Cosmo

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Trace or lightly sketch the cosmo flower and stem in pencil on your watercolor paper.

2. Lightly erase the pencil marks until they are just dark enough to see as a reference. Start painting the inside of the flower with a size 8 round brush. Apply Lemon Yellow first using small dots, then follow with dots of Quinacridone Gold to create a variety of yellows within the pollen area. Leave little white spots of your paper poking through.
   
   To paint the stem, mix Quinacridone Gold (60%) with Winsor Green (40%). I purposely don’t paint in the stem completely, leaving tiny areas of the white paper showing through. This is a stylistic choice I make to break up the solid block of color. However, you can fill in the stem completely if you would like.

3. Begin this step using the wet-in-wet technique. Because it is a lot of area to cover, you can focus on each petal at a time. Mix Cadmium Orange (50%) with Alizarin Crimson (50%) to paint on the petals. You won’t want to paint all the way to the pollen; leave a little white of the paper showing. While the paint is wet, take Alizarin Crimson and drop it in near the pollen of the flower to create a darker value to provide depth to the center of the petals.

4. In the pollen, dot in another layer of Quinacridone Gold. Focus on the bottom border. Let that dry. Add another layer of Alizarin Crimson on the petals to create dimension. Work your way from the center, near the pollen, bringing your paint toward the tips of the petals in thin strokes. Don’t paint the tips of the petals. Allow some of your first layer to show through in areas. The bottom two petals will have more of the Alizarin Crimson to add depth and to show the petals curling.

COLORS

1. Lemon Yellow

2. Quinacridone Gold

3. Winsor Green

4. Cadmium Orange

5. Alizarin Crimson

Credit Line