Wild Flowers 2 - Teasel silhouette

This is the drawing for the final painting which I will trace in ink using a lightbox, then add colour. I need the final result to be a bit stylised as realistic watercolour paintings put toegther in a composition will probbaly be a bit weak. The silhouettes are to be a part of the overall design and will be to scale, so the teasel will probably be about 4-5cm tall and the bluebells 1.5cm tall. But you can't do a good silhouette without a carfeul drawing first. I celaned up any extra lines and erased the seed head in Photoshop, then printed the drawing onto cartridge paper and painted it in black ink. For a good original silhouette gouache is a better denser black, but I will use these images digitally so I could darken it in photoshop after painting it. Ink is quicker and more fluid.

This is how to do leaves or petals with a single stroke. You need a good sable paintbrush that comes to a lovely point (mine is Winsor and Newton series 7 (the best quality sable) #3 . Dip the brush, begin at the tip of the petal and do a mark allowing the brush to flatten and spread out as you go. (It's one of the movements we use in brush lettering) For the teasel I did a little movement because the leaves are thin and pointy, but you can get a neat daisy petal in this way as well using a slightly different pressure..

Teasel (Dipsacus)

The dead teasel head was used as a natural comb in weaving to make blankets fluffy and is still used by purists.The leaves and roots are used in various herbal medicines – the leaves for an acne wash.

The flower formation is interesting - the flowers sprout in horizontal bands round the teasel head.

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