- Hi, and thank you for coming.

I'm Kath Macaulay with "Pocket Sketching."

This time we're going to do bunches of flowers and the effect of them.

And they aren't just individual little flowers.

(upbeat music) It winds up there are bunches because you're focusing on something a bit different.

You don't see them as individuals.

So little bit about bunching in a vase of flowers and then bunching in front of a very blah house to make a focal point.

See you soon, looking forward to having you.

- [Woman] Funding for this program is provided by Sedona Hypnosis, LLC.

Healing Your past, creating Your future.

Muriel Walsh Estate Sales.

Representing people is our business.

And by viewers like you.

- This time we're doing something that I've really come to liking.

When I first started doing flowers, I was doing landscapes and animals in motion and I never thought I'd wanna do a flower.

But I was getting up at 4:00 AM to get out by five to sketch sunrise and had a normal family, so that meant I was staying up at night and after a couple weeks it got really really old.

And I was growing flowers and so one day I brought some in and said well, why not try them?

And I will have to admit that first painting went best in show in a major show and I never thought I'd like them, but I've come to like them a lot and we're gonna be doing flowers this time.

And I have to admit that one of my bugaboos, how to make them work especially in clusters.

This took a while to learn how to do them in clusters.

The one that you see behind you.

This is Queen Anne's lace.

Now somebody told me that why is this the person who can find enjoyment while on a detour?

This wasn't a detour, it was a flat tire in the Columbia Gorge and it was 2.5 hours before we got help.

So these were at the side of the road in light colored brush.

So it's Queen Anne's lace in white, light colored brush, but behind it was a forest.

So you just move things around and it gave me the opportunity, there was nothing else to do, to study them a bit, figure it out.

Notice there's a lead flower.

The others do not have this slight tint of yellow.

That's important because one needs to be right.

If one is pretty right, the viewer thinks they're all right and they don't have to be.

This is the beginning of understanding this.

Now I'm gonna show you a couple clusters just for the fun of it.

This is a cabin at Dillman's and notice the different bunches.

They're not really distinct.

Just a little bit of color, no individual flowers.

This is where most people have a problem.

They'll see individual flowers and they'll put down individual flowers.

Well, if you're focusing on the house, you're not focusing on the flowers.

You have a sense that they're there, but they're not individuals.

So when they're in groups, put them in groups.

You may have a couple that stick out, but for the most part, they don't.

It's a mass of color.

It's a color change.

They may be dark at the bottom, but it's just a mass.

Try another one here because this is my front door.

This is in Tucson.

Yes, you can grow all kinds of things in Tucson.

Some things won't, but you can grow a lot.

When you're doing a mass of vegetation, something has to have the character of at least one of the plants right here.

This is a palmetto palm, a little short one, that's got character.

The rest of these don't have any particular shape.

They're just blobs, they go light and dark.

There are no individual, there're puddles.

There's puddles of color, but no individual flowers sticking out.

Just puddles and just a little bit of detail here and there to make it work.

Then the oddball thing is that when you're looking at a vase of flowers, it's not all that different really.

It took me a while to learn this.

If you get one flower right, the viewer will think they're all right.

So one daisy and the daisy is incredibly easy.

It's incredibly easy, others are hard.

One daisy, and you think these are all flowers.

They're not, they're a mass of flower-like colors.

Just they've got flowerness this to them.

I stole that from Wayne Dyer by the way.

When Wayne was very little, his mom had four kids.

She got a divorce, could afford to keep two, put two out for foster care.

Wayne was one of them.

Well, in one home he asked the farm lady who was one of the two owners where tomatoes came from.

He had a tomato in his hand.

She went and got him some seeds.

He looked at the seeds, looked at the tomato, they don't look at all alike and decided that the seeds had tomatoness in them.

I love that word.

Something has treeness, it's got floweriness.

It's got carness.

It's whatever you need it to have.

It's a great word.

Just adding ness to the end of it.

I just absolutely love that.

Anyway I'm gonna start something right now and you'll get to see how this works out because there could be flowers that you see.

It came from a house in Ann Arbor and I was asked to do a demo for the class and the house, I mean, there was no time.

It was a street side.

There was only one place where there weren't cars to look through.

It was at the fire hydrant.

So just leaned against a wall and started a sketch of this quite, quite blah house.

It had a window, it had a window.

So don't want the window right square in the middle.

Don't want a line of the window right square in the, put it over just about there.

Had a window, had two windows actually.

So I'm gonna draw in a window and it was blah.

It was really blah.

It was a tan house, it was blah.

I mean, there's some things that are more blah than other things, window frame.

And I'm, I'm sort of thinking as I'm going.

It's not a very exciting beginning because it wasn't.

Under the window was what had been a flower box.

Had been, it no longer had flowers in it and it only came across as far as the window, and it was brown.

Okay, there it is.

There was a notable plant in front of that, quite notable.

By the way, this is not dirty.

It doesn't color the paper yet.

But that notable plant was just plain green.

I needed some color to make this thing work, so just a bit of color here.

Could have the green plant, it doesn't matter, and it could go across that.

There's my green plant.

There was another window.

I'm gonna go on the side of the pen.

I want this one to be light.

Very light and not noticeable.

Not necessarily noticeable.

Same kind of window.

Same kind of sash.

Same kind of just about everything.

And now, oh, and it was a board house.

I'm gonna have to make that one about that height too 'cause they're same level, but this doesn't have to be.

Now if I want a window, strengthen that line.

That's sort of one of the things to play with, strengthen that line.

Strengthen it, just put another line on it.

Are there any darks?

We'll first play with that.

I wanted you to see that 'cause that's fun.

This actually is quite fun Window, and it makes glass.

The line makes glass.

You don't have to go any farther than that.

Just a bit, okay, got it.

Now what to do about this?

Because remember it was just flat and brown, oh no.

And remember I was stuck with the blah house.

Sometimes you have to take what you've got and fool around a touch.

So I'm going to be adding a few flowers.

I'm gonna try to sneak up on it a bit.

Red, no, I'm gonna go with yellow first.

Just sneak up on it.

A little red sneak.

It all depends on what you call sneaky.

There are the flowers.

There's part of them.

Do they have greens at the bottom?

Just hold this puppy down a bit.

When I'm working outside, I actually have hold of it with the finger that's holding the paint set.

It's all done at the same time.

There would be some greens.

That's under or maybe through.

Maybe comes down there a tad.

Then there's this light plant down here and it was lighter in color.

Not terribly, terribly, terribly noticeable.

So I'm gonna take some of this with lemon yellow.

Throw it up in here.

That's too strong, water it down.

That means pick up water, pick up paint.

It will be weak, see, weak.

I don't want this one to drag your attention.

I wanna get you to the window.

So this is a first coat here.

There's gonna be more, and remember there was a planter.

I'm going to hint at this 'cause I don't want the two to run together.

I'm just gonna establish that this is there for now.

Okay, there's my planter.

Window frames, now this is a blah house.

I love to put in turquoise window frames like you see in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

I love those turquoise frames.

By the way, this one's lighter.

I don't want to take your attention.

I want your attention here.

Okay, window frames, it's a block-colored house, beige.

Reminds me of a joke, but it's not acceptable.

Beige, just a beige, dull beige house.

Dull beige windows.

A bit of that.

Nope, that's gonna be the window color.

What am I gonna do about the lines there?

I'm gonna just put this in the middle and it's gonna run a tad.

I am gonna use this.

Nope, need it to be a little bit more colorful.

Just a tad, a little bit more yellow ochre.

Just a tad more colorful as if they'd planned to do this.

Incidentally when you're working right next to a wet field with more water, things are inclined to running together.

So I'm likely to have some stuff run together on this.

Normally I'd work around it a little bit more.

Okay, there's that one.

Water it down a touch.

This is not as nice.

And if it runs, it's gonna be just fine.

Just whip that in.

That's the one that doesn't matter.

There probably were shadows and I need a slight light blue, a slight light blue.

I'm gonna go back to this patch.

I don't wanna put it there, I'll get a green.

I'll get a really strong green and I want a wishy-washy grayish color.

Wishy-washy grayish.

That looks pretty good for what I want and then I want it watered down again.

Probably shouldn't have wiped that all off.

Okay, I'm gonna do some of the boards on the house.

Again, this is not an exciting house.

It is not.

Sometimes you got to go with what you get.

Then imagination.

Notice that one little pool lasts a truly long time.

I'm looking straight at it so the boards are running straight.

Yeah.

You may have a little bit more definition later.

There's a tiny bit of color left there.

That is enough to do this.

Okay, what's next?

Step this up as soon as possible.

Get a plant out of this but one that doesn't compete, step it up.

That means go to a more brilliant color than what it now has.

ANd they're not individuals so much.

Some rich color from the planter.

That's gonna have to go across that.

Okay, there's your planter.

At the bottom of the planter, darker.

Goes into shadow a bit, that's darker.

That's okay, let it run.

I wanna leave that alone for a minute because that's very wet.

Anything I touch it with is gonna run and I still have some more plans for that.

Okay, is any of this in the glass?

It could be.

Probably not 'cause the color comes from inside.

Okay, what about slightly darker shadows on some of the boards?

Again, go for a neutral.

So I'm using brown and in this case it's, bring this over closest so you can see it.

Bet you can see it now, it's burnt sienna with ultramarine blue.

Notice that beautiful gray.

People say how do you get gray?

Two ways, the pen, automatic.

Then burnt sienna with any brown will produce a gray.

You can get a blue gray or a brown gray.

Goes both ways, depends on how much of each of them you put in.

Now I'm gonna come in here and do a little bit of dolling up on this, too much.

I wanted to go darker but not that much darker.

This'll last a lot longer too.

There we go, better.

This one all the way across.

If I can get, got it.

Probably get that one too.

Don't need to get them all because the viewer's gonna think they're there.

The viewer's gonna think they're there because they can see some, so you don't have to do it all.

There were some other little things in front of this, in fact, some brown dirt, and I can make this plant work better.

Would it be fun to do it really sloshy, why not?

And is its green a bluish green?

Perhaps.

Not bad, I like that.

But at the bottom it's gonna get darker.

So to get darker, I'm gonna go a little darker there.

Let's see if that works.

If it doesn't, what happens if I just go like that?

Now work it in a tad 'cause the bottom would get darker and then it's probably got brown dirt under it.

And I bet if that brown dirt hits the bottom, it's gonna look like the plant's growing in it.

Now remember I was stuck with a blah house.

That's pretty wet, but what happens if I go for something a whole lot darker on the greens from here.

Let it one over.

What happens if it mixes a tad?

You got to keep going.

I'm losing paint in the wet areas, but don't let it bother you, just keep going.

And now I wanna step up the feeling of the flowers.

That didn't work too well.

That didn't work as a matter of fact.

We have this.

Got a real soup in here right now.

Okay, at this point I still have a blah house, a very blah house.

But this is something I've got to correct that too.

Would that work with scraping?

Don't know.

Yeah, to a degree.

To a degree.

Not at the bottom.

Eh, not so good.

We'll come back and fix that, nonetheless continue on.

I want really loose branches on a tree because in reality there was one there.

That's kind of a good color.

It might be too much, let's find out.

Going way back on the end of the brush, way back on the end.

I want branches that just jiggle.

That jiggle.

Does that work, pretty good.

Then a few have to be strong enough to hold this.

I like that one.

So make this one a little bit stronger.

Go back and put a few more on it.

Then what's on the branches?

This is really cool.

They're out of focus.

Clusters of leaves that are dark because they're overhead and they can be very dark.

They can also be in clusters.

Give notice what it gives.

It gives it a little bit of balance, some strength.

A few of them might be lighter, there's one.

Not exactly painting leaves, but there could also be a bunch up here and then maybe just a few over there.

Now you're beginning to see this area.

Try to do something with this guy 'cause it's sort of obnoxious right now.

Would it have a little yellow in it, I don't know.

Kind of made a mess up that.

Yeah, you could have a little yellow in it.

Not bad, now it's bottom would be darker.

So now go for a darker bottom.

I'm gonna rinse this out 'cause it has very light paint in it and go for a darker bottom under that.

A richer color there.

Yep, first, I just rinse the brush out, it's pretty clean.

I'm gonna step that window up a tad, just a tad.

Wanna get a slightly better color.

That's a tad, but not a big enough tad.

I should try that on a friend whose name is Tad.

There we go, there.

Okay, that's gonna make this, don't hit that dark green that's very wet.

Then if the sunlight were cast down here, that would be brighter.

May have a bit of it down there.

That's gonna help in a blah circumstance and then do something to fix the bottom of that bush.

Now go for a dark.

I don't think you probably could see that.

I went to a green and then went to burnt sienna afterwards because it's gonna be a lot darker in the bottom.

And then down here on the ground, let's give that a bit of a jolt.

Jolt, that's right on down.

Dark, really dark, really, really dark.

That's dark, that is really, really dark.

That works better, would any part of this tree have sunlight on it, the one above?

This is just a corner of paint that happens to be there.

Gonna I stick it probably about right there and maybe just a little bit out there and a little bit there.

Just a bit as if they're, yep, that worked.

Try things, find out if they work.

See if you're making it better or worse.

Now this was an incredibly blah house.

It does need a bit of a step up on some of the boards.

I think it could be better.

I think it could be a tad better.

Now if I want shadows on the house, first, put down the base color.

Then over the base color, you're only got a tiny bit of this.

Put down the base color, it's wet.

That's where you add the shadows like that.

Then as it gets drier, then I can just come down here and do it.

Here come shadows that have shape.

See the difference, super wet.

Then you get one that's formed and looks like something from the tree.

And I might as well color that too (upbeat music) because it would be colored.

So that's basically it.

How to step up a really blah thing you're looking at and get something out of it.

You just keep working on it a bit longer and it'll come together, and happy sketching.

Want to learn more about the wonderful world of pocket sketching?

Then visit my website at pocketsketching.com.

We have so much there for you to explore including free tips and training videos, the Pocket Sketching supplies, photo galleries, and how to access additional training.

All this and more is available at pocketsketching.com.

Learn enough to play for a lifetime.

- [Woman] Funding for this program is provided by Sedona Hypnosis, LLC.

Healing your Past, creating your Future.

Muriel Walsh Estate Sales.

Representing people is our business.

And by viewers like you.

(bright music)