Original Painting - Solitary Crepe Myrtle (stepped process)

Painting on such a beautiful day is important for my sanity. Not that I'd go completely insane if I didn't paint...but there's a chance it could happen. The outdoors offers so many natural elements that explode with colors and character that it's hard to choose one subject. Today I'm poolside as my boys play water football with friends and splash women who don't want to get their hair wet. I'm under an umbrella so the photos are a little darker than I'd like and the colors don't appear as rich so please forgive me.

In the Beginning

My first step is to sketch out some sort of representation of the tree. I think I'm going to go loose with the painting so maybe I'll just sketch in a foundation and the tree trunks. It's so tempting to just start throwing in bushes and the top of the tree but I know how that affects my painting. The end product ends up looking like each element is a cutout because I stick too closely to the sketch.

Background

Depending on the painting you can either start with the background or splash the background in after the main subjects are done. For this painting I'm going to stroke in the background around the tree. I mainly use some diluted Sap Green with my travel brush then dab some Burnt Sienna while the paper is wet to diversify the colors.

When the background is mostly try I then use the same diluted Sap Green to suggest some background trees and bushes. It felt easier to get this down now than trying to do it later so I went with that feeling. I then used various combinations of Burnt Sienna and Payne's Gray to flesh out the mulch under the tree.

Foliage

At this point I was getting antsy to start into this tree's foliage. I wanted the leaves to really stand out so I made sure to reduce the amount of water I added to the Sap Green. Some people go crazy with the detail of their leaves, drawing individual ones...sometimes with the veins. I like to just create a spotty mass of foliage to just suggest leaves. My goal is to stay loose with the painting so this seems like the best route to go. Here's some live action of my leaf painting technique. Remember to leave some gaps so you can see "groups of leaves" and daylight through the tree.

Finishing Touches

For finishing touches I ran some diluted Burnt Sienna up the left side of the tree trunks. To suggest that the trunks weren't completely smooth I used a sort of "morse code" method of doing little dots and dashes up the trunk. I think I got the effect I was hoping for. Another finishing touch was the addition of the crepe myrtle flower groups at various places throughout the foliage. For the flowers I mix a little Alizarin Crimson and Ultramarine Blue to create a purple-ish color. The actual flowers were more pink but I wanted my flowers to stand out more. Take THAT nature!

In the end I added some darker bushes in the background. That wasn't my initial plan though and I'm not particularly happy with the end result. I wanted to add some hints of darkness in the background so the trunks stand out. Oh well. I may try this painting again and incorporate the background I hoped to do.

Thanks for reading. I hope this inspired you to try your hand at watercolor and spread the joy of art.

Supplies

Watercolors: Sennelier tubes - Sap Green, Ultramarine Blue, Burnt Sienna, Lemon Yellow, Alizarin Crimson, Payne's Gray
Brushes: Silver Brush Black Velvet Voyager #6
Paper: Strathmore Wire Bound Visual Journal - Cold Press, 300 g/m, 5.5"x8"