Morgan's Hydrangea Flower

Months ago, Morgan sent me a photo of a hydrangea as an idea to draw/paint.  I have been dragging my feet even attempting it as it intimidates me with all those little petals that make up the flower head.  Finally I decided to tackle the job to help take my mind off the dental work I am having done.  

Not something I would care to attempt on paper but instead using layers on the Ipad.  There was a lot of trial and error and the last thing I ever want to do is to have to start over.  This way anything that was working right, I could save and what didn't, I could delete and continue on.

I am not ashamed to admit I traced to get my line drawing for this due to the complexity of all those petals or florets or whatever they are called.  I didn't have the energy or desire to attempt this otherwise.  I considered using the grid method but that would have taken a lot of time I didn't feel like investing.  I also considered using the Ipad Camera Lucida app developed similar to the Camera Obscura and Lucida concepts the masters used decades ago; but thought why when I can just trace the shapes on the spot in the app I was using.

Once I had the line drawing, I had to figure out how I wanted to add color and shading.  I chose to add a base color to the over all shape of the flower head and then work each individual petal building values as I went along.  Because the layers are transparent, I was able to view the lines beneath for initial placement of color along edges and then blending out. 

One image shows where I wrote soft and hard edges.  Having a flat base shape like this, it would look like a cut-out sitting on a piece of paper so I went along and softened edges.

As usual, I chose to use the Gouache brush tool which lays down color softly (not at full opacity or strength).  To get it darker, you have to go over the areas as if glazing.  This is one reason I really like using that brush tool and why it can take several layers and hours to work on a drawing due to gradually building the values.

And I just noticed I misspelled Hydrangea........ooops..........lol.