Hibiscus Watercolor

© Ellen Blonder

© Ellen Blonder

© Ellen Blonder

© Ellen Blonder

© Ellen Blonder

In front of the Beach House restaurant in Kauai, a rich orange hibiscus caught my eye. I photographed it months ago, but finally managed to paint it in watercolor. Instead of posting daily progress, I've strung together each day's work in one post to show how I built up the color.

Hibiscus-Day 6

© Ellen Blonder

I'm adding details to the leaves, and just starting to add shading and details to the flower. The real garden is competing for time lately.

Hibiscus-Day 5

© Ellen Blonder

I've been trying to get the growth pattern of the leaves down, playing with scale and overlaps to make it interesting, but this is a messy and dense plant. I wish I had taken more reference photos. Even the local nursery wasn't great help, since all their hibiscus varieties had more curled and serrated leaves.

Hibiscus-Day 4

© Ellen Blonder

I'm still laying in rough color, adding tones to the flower and trying out a simple blue sky background. Next, I'll focus on making some sense of the tangle of leaves. I'll get back to the flower after that.

Hibiscus-Day 3

© Ellen Blonder

I'm afraid all I had time to do yesterday was quickly lay in the underpainting for the foliage. I nixed the idea of a scene to the right--too gimmicky. I'll probably just fill in the lower right corner with some grassy greens.

Hibiscus-Day 2

© Ellen Blonder

I'm just starting an acrylic study of a hibiscus. It's sketched on a 10 x 10-inch canvas, and I've laid out a quick underpainting in watercolor. I love the variety of colors and shapes of hibiscus, but I don't find the leaves or shape of the plant that interesting; because of that, I may put other plants or a distant scene on the right.