For the flowers I used gouache. I haven’t worked with gouache much. I need to play with it more. Gouache is an opaque watercolor paint. Transparent watercolor allows you to see the “white” of the paper through the paint. Gouache paint can be applied in solid colors. This allows artists to paint in layers from dark to light.
The flowers of the Prickly Pear look waxy and are translucent. So gouache was not the right medium for them. Lesson learned. I was hoping to capture the vivid colors. I will try again. Won’t that be fun! Here is a terrific video showing different cacti flowers. If you watch to the end, it gives the names of each.
