Spring COLOURS

In this exclusive extract from her new book, botanical artist CAROLYN JENKINS shares her thoughts on how to recreate a perfect seasonal palette

Ithink about colour in terms of how it will impact a painting, maybe adding some drama using vibrant or contrasting colours, or using colour combinations to create harmonies. I am especially drawn to subjects with intense or vivid shades and less so to pale colours. However, I like to try to find colours within a subject that go unnoticed and particularly enjoy doing this with dried specimens. At first glance they might appear to be brown or grey but consist of so many other colours if studied very carefully.

I’m currently working on a very simple piece of dried garlic skin that initially appeared to be a very light shade of grey.

But when I actually looked at it in detail it revealed a huge variety of colours: blues, yellows, browns, pinks and greens. I’m painting it at six times its actual size with the aim to clearly reveal its subtle colours and details.

I make lots of colour swatches before starting, to make sure I get all the right paints on my palette ready for a painting. These are sourced from my specimens and from the many photographs I take of them. Colour-matching is often done directly from a monitor if I am happy with the photographic result.

I will also try washing out the paint swatches to see how easy it is to lift colour out in case I want to remove it to create highlights later on. If the paint is very staining, I’m careful not to build up the layers too deeply.

I find the deeper the colour of a plant or flower, the easier it is to paint – starting quite pale and building up the colour in layers. It is much easier to add colour with watercolour paints than to take it away or try to wash it out. There is a danger of spoiling the surface of the paper if it is wetted and dabbed too often.

Green leaves

The flower is most often the main focus of my painting, but leaves can be just as fascinating. I find if a flower doesn’t have enough variety of colour, adding green will normally bring the composition to life.

The greens of leaves, stems or bracts create a good contrast.

It’s a good idea to do lots of watercolour swatches before starting a painting – to hold up against the leaves you are illustrating. It might surprise you how many variations of colour there are within a single leaf.

I tend not to use green paint straight from the tube as it has a rather artificial look.

Like all botanical illustrators, I have my own palette for mixing greens. I use a mixture of Winsor Blue (Green Shade) with Winsor Yellow for a very bright apple-green (which is actually too saturated for the natural shade of most leaves). By adding small amounts

Kiwi

Kiwi (Actinidia arguta) have green leaves with a prominent pattern of veins. I used Quinacridone Gold for the initial layer to highlight the veins and edges of the leaves.

Basil

Basil leaves are a really lush, lively green.

Tuberose

Blues, yellows and greens were used to paint the white flowers of this tuberose (Agave amica). It was a lovely plant to paint as the buds were bursting with colour, rose-pink and green. It made a very nice contrast to the white of the open flowers.

of Quinacridone Gold or some red, I add warmth and “knock back” the brightness to create a much more realistic shade of green. For a greyer green or olive green I will use French Ultramarine as the blue in the mix, which contains more red than Winsor Blue.

The challenge of ‘no colour’

The most challenging paintings are the ones where there is either very little colour or the subject is white. Working up a white subject on a white background means there is no holding shadow to define the edges. In reality, even a white flower isn’t really white – there is normally some very pale colour in there – apart from the highlighted areas. The edges of a white flower can be defined by adding subtle shading.

It’s hard not to make a white flower look boring and grey so you have to really look for some colour within the petals and maybe slightly exaggerate it with very pale blues, ochres or greens.

White paint is occasionally useful when painting the tiny white hairs sometimes found on stems and leaves. For this I use Titanium White. Where the hair overlaps on to the white background, I will finish off the end of the hair with a very pale grey so it can be seen on the white of the paper (a technique I learned from botanical artist and teacher Helen Allen while on the course at the English Gardening School).

White flowers

White paint is not often used in watercolour and is not needed when painting white flowers on a white background – the paper is your white.

Once you have decided on a composition, it’s important to draw the outlines of your flowers very faintly. The pencil lines shouldn’t show on the finished painting. I use a putty rubber to lift off the drawing until it’s barely visible. It’s a good idea to do lots of tests of light paint washes on a separate piece of watercolour paper before beginning and hold them up against your subject to compare colour and tone.

I start painting by using a wash of clean water on a single petal and then drop in incredibly pale washes of whatever colour that I think predominates. Normally this isn’t just grey but a subtle variation or mix of blues, yellows or reds. I leave the lightest areas completely clear of paint for the highlights.

When these washes are absolutely dry, I work with a very small brush on the areas that are in shadow – and therefore darker – with a dry brush, using minute strokes and building up tonal layers to create a threedimensional form. It’s a good idea to go lighter than you think you need to. It’s easier to add darker shades than remove the paint later on as you progress.

The margins of white petals can disappear against the background, so I improvise here and add very subtle shading at the edges to make them more visible. Another technique to make painting white flowers easier is to add a leaf behind the petal when working out a composition – this will make it very clear where the petal edge ends.

This is an edited extract from New Ideas in Botanical Painting by Carolyn Jenkins with Helen Birch, published by Batsford. www.batsford.com

Roses The commission to paint these very pale Wollerton Old Hall roses was made easier as they were to be shown against a dark colour. This meant that all of the edges were clearly defined by the almost black background.

Cotinus Cotinus is one of my favourite plants, mainly for the seasonal changes. The leaves aren’t green for very long as a lot of varieties emerge red, turn green and then back to brilliant reds or oranges in the autumn.

Maidenhair fern Maidenhair fern (Adiantum) has warm green leaves with lots of tiny veins fanning out to the edges.