Tag: thistle

A Prickly Subject

~ Ruth ~ 2 Comments

I decided to have a go at painting an impressionistic thistle in a really basic line-and-wash style – I wondered whether having a clearly visible outline showing through might help me deal more easily with the prickly subject of deliberately letting my paint flow beyond the lines, to try to give a bit more life and movement to my overall painting?

It’s not perfect but I think it worked surprisingly well for a first attempt, I quite like the effect – the simplistic, stylised design offered itself up quite comfortably to a looser style of filling in the page with colour, so I might try that approach again with other flowers? 🙂

Watercolour Thistle

~ Ruth ~ 12 Comments

This morning I had a now-or-never moment and decided to paint something – anything – just to get started again. So I chose a thistle – I found an image I liked as a base and drew a basic pencil outline before starting to fill in the base wash colour. Once that dried, I added a second layer of colour, giving a bit more definition. Then after that dried, I added the detail.

It’s not ever going to be an accurate photographic reproduction, it’s always definitely going to be an ‘artist’s impression’ of anything with me. Even from this first attempt after along time I can see I’m still more of a suggestion and hint kind of painter, but that’s ok with me. The main thing is I’ve had fun, and woo-hoo, look, I’ve actually painted something! 🙂

Flower of the Day

Thistle and Down

~ Ruth ~ 2 Comments

The tall thistle growing in our garden is well past its best now, and is in the process of seeding itself with its wispy white thistle down floating softly in the summer breeze – so here are some before and after shots for today’s Flower of the Day 🙂