A Festive Cactus

—and a Peek into My Art Process

I love Saguaros and I love festive lights, so when I met up with my local Art Peeps for sketching at Tohono Chul recently, and saw that the park had decorated their cacti with holiday lights, it was a no-brainer for me to paint one of these seasonal Saguaros!

Enlightened Saguaro (pen & watercolor)

Here’s a peek into my art process.

🎨 My Process for Creating Enlightened Saguaro

Step 1

While I was at Tohono Chul, I sketched the Saguaro and lights in pencil, then in pen, and then erased my pencil sketch. I used painter’s tape to mask off the edges of my art after I returned home.

Enlightened Saguaro, Step 1 (pen)

Step 2

I used masking fluid to mask the light bulbs and then painted the Saguaro and the light strings with green watercolor.

I always find it interesting to observe how works of art evolve. After I finished painting my Saguaro, I felt like the art wasn’t going to be as colorful as I’d envisioned. I’d drawn each light in proportion to the size of the Saguaro, and while accurate, this meant the colorful lights themselves were a very small percentage of the whole painting.

I realized that I could make the overall painting more colorful by painting a colored glow around each light—so after the green watercolor of the Saguaro was dry (which only takes a couple of minutes here in Tucson! 😆), I used a wet (water only) paintbrush to lift up the green color surrounding each light bulb.

Enlightened Saguaro, Step 2 (pen & watercolor)

Step 3

I painted the sky with blue watercolor and then lifted up the blue color around the light bulbs that extended beyond the Saguaro. After the paint was dry I removed the masking fluid on the light bulbs.

Enlightened Saguaro, Step 3 (pen & watercolor)

Step 4

I then painted the light bulbs, the glow around each light bulb, and the light strings. I also added the cactus spines in pen.

Enlightened Saguaro, Step 4 (pen & watercolor)

Step 5

For my final step I removed the painter’s tape, added a border, title, and my signature in pen, and voila! My festive art was complete and deemed completely festive. 😉

Speaking of lights, here’s a quote about light:

"The new dawn blooms as we free it, for there is always light—if only we're brave enough to see it, if only we're brave enough to be it."

- Amanda Gorman

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