Red Mixes

[MaryAnne Long]

My husband often brings a beautiful double hibiscus blossom in to me at the end of the day.  Tonight I decided to try and duplicate the red hues.  Obviously, I did not succeed as well as I would have liked, although it looks much closer to the real color in person.  Lights and camera have distorted it.

Details

I tried Cadmium red as it seemed like the best color, although when I tried to darken it with green for shadows, it became too brownish.  The alizarin crimson with green produced a nicer shadow.

My green is not as clear/crisp as the real stem.

My cast shadow was the alizarin crimson with a touch of Payne's gray.  I tried a touch of sap green but it looked too brown.

This was a fun practice.

aloha

mea

[Happychappy]

    Mea, I so enjoy looking at your work and am enjoying your progress so much.  I think you did a superb job on the double Hibiscus which I initially thought was a Carnation.  Flowers are not my "thing". As you can tell, I don't know a Hibiscus from a Carnation, but I do love them and am very keen to be able to paint them.     Patricia

[MaryAnne Long]

Patricia,

I can see where you might think a double hibiscus might look like a carnation, especially when it's closed up like this one was by the end of the day.

I'm surprised anyone even saw it as I posted it under the Watercolour Mixing Questions section.  But, I suspect that you, like me, view the most recent posts each morning.  http://www.paintbasket.com/members/index.php?action=recent  That way we don't miss anything.

Now looking at my painting in the light of day, I am going to try a couple of red washes over it to brighten it up.

aloha

mea

[Val]

I think this is an excellent start Mea. Yup, a few washes to brighten it up and it will be stunning.     

[Sacgal/Sharon]

Mea - at first I thought you had posted a photo of 2 carnations -  I do know hibiscus yet these don't look like any hibiscus I've ever seen - how intriguing!! Anyway, your painting is fantastic! Add a few more layers of red and a bit more dark shadows in between the petals and it will look exactly like the real one. Oh, and a little darker green on the stem. Bravo!!

[MaryAnne Long]

Thanks, Sharon.  Actually, I started a now thick hedge of double hibiscus from 6-inch cuttings about 27 years ago.  I have hundreds of those red flowers on the hedge along my driveway each day.

Thanks, Val.

I'll tweak the painting later in the week.

aloha

MAL

[Bellarina]

Yep, looks like a shriveled up double hibiscus to me. Lol.
I pick them up every morning from the ground when out watering the garden.
Looking forward to seeing more progress with this one Mea. Bravo!

[ncwren]

Your husband is so sweet! 

Great job on your flower! 

[MaryAnne Long]

Thanks, Natalie and Robin (glad you recognized it).

Here is the post-tweaked version.

I washed over it twice with alizarin crimson; darkened the stem,;added the little pistil things that make it look more hibiscus like; and added more contrast. ( The pistils were actually hidden inside the flower because it was closing up at the end of the day when I went to paint it.)

This is just a little 3" x 4" practice piece, so I will call it a learning experience and file it away.

aloha

mea

Details

Just thought I'd add your 'tweaked' version for you!     
Cheers, Val