Ready for its close-up: Paph. orchid hybrid and color notes for my current painting on the drawing table.
Watercolor tip for botanical art: I like to do my contour drawings on good watercolor paper so that I can place my color mixture trials and notes directly on the original drawing for handy reference. Sketching or layout paper is not internally sized to permit the use of washes and buckles or pools, distorting the color sample.
Color notes and mixes for the painting of an orchid hybrid are placed directly on the original drawing.
I’ve chosen a mix of alizarin crimson, dioxazine purple and sepia for the stem and bud. Potter’s pink and a touch of permanent magenta may be used for the bud’s blush. Perylene green with Naples yellow and a bit of cadmium yellow looks good for the underlayer color on the bud, but I’m not fully decided yet. It’s not quite matched to the leaf colors, and all the greens in the painting will need to be mixed from the same colors to have unity.