Demonstration Ladybird

Step 1

1 To draw the ladybird, I drew a square around the ladybird and quartered it.

2 I then placed a square on my piece of paper, at the same angle, except bigger. I created a grid of four by halving horizontally and again vertically, which helped me to place all the detail by just looking at one square at a time. I could then draw the middle line of the ladybird’s back and the position of its spots accurately.

3 Notice the little white shapes by the eyes and the little triangles on the top of the back. I applied masking fluid to these areas to keep them white and free of paint. I also masked out the large area of ‘shine’ on its back. The surrounding flowers will be painted loose so there was no need to mask out anything there.

Step 2

1 I began painting the ladybird by first wetting the body of the ladybird and applying a layer of cadmium yellow.

2 Whilst it was still wet, I applied a layer of cadmium red and let it sink in.

3 Before this first layer of red was dry, I added another layer of a cadmium red and alizarin crimson mix to the darker half of the body.

Step 3

1 I mixed ultramarine and burnt sienna to make black (you could just use a black pigment). This needs to be almost straight out of the tube, so when laid, it is a good solid black. When the body was dry, I painted all the black areas.

2 There is a part that is paler on the head; I used a flat brush to lift a little paint and create a highlight.

3 The shape between the two white triangles fades away so I cleaned the paint off my brush and spread the black more thinly in that area.

4 I painted all the dots and the faint line along the middle of the back, where the elytra part.

5 The ladybird has two little black antennae, which I left to paint last of all.

4 Then, again whilst it was still wet, I applied a layer of very dark red to the bottom edge of the body using a mix of alizarin crimson, cadmium red and a small amount of sap green. It just needed to be a shade darker than the darkest red I had mixed.

Step 4

1 I mixed blues for the flowers, and light and dark greens for the surrounding foliage. I needed large puddles of the strong dark green, but fluid enough so they would flow when applied to wet paper. 2 To help me paint the background in a loose style, I scrunched up my eyes, blurring the image so all I could see were shapes of colour without the detail. Before applying the water, I used a putty rubber to rub off some of the pencil marks around the outside of the flower cluster.

3 After taking my time to wet the paper, over five or six minutes of constantly moving the brush, I was ready with the puddles of colour: tones of green and cobalt blue, diluted for the lighter parts of the flower and thicker for the darker areas. 4 Working as fast as I could, before any of the water could dry, I applied paint to the loose background. I was constantly looking back and forth to the picture to see where the light and dark areas were. Viewing the tones of each colour as shapes helped me to position them easily and quickly. 5 When the paint still had a sheen and before it turned matt, I sprinkled a tiny amount of fine salt using my fingers. Placement isn’t too important, just go with your instinct and remember that each grain of salt will give a bloom so less is more. 6 I emphasised the hard edges at the centre of the flower cluster with green paint and darkened around the stalks – this is negative painting. I also added shadows where the petals overlapped and to the petal just underneath the ladybird.

7 I kept the centres of the flowers free of paint and used a flat brush to lift any paint that had spread too far. I used an outward flicking motion with a damp brush, and cleaned the brush with every stroke.

8 To complete the flowers that were in focus, I added a diluted spot of yellow to their centres while defining the very centre with a light and dark edge using a yellow-green mix. 9 The centres of the other out-of-focus flowers were painted with just a suggestion of the colour.

Step 5

I rubbed the masking fluid off the ladybird, taking care not to drag any of the dark paint on to the white parts. I always try to clean my masking fluid before rubbing it off, using a damp brush or a cotton bud; that way no paint is transferred.

Step 6

1 Looking closely at the ladybird, I saw a little hint of yellow on the small triangular shapes. With diluted cadmium yellow, I gave those shapes a wash.

2 For the larger shine on the ladybird’s back I used a diluted cadmium red and feathered it in, fading as it became closer to the shiniest black dot, which in turn had just a suggestion of black where it was covered by the shine. The body also benefitted from a very small amount of the dark along its bottom edge, giving it a shadow.

3 Finally, I painted the antennae in black and added just a hint of the legs. I also extended the line up the back where it was covered by the shine, again in black but just a little fainter.

The finished painting

Ladybird, watercolour on 300gsm NOT watercolour paper, 11x15in. (28x38cm)