Datura Shadows

watercolor, 11″ X 15″. 1/4 sheet 140# Fabriano Artistico paper

My project these last several days has been the Datura plant, a poisonous plant with an aptly named nickname of Devil’s Trumpet. It has very cool seed pods, spiral opening buds, and a gorgeous huge white bell of a blossom. I’ve seen these on my walks recently and fortunately snapped a picture when the sun created lovely shadows. With our 108 degree temps this week, my dog walks now occur before the sun comes over the Franklin Mts onto our side of the city. I still am mindful on my walk and snapping photos of interests, but it’s not the same without LIGHT to add that magic!

This was such a learning process for me. I sketched it first, got the values, tested out colors and mixtures, did some studies and then taking a big breath (smile), started on the painting. I used frisket paper and masking fluid to mask out the flower to do the background, and some of the earth color got onto the blossom. Got a couple of watercolor blooms on the blossom which I didn’t want…still putting extra brush strokes and inadvertently adding water with it which creates the blooms, and I’m not sure the leaves are done. I used the same mixture for all the shadows (indigo and carbazole violet) not sure they’re deep enough, and I think it’s normal to have the shadow look different depending on what color it lands on, but not sure if I should leave it or do more on them. Any thoughts? I’d love to hear from you.

Here are some photos of the plant and its beauty, including the one I used to paint the picture