The Daily Dahlia

As you may know, I've been struggling with drawing/painting a big red dahlia from a not-so-great photo that I took last summer. I painted this one and it took so long and when I finished, I realized that I wasn't clear on what else would be in the picture. I began to doodle and so the spheres arrived on the page. I then remembered a video demo I saw recently where the artist used a wash of gesso on top of his watercolors. The result was soft, dreamy texture and muted colors. I'd been wanting to try it so here was the perfect opportunity. I wasn't afraid of ruining anything... So I put about 1/2 teaspoon of white gesso in a plasic cup, added about a tbsp of water, swished it around, then white washed everything on the page except the dahlia. Here's what it looks like. I really like the effects of the gesso background with the detailed flower in the spotlight. To make this piece I used watercolor, watercolor pencils, gesso, gloss medium to make the flower a little shiney, pastel pencil and ink. It's 1/4 sheet of watercolor paper or about 11"x14". Click the pic to make larger.