Up For A Challenge

Red Jade Vine

KS00085

12 x 16 inches

watercolor on paper

Collection of Librada Dela Fuente

 

The name is actually a misnomer as the red jade vine is of a different species (Mucuna bennettii) from the jade vine (Strongylodon macrobotrys).  Beautiful and not so commonly found, both are sought after by garden enthusiasts.  These type of flowering vines are most often used to fill and decorate shaped frame structures for walkways.  They provide very good shade.

We have both the jade vine and the coral vine (another name for the red jade vine) now in our garden courtesy of Kakang Badeng (grandaunt) who is a collector.  It is from her garden that I get some of my more unusual flower references.

Painting this coral vine was quite a challenge.  It was several months in the planning.  First, because it is a seasonal bloomer.  When Kakang Badeng asked me if I could paint it from a picture she took, I said I will have to see the coral vine closer up and in the natural setting.  This is one of those blooms whose color cannot be captured by photographs well.  The red orange coloration is so bright that the camera perceives the individual blooms to be almost one solid color.  It becomes difficult to distinguish individual structure and detail.  The chandelier-like formation of the combined blooms also can be limiting in that you are more or less stuck in having to show it hanging down otherwise, it might not become recognizable.  I was able to take home a flower cutting the next time it bloomed.  Lola had one of her gardeners climb and get a sample so we can see it closer up.  At home, my sister had to hold the stem with a forceps because the stem has spicules.  Not a very nice feeling when you get the sharp, tiny spikes in your fingers.  I had to use masking tape to get mine out.   But see how bright the coloration is.  It is even more beautiful "live" because you see subtle differences within the orange color - hint of red, green, yellow and even violet.

As I was studying the coral vine and making notes, I realized it would be easier composition-wise if I placed it in its natural setting.  I can use the background to add more interest.  I mentioned to my lola that I need more information.  I will need to see how the flower is attached to the vine, how the leaves are oriented, etc. (more from curiosity and the need to see it - orient it logically in my brain than the actual need to paint details).  And that is how I found myself atop a tall aluminum ladder the next time me and my sister visited.  Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.  :D   When we got there, this ladder was already in place complete with an assistant who would make sure it will not topple over.  As I was climbing the ladder with my knees shaking not just from the height but the feeling that the ladder might not take my weight, I looked down and saw Kakang Badeng.  She was so confident I could do it that it convinced even me.  So who says there is no thrill and adventure in painting.  This passes for the equivalent of bungee jumping when you get to my age.  :D

A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO COMPOSITION, THE OLD SCHOOL WAY

How I planned the painting itself can be summarized by this simple illustration.

I placed the subject (large orange oval) off center, left and higher up.  The smaller orange ovals add interest but don't detract from the main subject.  The function of the satellite ovals is to add interest but at the same time it also acts as a pointer or reminder so that your attention is brought back to the more dominating large oval.  To make the background more dynamic, I angled it.  The green zone is for the vine branches and leaves.  Blue zone for the sky.  The large white area at the bottom which I will leave mostly blank will reinforce the illusion that the bloom is hanging.

WORKING WITH PHOTOS

Here is how it looked from the top of the ladder.  You have vines crisscrossing, some as thick as my wrist, others thin as a finger.  The greenhouse has a metal framework which the vine uses for support.  The leaves are mostly outside and on top of the greenhouse.  Sunlight pierces through gaps and you can see glimpses of sky in the spaces.  See how photographs are great tools for memory or recollection.  Now to paint as if you're doing it plein air, don't get too caught up in the photo but distill the essence or principle of the thing and use it to suggest realness.

I had fun when creating the background dropping in colors and creating ghost branches.  I had so much fun I forgot to photograph the process in between these two stages.  Sorry.  Sometimes you get too caught up with an idea, you forget about documenting.  But the idea is to leave spots of areas lighter in color among the branches.  Later, I would color these the same blue as the sky.  The branches were semi-detailed in some spots and vague in others.  Some areas, I covered with varying degrees of green.  I debated against painting realistic detailed leaves because it will compete with the blooms and also because I wanted the illusion that you're viewing this from a distance.  At that height and distance, either you would focus on the bloom or on the leaves and vines.  That is how the normal human vision works.  I want the viewer to think it was his idea to focus on the blooms so I left the detailing mostly on the flower itself.  Try it, see how even when you consciously try to walk your eyes around the painting, you would find your eyes straying towards the main flower.  Last, on the finished painting, you would notice that I signed my name very lightly with the same blue I used for the sky.  I wanted the signature to be as unobtrusive as possible.  I was thinking of not putting it in at all but because I will not be supervising the framing of this painting, I have a feeling that the framer might crop the large white area thinking to save space.  Putting it in this way, they would feel compelled to include the signature.  If this blank area was shortened, you will lose the feeling that the bloom is suspended high up.

So that is one way to do the old school way of composition.  These days, we do not really adhere to the "rules" but sometimes it is good to know the basics.

Thank you for dropping by.

"Saging-sagingan"

KS00084

10.5 x 13.5 inches

watercolor on paper

Gone green lately.  Have been a bit busy in the garden.  And congratulate me, only half the plants I have repotted keeled over.  That is quite an improvement from my 007 status in the plant world.  I also got bougainvilleas in multi-colors so you can probably guess what my next projects will be.  And yes, the bougainvilleas are expected to survive 100%, I was only allowed to watch when they were being replanted in the bigger pots.  :D

About the painting's title "Saging-sagingan", literally translated it means mock bananas or fake bananas.  It is the local name for the plant Heliconia psittacorum (also known as false bird-of-paradise, parrot's beak).  I noticed ever since being told the local name, I can't see the parrot's beak anymore but keep seeing bananas, bananas.  The leaves of the plant also look like banana leaves growing upright from the ground.

For this painting, again, I used a limited palette and used the whiteness of the paper to get lighter colors.  One advantage of using a limited color palette is it makes it easy to achieve cohesiveness in your paintings.  For example, to get a darker green I added a bit of violet to the sap green.  For other parts of the leaves, I added orange or red to the green to get different shades of green.  For the shadings in the "bananas", I used mixtures of green and blue.  The red got darker or lighter with the addition of violet and orange, etc. Even though the colors look distinctly blue, distinctly green, distinctly red or yellow, they have parts of the other colors in them that later when you take it all in together, you know the colors fit.

My palette for this painting:
(W&N)  permanent rose, Winsor yellow, Winsor orange, permanent sap green, Winsor green, cobalt blue, cerulean blue and Winsor violet.


Thank you for dropping in.

Make Your Own Watercolor Stretcher Board 2

Ever wished you can order gator boards in custom sizes?  Love those boards but they come only in fixed sizes.   I have cut some of them to make it more convenient for me when painting in smaller, non-standard sizes which I find myself repeatedly favoring.  But how to add two or more together to get a bigger surface to stretch on, that is a challenge.  The problem is you would get a ridge where two board edges meet and that might cause a permanent indentation on your watercolor paper.  These boards also have more noticeable bending or bowing the bigger you go (due to the paper pulling as it shrinks) so added support will be needed if you plan to make bigger stretcher boards out of them.

I have been experimenting over the last months using whatever materials I have around.  I dared not use the gator boards for the experiment because they are a bit expensive here so I used instead foam core boards.  At first I used illustration board as a backing to the foam core boards with the result that the first time I tried stapling paper on it, I ended up yelping.  The staple ends poked through the foam core board and the illustration board and into my palm.  Back to the drawing board.  Well, after trying on different supports and testing them out, I have come up with this final design.  So far, so good.  Will give you my review on how it performed at the end of this article.

Materials for this watercolor stretcher board:

• Plywood (at least 6 mm thickness).
• Paper tape.
• Elmer's glue (carpenter's glue).
• Foam core board.
• Acrylic Gesso.
• Brush for gesso application.

Directions:

Cut the foam core board and the plywood that you will be using as backing to your desired specifications.  I find it best to measure and cut the plywood first and then use that as a template for cutting the foam core later.  Easier to trim foam core than to trim excess plywood.

This is optional but I like giving the plywood backing some finishing.  You can use paint, sandpaper or treatments you can buy from the hardware to give the backing some finishing but my preference is paper tape.  One reason is when you do a double layer of it at the back, it sort of softens the backing.  I have appropriated our seldom used dining room at the main house as my studio because I get good lighting there.  I'm very conscious of abrasive, hard, sharp surfaces because they may scratch the glass top of our dining room table.  With the paper backing, I am not so afraid to rotate the board while I am working on it.  I like how the paper backing also prevents me getting splinters from the wood

Shown in the picture (above,right) strips of paper tape applied side by side onto the plywood. I cut them longer than the length of the plywood so I can fold them over and get a neat paper covered edge. After this layer dries, I place another layer of paper tape but position them perpendicular to the first one so I would get paper covered edges also on the last two bare sides. (If first layer is lengthwise, apply the second layer crosswise). Allow the paper tapes to dry completely and then turn the board over.


Put a liberal amount of glue on the inside surface of the backing board

Spread the glue evenly.  One reason why I keep some of the used prepaid phone cards.  They are very handy when you're spreading glue.

Place the foam core board onto the backing board and let dry overnight.  For better adherence, I would turn the board over, making sure that the surface I am putting on has nothing that will mar the foam core board's surface.  Then I use heavy books to weigh it down.  I forgot to take a picture when I did it so I recreated the scene but used fewer books.  There were a lot more books than these but they were heavy to lug around and I have already put them back.  But you get the idea.

Last, put several coats of gesso on the surface of the foam core board and on its side to seal it and make it water resistant (depends on how many layers of gesso you put on).  Do not forget the sides.  Gesso acts as a protectant or buffer against the elements and your foam core board would last longer if its inside is not as exposed to air and water.  It also is acid-free so even when you place wet paper over it, you will not be exposing your watercolor paper to acid you normally do when you get your paper in direct contact to wet wood.

Close up of the board's side showing why you need to cover it up with gesso too.  The exposed part will turn yellow and brittle over time.  The gesso will hopefully delay this a bit.  The board should give you extra years of service when you take precautions.

Tada!  With paper stretched on it.  Ready for painting.  (Of course, I let the gesso dry completely for several days before stretching on it.)

The review:

What is good about it:

• You can custom make it almost any size.  Foam core is available at size 30 x 40 here so you can make a stretcher board as big as that.
• With the plywood backing, it is not as prone to bowing.  This board I just made is 40 x 18 inches. When paper I stretched on it started drying, I only got slight bowing... almost negligible.
• It is reusable.  You only need to invest time in it once, when you make it.  Although I did put another coat of gesso on a previous one I've just taken a painting off to plug the holes left behind by the stapler.  Still it looked pretty much intact and the surface was even despite the holes.
• Not so expensive although quite time consuming.
• The foam core layer took in the staples better.  I did not get that much shock on the wrist stapling on it.

What needs improving:

• It is heavier with the plywood backing.
• Not sure if it is due to the wet weather last month but I noticed that I needed a longer drying time in between sessions of painting.  Clay surface versus gessoed.  The clay surface of gatorboards seems able to dry the underside of watercolor paper faster.  This needs investigation.  I'm hoping maybe if the correct thickness of gesso is achieved, this will improve.  

I still favor using the commercially prepared gator boards when the painting I'm planning to do fits its dimensions but for the unusual formats, I think I did good with my DIY board.

Now if all of these seem very labor intensive and you have money to spare, you can always get thicker paper that will not need stretching.  :D

Thank you for reading.

Sunlit Yellow Hibiscus

Finally, regular internet service is back on.  Thank you friends for waiting with me.  It has been quite a while but I am hoping to make it up this year with all that I have promised to do.  Thank you for the patience.

Finished this hibiscus early December last year but could not post it or the painting progress online.  Aside from losing internet service, this painting was to be a surprise gift for my friend Cathy from her husband.  I usually do not do the same color flower in a row but when Noel and I were discussing what kind of flower Cathy might like and at the same time what would compliment the color scheme of their house best, we agreed on a yellow hibiscus.  It helped that the last time they were over at our place several months ago, Cathy liked the yellow hibiscus I just finished for Gigi.  

Sunlit Yellow Hibiscus

19.5 x 16.5 inches

watercolor on paper

KS00083

Thank you very much Noel and Cathy for the support and for letting my work be part of your new home.

My apologies for the long interval between my last post.  It took some time for me to recover from the loss of my faithful sidekick, muse and studio companion - Doodle, my pitbull daughter.  She died last July.  She lived to be more than twelve years old, around 62 in dog years.  A very old age for a pitbull, I was told, but little consolation to me as I was hoping she would live to be a hundred.  To say that I was devastated by her passing is an understatement.  I started and threw away many paintings in the weeks and months that passed.  Somehow, my paintings were ending up either too dark or too sombre, and it was adding to my depression.   But weird how sometimes it takes a tragedy to bring some focus.  I have been putting off writing my artist statement not because I do not know it but because I could not put into words what I was feeling and thinking.  The alone time forced me to do a lot of introspection.  I can work on the statement now.

To combat grief, I busied myself scouting and sketching possible subjects.  I made studies for portraits and landscapes.  I also got busy experimenting and thinking up tools to help me with painting and framing.  I had to make myself go out into the garden because for the first weeks, I could not.  My dog was always accompanying me whenever I am out taking pics and so it was hard remembering.  Later, I entertained invites to visit relative's gardens.   It was partly to remind myself that life is still beautiful.  It was also in acknowledgement that while I could not paint then, I knew I would get back to it eventually.  The love for painting is always there and so I continued collecting references and continued to be on the lookout for unusual plants.  I also learned a new skill with my sister, medical transcription.  A backup in case I don't ever get my painting mojo back.  Met a lot of good people and made new friends  :D

I am back to painting again.  Almost finished with two new ones.   Anyway, just wanted to say hello and to give a little explanation for the absence.

A preview of what's to come.  An improved DIY watercolor paper stretcher using locally available materials (Philippines).  How to "wick" your frames to improve protection against damp.  As well as the usual painting projects.

Again, my heartfelt appreciation.  Thank you very much for sticking around.

Troubleshooting Paper Problems: When The Sizing Goes Bad.

Was rummaging through my old stuff and saw this discarded painting.  Perfect illustration for explaining stale sizing.

I have this habit of setting aside half-finished paintings when I get that feeling that something about it is off.  "Aha!" moments sometimes come when you've stopped obsessing over something.  Sometimes it would take me days or weeks before I would get back to a particular painting.  This one somehow worked its way to the bottom of my pile and I forgot all about it.  Almost a year has passed since I last touched it.  When I tried working on it again to finish it, spots started appearing wherever I wet the paper.

Reminded me of salt effects.  This one however, is caused by sizing gone bad.  We have touched a bit on sizing in a previous post.  (Watercolor Papers and Sizing).  But basically, the idea behind sizing or the addition of gelatin to watercolor paper during its production is to make the paper more workable with watercolor.  Sizing allows you better control over your watercolor as it decreases the tendency of the paper to absorb liquids and paints like tissue paper.  Between the paper pulp and the gelatin, the gelatin would be the first to go stale with old stock paper.  Signs of this would be the appearance of spots that don't go away after a wash or after an application dries.  Another would be when you discover areas that resist any application of paint you put down on it. 

There are several ways to hasten the deterioration of the sizing.  As demonstrated in this ruined painting, one way is by wetting a painted watercolor that has lain undisturbed for months.  You can also hasten the deterioration of new paper using the same principle.  The moment you wet a watercolor paper, its sizing gets disturbed. Maybe water acts as a catalyst.  This is the reason why you are advised not to stretch paper in big batches.  Stretch only what you think you will be able to use within 2 or 3 months.  That's just my estimate.  In our weather where heat can be more than the usual, it is always more prudent to stretch only what you think you will use.  The window of usability may be different in your environment and you should let experience guide you.  

A sign that this was not bad paper to begin with is how the undisturbed, previously painted part is free of spots.  Check the picture.  You wouldn't know that the paper's sizing has gone bad if you do not re-wet the paper.  When you find yourself itching to touch up a painting years after it is finished, remember what happened here.  

Not all old stock paper go bad.  I use Arches cold pressed watercolor paper in rolls.  One of the most economical way of buying paper is by buying it in rolls.  Because you cut to size, you minimize wastage of excess paper.  As long as you do not get the roll wet and observe proper storage, the paper stays usable for years.  Proper storage includes storing it in its original wrapping and in the box it came in and with the crumpled paper fillers still inside.  Do not put this container/box in an area prone to dampness such as near windows, bathrooms, basements. Also keep it away from direct heat or sun exposure so the paper inside does not get heat-baked.

You do need to recognize what stale sizing on paper looks like, specially when you like to take advantage of art supplies on sale.  Some stores put their older stocks on sale just to move the items and to make way for newer supplies. Some of these discounted paper will still be good for use but many might have sustained handling or storing damage.  For this reason I prefer to spend on paper and get new stocks.  You're not really saving on money if you get bad paper.  But sometimes good bargains are hard to resist so if you must, at least learn to discern the appearance of stale sizing to help you shop wiser.

I wonder if you can see the very pale yellow spots.  That is how spoiled sizing looks on paper that has never gotten wet.  Just turned bad over time.  (I keep samples of everything.)  But don't go hunting for spots where there are none. Even new paper looks a bit uneven because of how the lighting plays off against the hills and valleys of the paper.  The surest way to check is to wet the paper.





This is the same paper, now wet.  Some new paper may have this tendency but on a very mild scale and if the paper dries without any marks, your paper is still good.  For tips on how to minimize this tendency, check out my previous article Watercolor Papers and Sizing







There are times when you would come upon a defective batch of paper.  The best way is to contact the seller and if no action there, the manufacturer to see if you can get a replacement.  Might be wise for you to do a little sleuthing online to see if other buyers have been complaining about certain batches.  You will have a stronger claim if your paper is from the same batch.  But do not be too quick to blame the suppliers.  Sometimes we may be unaware that we are doing something that harms the paper.

You can artificially ruin the sizing of the paper by soaking it too long under water.  Prolonged immersion may be the culprit why some sizing coagulate in spots.  This used to happen to me when I was a beginner.  Thinking more is always better, I would leave watercolor paper soaking for as long as 20 or 30 minutes before stretching it.  The suggested submerging time is only a few minutes.  Only long enough for the paper fibers to get wet.  If you soak it too long, even before you staple it down, you can tell you've ruined the sizing by the appearance of slightly darker spots on your paper like in the sample above.

Also, not all paper that develop slight spotting when wet are damaged paper.  Even new and undamaged paper may develop these slightly darker spot discoloration when wet.  But these would tend to disappear as the paper dries.  If you can't tell any spotting on the dried, stretched paper, your paper is good to paint on.

That's it.  Thank you for reading. 

How To Paint Bougainvilleas, Part 1

Bougainvilleas are a favorite subject of mine.  I'm attracted to the color possibilities and the detailing one can go crazy with.  I would admit that part of the reason I started painting it was because of the challenge.  It looked so intimidating to paint that I felt compelled to unravel the mystery.

Whenever I find myself facing an insurmountable task or project, my first course of action is to chop things up into manageable pieces.  If something looks complicated, I try to simplify.  It also has to do with a learning limitation I have.  I have difficulty with memorization.  But I'm good with concepts and once I get the rationale behind something, my recall is good.  That's part of the reason why I take so long to do things the first time.  For plants and flowers, I go nerdy and do surgery.  I like to see how things work or how things are put together.  Seems excessive just to draw a flower.  Time consuming, yes. But I think of it as time well spent because it helps make successive paintings using the same subject easier.  If you've heard of the story of how an old master taught his students to paint by making them traverse five flights of stairs between their easels and their subject matter, then you might realize it is not really about memorizing the details but getting the concepts that should help them recreate something.  If you do the stair challenge yourself, you'll find that any detail you've tried committing to memory will have evaporated by the time you reach second floor.  Trying to catch your breath and keeping an image is a hard feat.  The objective is not to develop a photographic memory but to exercise the ability to synthesize the essence of something.  So for the bougainvillea lessons, I'll be familiarizing you with how the flower is put together in nature and at the same time will be posting the step by step of the painting process.  Hopefully, I succeed in imparting the essence of it. Mine is just one way to tackle the bougainvillea, I hope it helps make it easier and fun for you too.

Here is the drawing outline for this bougainvillea demo.

This is the basic unit of a bougainvillea cluster.  You have three modified leaves (often mistaken as bougainvillea petals because they are colored brightly like a flower's) that have mini flowers on elongated thingies.  One mini flower per colored leaf.  When formed well, the flowers' bases are erect and plumped up with a slightly cinched middle and hard ridged edges.  The ones that look like spent matchsticks are flower bases that have sustained damage and twisted as they developed.  The three leaves are joined at the base by their attachment to a single stem.  That will be shown on the next demo.

My first objective is to define the areas using very light washes of local color.  I do this because I intend to erase the pencil guides as soon as I can.  I do not like pencil marks on my watercolors (not because I'm mean and like making my viewers guess how it was put together (grin!)) but because I find my colors are brighter and clearer when they are free of graphite residue.  Remember to use a soft white eraser to minimize damage to the paper's surface.

If you're interested in the colors I used for this demo, they are rose madder genuine, permanent sap green, winsor lemon, cerulean blue, permanent rose and permanent alizarin crimson.  (Winsor and Newton).  You may use other color substitutes.  I only picked them because I happen to have small leftovers of the colors from past paintings.  For serious paintings, I always use a clean palette and fresh colors but I save leftovers from finished paintings for practicing with.

The ridges of the leaves are yellow in color but because yellow and pencil marks are a no-no, I left the areas where I picture the ridges to be blank.  Any yellow over pencil marks would make the pencil mark almost impossible to erase.  A phenomena observed by most artist.  So as a rule, using yellow for mapping is to be avoided if you intend to erase your guides later on.

I applied the rose madder genuine to the pink areas using mostly the tip of a no.6 round brush.  As if I'm dabbing spots on and leaving spaces in between.  The pink defines the areas but because they were applied unevenly and spottily, it will help with the illusion of convex textures on the modified leaves' surfaces.

When you apply the second wash over the entire leaf's surface, this will soften any hard edges you may have had in the first step with the spotty paint application. When this layer dries, because we used transparent watercolor, the texture underneath would show but would look more natural.  I also use this second wash to enhance the leaf's bending or foldings.  While the layer is in that state between wet and almost dry (when you tilt it, it still has that sheen or film of water), I drop in warm and cool versions of the local color to enhance the bending effect.  When it is almost drying, (state when you know your next paint application will have a limited spread but will still soften, I would add the yellow ridge lines.  That's because I imagined the central and radiating lines (the leaf's skeleton) to be yellow for this painting.  But if you want it to be another color, use your preferred color to define the leaf's framework.  In the picture, I used a liner brush.  You can see how I am able to add the line but at the same time it is soft enough in some places.  The lost and found lines make for a natural looking painting more than the severely defined lines you see most beginner's tend to make.

When you've finished putting the second layer on, your three leaves should more or less look like this.  Notice specially how on the leftmost leaf, the convex textures are almost forming itself.

After the previous layer has dried completely, I would now work on enhancing some of the shapes that emerged.  For the leftmost leaf, I applied just a slightly darker version of the pink to some of the edges on the "found" textures.  Check out specially the part nearest the flower.  It looked as if a lot of work went into creating the creases but that was just a few additions of defining paint.  Again, try not to use single hard lines but use the broken or "lost and found" line defining technique.  At this point, I've only used the colors rose madder genuine, winsor yellow and cerulean blue.  RMG for the local color.  The WY for the leaf framework (mixed in with a bit of RMG to warm it), CB dropped in on the wet RMG to simulate areas reflecting the sky.  Also a bit of the permanent sap green earlier for the flower stalks.  I started coloring thh right-most flower with a mixture of RMG and WY.

Now we start using Permanent Rose and Permanent Alizarin Crimson.  I start defining the flower stalks using PR mixed in with RMG.  I also used PR to add some defining lines to the leaf skeletons.  Again, use the broken line technique.  And if you're enhancing a previous broken line application, you enhance only 3/4 of that one's length.  The missing parts are supplied automatically by the viewers' brain as it tries to digest what it is seeing.  That's what we're stimulating by the way.  The human brain is a remarkable organ, it is always trying to be efficient.  We are able to process a lot of information because for some tasks, the brain has devised a way to process things faster.  For vision, it stores a lot of information.  We can take advantage of it in painting.  It creates solid lines out of broken lines.  Complete textures on areas.  Even mix colors - something the impressionists realized and took advantage of.   Etc.  Our aim is to stimulate the brain enough so that by the time you finished painting, the subliminal part of your viewer's brain is on hyper mode and it will be hypnotized into thinking this is a busy and stimulating painting... it is beautiful.  I like it.... I want to buy it.  Ok... ok... I haven't figured out how to compel your viewer into buying yet but someday, we'll get there.  (evil laugh!)  :D

As you near completion, you would notice, you're tweaking the painting less and less.  My last touches were made with permanent rose and alizarin crimson. Just minute enhancing on the leaf's skeleton and more definition for the flower stalks.

If this is a painting with a background, my next step would be on how to integrate the bougainvillea into the background.  We'll get to that in future demos.

I hope you enjoyed this one.  Thank you for looking.