Painting Frangipani Flowers

With Barb n Jo
PAINTING FLOWERS GO BACK A LONG WAY TO THE MINOAN PERIOD (1580 BC)

ART IN THE MAKING

The frangipani, a classic flower, can make quite an impact when painted against a lovely, soft background. Jo and I have chosen a few random flowers as our reference material and had fun arranging them in our own individual way.

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Painting Frangipani Flowers

WHAT THE ARTIST USED
Odourless Turpentine Liquin - medium

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Colours
Titanium White Cobalt Blue (Hue) Cerulean Blue (Hue) Cadmium Yellow Deep (Hue) Cadmium Red (Hue) Cadmium Yellow Ivory Black

Support
Deep edge artist canvas 50 x 40cm

Brushes
No. 10 flat taklon (soft) for the background No. 2 taklon liner for detail No. 8 taklon filbert for the flowers

Jo Notes
I actually requested to paint this one after seeing the frangipani painting Barb had done with 3 butterflies on it. Theres just something about frangipanis. So our design is similar to the painting on the website, but we only have 1 butterfly. We chose one that doesn't have too many intricate details so we could have a splash of colour without turning a simple concept into an ordeal. Barb drew this heavier on her canvas in order to photograph itdont do that : ). Its hard to erase and she had to work harder to cover it. You want an outlinelight as you can. Youre really just helping yourself with position. As you can see, the petal always turns in on the left hand side and the shape varies a lot, so just make some bigger and some smaller. Our flowers are looking forwardI actually took that photo after we had done our design. As you can see its got a nice shape all on its own, so if you feel inclined, to draw it similar to that. In ours, we put big leaves underneath so the flowers would stand out more.

Full page photo on page 12

Session 1: Draw the Frangipanis

To help us arrange the flowers on the canvas compositionally, we did an initial rough sketch on paper. In cutting the paper to measure 25 x 20 cm, this enabled us to simply double our sketch when drawing it onto the canvas, which was 50 cm high x 40 cm wide. I always like to start with the focal flowers I drew three positioning them on the paper, followed by smaller flowers that will be out-offocus. This will give depth to the painting. Leaves, buds etc can then be added to fill in any gaps. As you can see, Jo has drawn her own individual arrangement of flowers and leaves, keeping it all nicely centred on her paper. We decided to add some movement to the painting by adding a beautiful Cabbage Leaf Butterfly. You can leave this out of course but if you do decide to include it in your painting, remember that it will be a part of your focal point (sharp focus) and therefore will need to be within the parameters of your drawing.

ARTY FACT
The focal pointin this case the star of the flower should be the sharpest , cleanest and the most detailed area with the highest contrast : )

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Painting Frangipani Flowers

Session 2: The Background
The background can be anything your imagination allows. Brushing in shapes of leaves and branches and then feathering them off with a soft brush will give you that out-of- focus effect.

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Jos Question
Do I paint the darks or lights first?

My Answer
We need to vary the tones to keep the background interesting. I always start from the top left, moving across to the right, then down (so my hand doesnt end up smudging the paint because I am right-handed). Once you have decided that one area is largely made up of darks, then I would paint in the darks first and add the lights next. Alternatively, if you want a lot of light coming through, then I would paint the light colours first and then brush in the darks. To give the impression of flowers in the distance, you need to leave a space in the section of background you are dealing with. With a clean brush, start with the white parts of the flowers, then yellows, oranges, and leaving the darks last. (Dont give these flowers any detail, only colour, as they will eventually be just a blur.) Feather all the colours into each other softly before attempting to brush the flower into your background. (This should be done while this section of the background is wet.) Continue feathering the flower into the background softly. You will need to wipe your brush off onto a rag continually to remove excess paint. You can blur it out as much as you want the more the better (we dont want these flowers competing with the subject). Paint these suggestive flowers anywhere you see fit. Once I had finished the background, I then added some extra little highlights in the lightest areas with a mix of Cerulean Blue and White. Also some dots of pure white can be added. The Cerulean gives the impression of some clean, bright light coming through the suggested foliage.

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Painting Frangipani Flowers

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Jos Notes
I used the same colours as Barb. As you can see, my background is quite different. My painting isnt as sharp as Barbss so I dont actually have to blur things up as much. I slapped in a lump of Cerulean Blue and liked it. It gave the painting a bright, summery tone. Dont be deceived that this background will be quick, especially if you havent attempted soft focus. Theres a lot of people telling you how easy it is to whip up these things, and maybe if you have a natural dexterity youll get it done quicker, but I havent found it to be the case. You still want to find the background to be pleasing even if it is just shapes. Mine was too dark for my own liking so I lightened it up as I went. Keep it light and bright to give it the snappy appearance your frangipanis deserve. Try not to get stuck doing one corner when youre trying to do the beginning shapes for the background. Its one of my pitfalls. It makes it harder to keep the colours the same. I ended up doing my background in two sessions and as you can see they are different.

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Painting Frangipani Flowers

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Session 3: Paint the Focal Flowers

I have three flowers in my painting that will be the focal flowers (you may have chosen more or less). I painted one of these flowers in next. I wanted to see how a sharp, focussed flower compared with my very soft background. Then the supporting out-of-focus flowers could be painted in afterwards. So, I picked out one of my main flowers. We need to keep our colours clean and bright. Paint in all the white areas first excluding the part of the petals that fold into the centre of the flower. These can be painted in separately later. Next, mix the Cadmium Yellow and White to make a lovely soft yellow and gently brush up into the white. Youll notice that the yellow of a frangipani tends to point towards the tip of the petal then rounds off on each side. Painted in this way will help give some direction to the petal. When I completed every petal with the light yellow, I continued on with a lovely dark orange (using Cadmium Yellow Deep and Cadmium Red) brushing from the middle of the flower to feather off into your soft yellow.

So, looking at the flower, you start with the white ends. Youre painting about halfway down the petal. Now make a lemon colour and paint about the next quarter. Then get the dark red and move toward the centre

In this photo, you can see a natural divide in the lemon along the centre of the petal. Our flowers have a warmer centre which helps give the painting strong definition. If you look at the edge of the petals they are actually lemon down near the centre of the petal.

Barbs Tip
Always have a definite light source to follow throughout the painting. I have chosen roughly 10 oclock, so shadows are basically on the right and underneath the petals and leaves etc. : )

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Painting Frangipani Flowers

Session 4: Shadows
Firstly, I made a mixture of Cobalt and Cadmium Red and white to make a very light purple. This was going to be my basic shadow colour for the white parts of the flower only. Later I can add a little more blue or green to these shadows to indicate the petals translucence against the background.. I then made this purple mixture slightly darker and followed through into the yellow of the flower. I continued into the orange by using a mixture of orange and some of the purple. The purple, when mixed with the orange, greys it off to give a more natural shadow colour.

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Barbs Tip
To make an object appear round, shadows are brushed in from the edges leaving the middle part lighter as it projects forward.

:)
Our last shadow was the centre of the flower itself. This is basically a hole so we made a very dark colour by using Cadmium Red with a tiny bit of Cobalt. Just blob this in the centre, then with your fine brush draw out the dark red into and around the petals, separating them as they twirl down into the centre.

Jos Question Barbs Tip

Where two objects are touching, the shadow will be more of a dark line. The further apart the objects are the lighter the shadow becomes as it extends out into the light. I am having trouble feathering off the ends of the petal into the dark orange centre.

My Answer
You dont want to go back into the dark area if you can help it. A little bit of dark orange on your brush will help to dab up into the lighter coloured petal. I made those curly edges of the petals look round as they twirled down into the centre of the flower by using shadows. (Remember where your light source is radiating from.)

:)
The next step were the edges of the petals that twirl back into the centre of the flower. They need their own shadows to give the impression that they are curved and not flat. So with a washed and clean brush, I first brushed in the whites again starting with the tip of the petal down to about of the way towards the centre. I finished the rest with a light yellow using the Cadmium Yellow. Switching back to my fine brush I lightly dabbed the ends of the petals where they disappear down into the centre of the flower. I wanted them to be slightly out-of-focus to indicate depth.

ARTY FACT
Because white has no colour, the shadows on the petals should be a reflection of the background and the surrounding colours
:)

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Painting Frangipani Flowers

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Session 5: Out-of-Focus Flowers

Paint all your out-of-focus flowers one by one in exactly the same way as you did with your main flowers (Session 3). Before attempting to blend them into the background, the flowers themselves need to be softened. Depending on how soft and out-of-focus you want them to be is simply a matter of how much you brush the colours into each other. Some of my flowers overlap each other therefore I have made the ones behind a lot more blurred to give depth to the painting. Now for the tricky bit the flowers have to be blended into the background. At this stage of the painting the background is dry. All we want now is the outside edges of the flower to be slightly blurred. Firstly, with a soft, dry brush, gently rub the flower edges into the background, wiping excess paint off onto your rag as you go. The difficulty with this stage of the painting is that the background is dry and not all the edges will fade into the dry paint nicely. Where it is not working (you may have dragged the flower out too far or where the background is a particularly dark patch) you need to make up that colour of the background.

Jos Note
Getting down to the nitty gritty now. As I said earlier, my painting is not as sharp, so when Barb paints a picture and then blurs it out, I simply paint and do a little blurring of the edges and Im done. If you look at the picture on the right, you can see I have made the petal colours blend smoothly so to insinuate it is a little out of focus. As you can see, my painting has got a dark blue line under the petal and on the leaf. This gave an excellent interpretation of distance and shadow. This combined, with the shading on and under petals, makes it look like I have levels of flowers and leaves.

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Painting Frangipani Flowers

Session 6: The Butterfly
I wanted the butterfly to be a part of my focal point together with the flowers. Therefore, as I have already said, a focal point needs to have the highest contrasts of colour and tone. Firstly, I made a pretty green from the Cobalt Blue and Cadmium Yellow Deep and White and brushed in all the light areas of the butterfly. Next came the shadows and darker areas. Adding Cadmium Red to the mix for a slightly orangey colour made the shadows. For the butterflys underparts, I made the shadows darker by adding a bit more blue. Once the wings were blocked in I then proceeded to block in the body. This I made with an orange mix to reflect the orange of the flower. Whilst I had this colour on my brush I also dabbed it on the parts of the wing that were closest to the flower (reflective light is sometimes a good way to tie the subject in with the rest of the painting). To make those fine veins in the wings, use a slightly darker shade by adding a bit of purple to the colour you are painting on. Remember the lines should be lighter in the highlights and darker in the shadows.

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Jos Question
What makes a good shadow colour?

My Answer
A general rule of thumb is to mix a purple (in this case the Cobalt and Cadmium Red) and mix it into the colour to be shaded. Remember though that shadows are not flat and need different tones within them - darker against the source and lighter with more colour as it nears the light. I dont use black except in cases where a real black is needed. (Instead I always use my purple mix as it has more colour.) In this instance I used a black for the butterflys eye and antennae. When painting in the antennae, mix a small amount of Liquin with the black to increase the flow enabling you to paint two fine lines. Remembering the light source, paint a fine line of white on the left of each antenna (it will blend slightly with the black to give a more realistic greyish colour to the highlight). Whilst you have the black on your palette, darken the dark area under the wings and give the body some suggested segments. I made the legs a creamy colour and used the Liquin again to firstly position them on the flower. It is easier to then go back and fatten up the legs near the body. Dont forget shadows top of the legs as they are still under the body, on the left side of each leg and underneath. Detailing the butterfly was last whiten up the whites, give the wings some orange edges, and dots. As I have already said, anything in the light areas will be lighter and those details in the darker areas, darker. A clean white dot of paint in the black eye gives the eye a reflective shine. Finally, once the butterfly in completed, a shadow needs to be painted onto the flower to correspond with all the shadows of the painting. Remembering your light source, firstly paint in the shape of the butterflys body with a dark orange mix (as was previously made for the flower shadows). Shadows will be stronger and darker where the legd actually touch the flower. As the shadow may fall on lighter parts of the petal, try adding a light yellow for that area and conversely more purple to the darker parts in the centre of the flower.

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Painting Frangipani Flowers

Jos Notes
We picked the Cabbage Butterfly because it isnt too intricate, but visually it gave the painting another dimension. That and they look nice. Notice how the light shines through the wings of the butterfly. When I started this the butterfly looked too flat. After looking at Barbs I realised that I needed to be braver and push more colour into it. Remember you can go over the fine lines after a few days to pop the whites back out.

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Cabbage White ButterflyPhoto by Tina Phillips

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Painting Frangipani Flowers

Session 7: Last Touches
With a clean brush and plenty of white paint, I proceeded to dab in areas that needed extra paint (especially on my focal flowers where I needed the most definition). Clean and brighten up any areas that may require more paint.

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Painting Frangipani Flowers

Jos Notes
Frangipanis are such a pleasing flower. I really like my result and Im already looking to do another. Hope you had as much fun as we did. Were going to do a beach scene next so I practise completely different elements like ocean waves, sand and a few trees and clouds. Hope to see you there. Cheers.

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Photo by Jo Murcutt