In my front garden is a row of snowdrops, each year more flowers are showing themselves and I decided to make pictures of the ones that are out (many are still in bud) and make a composition using these pictures. The flowers that are already out have short leaves and seem a different variety - compared to the ones that are still growing.
For the painting I made my compositional drawing first, used masking fluid to make sure the flowers, stems and leaves would stay 'clean' and started painting the background, using the colours from the 'Twilight' special edition (now they are in the normal range of colours) and some salt for special effects. Because of the masking fluid, the paint had to dry naturally so I had to be patient. It took three layers before I was happy with the background.
After removing the masking fluid I was not happy that the fluid had left a stain on the paper (what I really thought is not fit for publishing) and I decided to make the best of it. So there is a bit more colour in the snow on the ground and in the flowers than I first planned.
The leaves and stems of the snowdrops are a bluish shade of green, the green dots in the flowers, the flower beginnings and the little stems that show when the flowers drop and open are more yellowish green, so I added a touch of yellow in my mixture.
Working with masking fluid never was my favourite technique, now I think that I will never want a bottle of it again. The one I used now was a bit older (as I rarely use it) and is thrown away after the disappointing results of this painting. With 'disappointing' I refer to the staining of the paper, this was 'colourless' masking fluid... Of course I also suspect my paper was damaged when I took the masking off and the hard edges are always hard to correct.
The information about the materials I have used, the size of this painting and its availability can all be found in my Tumblr blog.
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