I love these beautiful,iridescent feathers and it was a chance to play with the sparkly paints again. This feather was drawn out roughly onto black card - with no pre-sketch, as I normally do with botanical subjects. Then painted with gouache as a base and then the iridescent paints on top. They were from the Dan Smith try it dot card that I bought last year. I haven't purchased any new ones (although its tempting!!)
Iridescence can be painted without sparkly mica based paints. By layering colours and creating a shimmer using homologous colours next to each other. Also stippling on the top layer with a light colour or white can create sparkle.
Then another Hippeastrum bud in gouache on board, the variety is Hip. 'Clown'. This one I found more difficult than the Picotee,I'm not sure why. Unfortunately there is a mark on the painting where I dropped the brush with white paint on it! It is only slightly noticable though- near top left bud but still annoying.