Snowdrops Galanthus – sprouting in the lanes
Snowdrops Galanthus are the first plant to push through the soil after winter. It’s when the garden starts to wake up. We have quite a few Snowdrops sprouting around the trees, but they had all finished flowering when I did this watercolour sketch. So I painted these snowdrops from down the lane, while balancing my sketchbook on my knee. It was too muddy for sitting.
I used just one watercolour brush to paint and I took 3 palettes with me from the studio. It was a short walk down the lane, so it wasn’t too mush hassle to carry my studio palettes, which I prefer to use. It wasn’t easy balancing the sketchpad and reaching down to the palettes in the verge. It’s a muddy lane with no traffic, except tractors, pheasants, rabbits and partridges. Though not all at the same time.
Snowdrops Galanthus watercolour
Firstly I pencilled an outline of the clump of Snowdrops. I tired to capture the flow of the petals, reminding me of helicopter blades, swirling. A pale yellow green was the first watercolour mix I created. Then I mixed a loose wash of a darker green tone. Adding more layers of the darker green as the previous layer dried. My third palette started as a grey/blue mix, to highlight the shadow on the white petals. As you may already know I don’t use white paint, so I paint everything but the white areas.
Once I’d finished the Snowdrop Galanthus watercolour sketch, I took it back to the studio, for photographing. I like to share the palette mixes I created as well. I mix all my colours from primary colours of red, yellow and blue.