botanicals

Watercolors—botanicals 3

~ MaryG ~ 4 Comments

It’s a winter wonderland here in Massachusetts. No sign of the plow guy yet this morning, but the Patriots are going to the Super Bowl – again. Therefore many New Englanders (husband, son…) are in a much better mood than they otherwise would have been. Go Pats!

And some good news: our whiny-ass, murdering, rapist, senile, spray-tanned orange President has announced he’s not going to attend the Super Bowl because he doesn’t like the halftime performer. He’s probably afraid all those Boston and Seattle fans would boo him into oblivion. In any case, Long Live Bad Bunny!

I’m continuing to work my way through “Watercolor Workbook” by Sarah Simon. If interested, she’s on Instagram: @themintgardener. All designs are hers.

Buttercup Wreath
I like how the “wet in wet” worked out in the lower yellow flower (upper flower was too dry when I added the darker color). I also like the berries. Author suggested droplets of paint rather than brush strokes.
Fiddle Leaf Fig

Unfortunately my paint set doesn’t have one important color for botanicals: Oxide of Chromium. I’m having to make do with Sap and Veridian.

Wildflower Swag
This is painted in the so-called “undefined boundaries” style. It’s fun to somewhat ignore boundaries and let the paint and water do what it will.

Related:

Watercolors—update

Watercolors—botanicals

Watercolors—more botanicals

NO KINGS & more watercolor botanicals

Watercolors—botanicals 5

Watercolors—botanicals 6

Winter 2026

Watercolors—botanicals 7

Watercolors—botanicals 8

Watercolors—botanicals 9

Watercolors—botanicals 10

Watercolors — more botanicals

~ MaryG ~ 7 Comments

OK, so my artists pens came and I was able to outline the designs. I intentionally left some small edges unpainted as highlights.

Round leaf eucalyptus

For the next one, the workbook offered two options. Leave the leaves and stems unpainted:

Foxglove

Or wash them with three different colors (slate, sage and stone):

Foxglove

My husband says the first one looks unfinished, but I kind of like it better. Do you really need to have every bit of the surface painted to give the vibe of a certain plant?

Watercolors – botanicals

~ MaryG ~ 4 Comments

I’ve run into a bit of a problem with my Watercolors Workbook. The book is designed to have you ink the outlines of the various botanicals before painting. I did that with my pen and ink set, but too late discovered that my ink is not waterproof! The ink went everywhere once I hit it with the watercolor paint. I decided to try inking AFTER painting but I don’t love the result:

Long leaf eucalyptus. You can see that the ink was hard to control in some areas.

I then tried one without inking at all. It’s OK, but I decided to go ahead and order some waterproof black artists pens, as the author suggested.

Dahlia

I like some of the techniques I learned doing the eucalyptus and the dahlia: leaving some areas white to highlight; darkening petal bases with wet in wet color (dark into light); and layering over dry paint with a different color for a cool, translucent effect.

Hopefully my new pens arrive today.