A field of white daffodils

5 July 2023

Step-by-Step - Level ◆◆◆

The alpine flowers in the Pyrenees are stunning at the moment and everyday I see something new. But the other day we had a real treat - a field of Pheasant Eye Narcissus. I'd never seen white daffodils before and the were hundreds.

I was very sorry not to have my sketching stuff with me, but it was a showery day and I didn't think I'd want to stop and sketch on our hike, as rain could have happened at any minute. So I took lots of photos and worked these three little paintings from some of them.

This tutorial is a step-by-step of how I painted the larger painting on the left hand page.

It was a cool, inclement day, so I worked all of these little paintings with a very wet-in-wet background. This created the soft, hazy feel I was after. I also chose a rather cool palette, reserving the main warm colour for the centre of the daffodils, to make them my focal point in all the paintings.

The sketchbook is from Etchr, B5 in size. I did almost the whole painting with a Escoda Perla No.12 and the final details with a Perla No.2.

Enjoy painting along!