Peonies in traditional Chinese technique + step by step process

Hello friends! Now the summer and the peonies are in bloom. At least in my city :) I'll show you how to paint peonies in the technique of traditional Chinese painting.

Materials:

rice paper;
Chinese black ink;
brushes;
Chinese mineral paints;
felt mat;
napkin for blurring the brush.

To paint buds I will be an elastic dark brush. For the leaves I will use a softer white brush.

Tone color transition on the petals is created at the time of painting. I fill the brush with the primary color, and I lower the tip of the brush into a darker paint.

I do not sketch. I start to paint from the petals. Apply the darker tip of the brush to where the base of the petal will be.

I paint the flower in separate strokes, step by step. Look at the flower. Each petal I begin to paint next to the other, but do not leave large free places. I left the middle of the flower empty. There will be a core and stamens.

I paint the next flower in yellow color. This is how the paint brush looks. The entire brush is filled in yellow, the orange color on the end.

I paint the yellow peony in the same way. Next to me I paint an unopened bud. For a closed bud, the dark tip of the brush is applied not to the base, but to the beginning of the petals.

Then I paint the leaves. Leaves for pions are painted with free strokes. The color of the leaves in Chinese painting is often black, gray or gray-green, so as not to distract viewers from bright beautiful flowers.

By the way, there are no green colors in the Chinese palettes of colors. There is only a color that is now called "mint". To get green shades of colors I mix yellow, black and blue colors.

The most intense and dark leaves are near peonies. It brightens to the bud. I painted a few dark leaves in the upper left corner, and lighter leaves in the background.

Chinese painting depicts nature. Peony flowers are always depicted growing on a bush. Therefore, we finish the branches, buds and veins on the leaves. Draw a heart of flowers and stamens.

Butterflies or bees give the picture dynamism. I put on a butterfly that flies to the flowers.