Fearless Friday, May Day Basket

the Painted Apron

6 years ago

Happy May!

Let’s paint a May Day Basket today

This painting was done from a Southern Living photo

I usually print a photo to use when painting

but I just used my laptop this time and set it next to my easel

The first step was placing the shapes of the flowers

You don’t have to get every single flower,

just pick a few to establish the composition and color placement

Next, stems and leaves

A light wash for the basket

Next I painted in the basket handle

And added squiggly lines to indicate the basket texture

More leaves and details on the greens with light, loose strokes

Shadows,* darker petals on the other flowers, and fine liner pen to finish

*shadow tip: don’t make your shadows gray, make them in the same tone as your subject and be sure to drop in other reflected colors from the subject

“May Day Basket” 9″ x 12″ watercolor and ink on 140 lb. cold press watercolor paper*

*I highly recommend these art paper pads from Arteza

The paper is textured on one side and smooth on the other so it works for a variety of wet and dry mediums. The pads are glued at the top so they work like a watercolor block

The 9″ x 12″ pads are currently unavailable, but they do have 11′ x 14″ which is a great size also, or you can cut the paper in half or to a size you need

These pads are a great value, $32.99 for 64 sheets available on Amazon here