palm tree more 3 dimensional. The alternating bands of light and darks in the leaves feel like layers of palm fronds. Just a few dark dashes make all the difference in an object's shape.
Painting Demonstration 6
I've been wanting to paint the trunk. It's surprisingly cool with a few warm glows. It's difficult not to turn it into green. Of course the solution is layers!
Painting Demonstration 7
When the painting was almost finished, the sky just seemed too dull. I wanted a cool sky, but not that cool! It's not an overcast day, it's a warm sunny spring day in Charleston!
A simple solution was a very pale pthalo blue and cobalt teal wash over the sky. Keeping this very pale makes it easier to paint well. Don't forget to paint over the shadows but preserve the highlights.
A pale wash is always a useful solution for making a painting feel like you want it to!
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Charleston Palm Tree Final Watercolor Painting!
