In August I'll be running a one day workshop on painting petals for Field Breaks, the class will be held at the Art Room in Barlow on the 8th August.
Painting petals is a useful exercise if you want to get to grips with both colour and form. Whenever, I'm considering painting any subject I always start with a study page in sketchbook or on separate paper, this always includes a front and back view of the petals, alongside all other plant parts, such as leaves and buds. Painting petals is also a tutorial in my Beginners course and I include it because I say if you can't paint one petals how can you be expected to paint a whole flower! So, I take the approach of deconstructing a plant into its parts in order to:
1. Understand how the plant fits together.
2. To prepare my approach with colours mixing and technique in advance of a full painting.
The petals may differ in colour, texture and pattern but the watercolour techniques used are much the same. As a broad rule of thumb, in light coloured flowers I put shadow colours in first, whereas in dark flowers shadow is built later. I generally uses 4 stages, which goes like this: Underlying colour wash, selective wash (one or more layers), modelling dry brush and dry brush and detail. So not only do I deconstruct the plant into it's component parts but I also break down the process.
If you're interested in the workshop 'Drybrush and Detail in Petals' at Barlow contact Field Breaks directly for booking http://www.fieldbreaks.co.uk/node/519