Birgit O'Connor - "Painting White Flowers" in Watercolor

"Painting White Flowers" by Birgit O'Connor
How do you create white? What colors can you add to change it from stark white into the white of the flower? White is the combination of all the colors in the rainbow so you are really able to use any and all colors only very minimally. Creating the white flower can be on of the most challenging and satisfying experiences you have as a watercolorist. Using only the white of the paper with hints of color blended into clean water washes gives the illusion of bends and folds.
The materials I use are 140 lb or 300 lb Arches cold or rough press paper My brushes are: # 12 # 10, # 8 synthetic blend. Including an inexpensive Bamboo Hake brush for washes. (the only problem with the Hake brush is that you have to watch out for the hairs that fall out, but it holds a lot of water). Colors: French Ultramarine Blue, Burnt Umber, Burnt Sienna. Green Gold, Indigo, Yellow Ocher. A very large bucket of clean water. This helps me not to consistently keep having to change it. Most times I will have 2 buckets - 1 for cleaning and the other for applying washes or color. In my pallet I use large amounts of water to mix into my paint, most people are a little afraid of using that much water due to the fact they think they will not be able to control their painting. Whenever someone says that they are having problems with their paintings and don’t know what to do my common response is, “ I think you need more water and bigger brushes”.
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For more information you can visit my web site at http://www.birgitoconnor.com

"Painting White Flowers" by Birgit O'Connor