Demonstration A Tapestry of Wildflowers

In creating a natural look, try not to have everything standing up ramrod straight. Often flowers fall over a little, especially after a sharp shower. This creates interesting patterns with stems and leaves.

Step 1 The drawing

Draw the daisies first. Take care with the position of the petals and notice that sometimes petals appear to merge. Place other wildflowers in groups according to species rather than dotting them about randomly. Indicate a few grass leaves as well. A lot of the background detail can be added later with thin washes of colour and no drawing for these is necessary.

Step 2 The background

1 If you are using masking fluid now is the time to apply it. Make sure it is completely dry before painting. Use an old brush or a ruling pen and clean them thoroughly after use. Be as accurate as possible with the petal shapes. The edges of shapes left by masking fluid can be hard and somewhat difficult to soften.

2 If you are not using masking fluid, wet all the paper, avoiding areas you want to keep white (the daisies) then, using a big brush, apply colours, such as yellow behind the buttercups and pink behind the clover. Remember to put yellow behind poppies rather than red at this stage. Use grey-greens in the background as well as raw sienna and a mix of light red and ultramarine.

3 Before everything has time to dry, work around the daisies and tidy up. As the washes dry, add brushstrokes, wet in wet, to suggest grasses and stems using the background colours again.

4 Leave everything to dry thoroughly.

Step 3 First indications

1 Dampen the spaces around the buttercup flowers and drop in a stronger cadmium yellow pale. Do the same around the clover and drop in permanent rose. Use plenty of water to disperse the paint at the edges so that no hard lines are left when the paint is dry.

2 Dampen the area for sorrel, allow to dry a bit then use a little light red to dot in the flower spikes. Add darker florets with burnt umber. Don’t overload your brush for this or the paint will spread too far.

3 Put in the central discs of the daisies with cadmium yellow pale. While this is still wet, drop in quinacridone gold at the shadowed side to create a domed effect. When this is dry, use a mix of ultramarine and a little light red (to make a warm blue-grey) to add a few shadows to the petals. Don’t overdo this or you will end up with dirty-looking daisies.

4 With a short, stabbing stroke in permanent rose and a little Winsor violet start to suggest the overlapping petals of the clover. Allow the pink underpainting to show through in places. Their leaves are quite small and have a light pattern.