Pansies for My Friend

Pansies can be a bit of a challenge to paint, at least that is how my friend Barbara and I feel about them. I worked from a few photos when I composed my initial sketch for this design, then carefully dropped in the colors beginning with the lighter yellow tones, working my way up to the greens, then the purples and finally the burgundy-browns.

The paper is the card stock supplied by Strathmore for their 5x6 7/8" blank cards. There is no weight listed on the box but I would guess it to be about 80 pounds as I did have a problem with the paper curling even though I had it taped down. After the project was completed I wet the backside and weighted it down under heavy books, but still could not remove all of the twist. :( I was attracted to the dark green deckle edge on the bottom edge of these cards. (I've cropped that out of this image, by the way.)

I made the veins on the lavender petals, leaves, etc, with a manicure tool, drawing in the lines while the petal was still damp.