Urtica Dioica, Stinging Nettle Fairies – Finished!

The painting of the Stinging Nettle Fairies is finished! Decided in the end not to add any other colours than green, sometimes the trick is knowing where to stop!

So this painting is entirely in Prussian Blue (see my post about the blue underpainting for the general idea, and the previous post to this one for early photos of this actual painting), followed by a complete pasting-over with a wash of green (mostly Cobalt Green Light, with a little Indian Yellow mixed in). After that, highlights happened simply by a careful removal of some of the green layer with brushes and water. The green lifts off the paper easily, and the blue does not, which is why the original work in blue behind remains fairly untouched by all the mucking-about on top….

I shall not go into detail about lifting colour off just now, because the ‘how to do stuff’ section of this blog is badly in need of a detailed explanation of this process, so for the moment, here are simply the photos to look at.

Urtica Dioica, Stinging Nettle Fairies – painting in gouache on paper by Nancy Farmer

Urtica Dioica, Stinging Nettle Fairies – close-up 1

Urtica Dioica, Stinging Nettle Fairies – close-up 2

Urtica Dioica, Stinging Nettle Fairies – close-up 3

Urtica Dioica, Stinging Nettle Fairies – close-up 4

Above and below we have baby stinging nettle fairies. Usually I don’t go for ‘baby’ things, in fact these might be the first baby fairies I have ever painted (though not the first babies), but the fairies are a gang, rather than an individual as in the other flower fairy paintings because, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, where there is one stinging nettle there are invariably lots, and so baby ones seemed necessary, too. I am sure all the little nettle seedlings each has its own fairy!

Urtica Dioica, Stinging Nettle Fairies – close-up 5