Kay Barnes White Rhodies and DANIEL SMITH Extra Fine Watercolor 'Kay Barnes Artist Series' 18 Tube Set

Watercolor Rhodies with Kay Barnes
Kay Barnes demonstrates her method for painting realistic Rhododendrons with Daniel Smith Extra Fine Watercolors

Kay's spontaneous "dancing" brushwork and her use of color, wet-into-wet and dry brush techniques result in a realistic floral painting that remains loose and dynamic.

Starting with a line drawing and a structural underpainting, Kay takes us step by step through the process of her painting. Learn to capture light on flower petals, add variation and interest in the shadows and leaves as you follow along with Kay's watercolor demonstration. If the paper loses its moist shine, take a dryish brush and blend or feather the paint edges where needed

Download Kay's White Rhodies Line Drawing Template.

Kay’s Process
The underpainting is the structure - the skeleton of the painting that everything hangs on - the first layer. Think of it as an outline. When you add stronger colors on the top, the underpainting won't show, but a good underpainting helps prevent confusion in a complicated painting.

In this initial stage, it is a road map. Establishing patterns of light with Aureolin, Raw Sienna, and a pale wash of French Ultramarine Blue (1) will remind you to keep background areas cool. In floral painting, begin with Aureolin (cooler yellow) and Raw Sienna (warm and buttery yellow), it will give the flowers a warm glow. I add Quinacridone Rose (2) and various blues to create wet passages of lavender shadows.

For instance, using a large brush, make a large, loose T shape (3) with Raw Sienna. Add daps of French Ultramarine into other areas. (4) Do it fast and keep your paints fluid. Using Raw Sienna, Quinacridone Gold, French Ultramarine Blue and Sap Green, place in the leaf shapes (5). The colors will bleed. Paint these in the bare spots, not necessarily over pre-determined leaf shapes. Touch the edges with French Ultramarine.

By working on the leaves as the paper dries, you will get nice harder edges (6). To blend and connect the clear areas, add clear water - the wet paint will pull toward these areas. This works only if your paper is still shiny wet. Dance your paint...blue to green...light to dark... Pull paint and soften the edge. Coax it gently with a slightly damp brush. Make sure some leaves come in from outside the picture plane (7) Don't have them all going out - it draws your eye away from the subject.

Even though the flowers are all pink, Quinacridone Rose, make them each unique by varying tones from pink to lavender to blue.

When a painting is still in the early stage, with a preliminary background - and it is completely dry - you can rewet the paper (mist it front and back) and put on a second layer of background for more soft details. (8) With this level of moisture, you can softly blend elements into the background. As long as you have lost the shine, you can lift - as in the light veins on the leaves (9), or to correct an area that is over-painted or too dark.

Quinacridone colors, transparent and ranging from moderate to strong staining, are great for flowers. Underpaint some petals with Quinacridone Rose, then touch in French Ultramarine Blue at the edges. (10) Add Aureolin in the center - all while wet so they run into each other.

Greens are good shadow colors when painting flowers. Consider underpainting purple shadows (11) and let them dry, then glaze yellow tones. After establishing the light and mid values of the first three layers, tweak your painting by adding darks to key areas where you need emphasis. Focal areas pop when you play lightest lights against darkest darks and brights against neutrals.

Glazing washes of light to medium density colors can really warm (12) or cool areas to push or pull objects around. Consider lifting some areas and softening others. Now is a great time to let your painting dry and analyze its weak areas or over-painted ones. Adjust thoughtfully. This final step is the one that makes or breaks a painting. Err on the side of "less is more". Sometimes removing paint is all you need to do. Now, sign it, sell it, and go on to the next one.

Set contains 15ml tubes of the following colors:

• French Ultramarine Blue - This medium-to-dark warm reddish-blue is highly lightfast and of medium tinting strength. Its sedimentary quality increases its versatility. Mixed with various portions of other blues, French Ultramarine is a wonderful sky pigment. Modify it with Quinacridone Gold for delightful greens that remain color-coordinated. Mix French Ultramarine with Quinacridone Burnt Orange and be rewarded with an amazing range of blue to brown grays. Mixed with either Quinacridone Rose or Pink, a range of purples result.
• Green Gold - Green Gold’s bright yellow undertones shine in thin applications allowing for golden highlights with just a hint of green. Use in concentrated applications for wonderfully rich and transparent olive-green tones.
• Alizarin Crimson - A beautiful bluish-red pigment from the transparent staining family, Alizarin Crimson is listed on the basic palette of a vast majority of artists.
• Burnt Sienna - This transparent to semi-transparent earth pigment, a grayed orange, combines with other hues without a loss of intensity or transparency. Subsequent layers (or glazes) do not sully or stain the other pigments these glazes contact.
• Quinacridone Burnt Orange - Add to French Ultramarine sky washes to gray the blue mix and render a full value scale. Use to modify Sap Green in landscapes to achieve rich, mossy greens that coordinate land with sky.
• Sap Green - A non-fugitive formulation creates deep forest shadow-green mixed with French Ultramarine and mossy golden-greens and green-browns when mixed with Burnt Sienna or Quinacridone Sienna or Burnt Orange. Sap Green mixes well with most pigments and leaves a stained residue when lifted. In the French Ultramarine or Quinacridone mixtures mentioned above, squeegee or knife areas to reveal the Sap Green stain and to create blades of spring-shiny grasses within deeper or mossy passages.
• Quinacridone Magenta - This deep red violet disperses evenly with slight granulation and moves from deep darks to clear, glowing washes. In terms of complementary couples Quinacridone Magenta works especially well with yellow greens. 
• Aureolin - The transparent non-staining properties of this cool yellow can effectively warm darker hues without affecting their transparency. Landscape artists rely on it to successfully glaze their watercolors. This pigment quality, along with the ability to lift and to create soft edges, makes Aureolin especially useful to portrait and floral painters as well.
• Cerulean Blue - A superb mixing color. Think of it as a cleaner, brighter and slightly warmer alternative to the Cerulean Blue Chromium we've always sold. A bit less green, it's a truer blue that will be a versatile component of any palette.
• Raw Sienna - Used since prehistoric times, an extremely permanent inorganic earth pigment of low intensity but medium-high tinting strength. Balance the transparent intensity of Quinacridone Gold, Burnt Orange and Burnt Scarlet with the earthiness of semi-transparent Raw Sienna. Also, a moist Raw Sienna wash touched or spattered with Lunar Earth or Lunar Black creates unique texture effects.
• New Gamboge - Unlike other brands, Daniel Smith New Gamboge is an excellent lightfast formulation. It's a transparent organic pigment from the yellow to orange zone of your color wheel. More staining than Yellow Ochre and equal in tinting ability to Raw Sienna. It's a good substitute for those colors when transparency is desired while avoiding thick, muddy passages.
• Phthalo Blue (RS) - A powerful blue with a slightly red undertone, this popular pigment is valued for its strength and economy—just a daub of paint can color a whole sky. A dash of blue gives a full range of value. Mix dark colors for shading and shadows by combining Phthalo Blue with Quinacridone Rose. Use Phthalo Blue's transparent quality to create containers and water around stems.
• Permanent Red - This red diffuses well with water - a treat when painting wet into wet or damp passages. The fussy edges this technique produces brings field poppies to mind.
• Cobalt Blue - This neutral, non-staining primary blue will subtly modify most pigments. Considered a "mixing pigment", its transparent nature can cast a giant reticulating shadow. An inorganic pigment, it is considered transparent, non-staining (or low-tinting) and ideal for glazing methods. Its ability to create soft edges, to lift and to mix readily makes Cobalt Blue a valuable contribution to watercolor palettes.
• Quinacridone Violet - Disperses evenly with slight granulation and moves from deep darks to clear, glowing washes. In terms of complementary couples, Quinacridone Violet mixes best with a cleaner primary green.
• Quinacridone Gold - Everyone's favorite, Quinacridone Gold replaces Raw Sienna and adds versatility with its glazing and mixing capabilities. It is an excellent low-staining golden yellow pigment that can enhance any mixture. Try glazing an old "failure" with Quinacridone Gold to begin a rescue operation. 
• Lemon Yellow - a brilliant primary yellow, is the perfect pigment for mixing a range of hues when a clean yellow is necessary. This saturated, bright color adds life to your work at full strength and washes out to a sweet soft glow for a light and subtle statement. You'll enjoy the smooth handling properties and the durability of this extremely lightfast paint.
• Quinacridone Rose - Quinacridone Rose, with its red-violet color, lends itself to fabulous purples. Try with Indigo for deep dusty purples, or Indanthrone Blue for rich, clear purples. Quinacridone Rose can be mixed with Quinacridone Sienna or Burnt Orange in dilute wash states to create flesh tones or convincing sunsets.
• Kay Barnes 'Autumn Ridge' Article

Click here to download the entire White Rhodies Article.

Click here to download the entire Let the Paint Lead the Way Article.

Kay Barnes, CWA, NWWS
http://kaybarnes.com/

Every artist chooses a palette based on personal preferences, subject matter and need for a broad range of color mixing possibilities. Like a well-planned spice rack, every palette should include versatile staples.

Although I have 32 wells for color on my palette, there are staple colors that I use most often (I seldom use more than 6 or 8 colors in a single painting). I choose colors not only for hue, but also for the characteristics the paints offer.

When choosing colors, remember that you can duplicate almost any hue, but not necessarily with the particular color characteristics you’re seeking. Sometimes I want opaque and earthy qualities in paint, other times I want to contrast highly transparent color with colors that granulate and add interesting textural qualities to a painting.