Lupine demo pm

Reference photo for Lupine Afternoon Demo

Draw with simple lines as they show through the paint. Just put the basic shapes in, detail will come later.

Next mask all the lupine shapes and stems and leaves to protect them for later. Remember to let it dry before painting and use your cheap "Ocean State" brush with a little soap for mask.

Now comes the paint. Start at top with sky using water with the pigment. Use clear water on your brush to pull down blue to add clouds and lighter horizon..Add the first wash of green trees after sky has dried.

I then added a second layer of green to depict the closer, darker trees.

Now start with some color in this fashion and continue to add your pinks and blues and purples while it is all damp so it blends . this was just an action shot to show you the strokes but I didn't let those edges dry.

I continued to add the pinks and purples and should have taken a picture then. oops Sorry Jane :)
Then I added the first layer of green foliage. Letting a few green leaf brushstrokes go up into the flower color.

*Remember to make the first green wash dark enough so that it will be darker than the first masked ( White) leaves when they get peeled of and painted back in

After the green foliage dried I added a second layer of masking fluid to the green leaves going in opposing directions to increase the feeling of overlapping space.

Then I added many more dots of mask implying the lupine shapes the the field. After mask was COMPLETELY dry I added a darker layer of purples and pinks.

Next I added some darker purples towards the bottom of the lupine flowers to add depth and contrast for when I peel off mask and paint back in the pink lupine.

This is a close up to show how I paint in some dark negative shapes. Negative shapes are the dark shadows in between the leaves NOT the leaf shapes. 

Close up of the next layer of darks on the top trees to show depth and texture.

I adjusted tree height on top right because the trunks I added were at a short tree height rather than large. So I lifted and adjusted. look at last photo and this one and you will see what I mean.

I also added a lot more darks in lower lupine edge

Here I added more texture and depth to the upper trees to add a variety of close distant trees. The closer trees being darker.