Bright and Beautiful ... a Floral Process ...

Drawing I made for class. I decided to leave out the leaves in the painting.

I used four colors throughout - aureolin, quin. pink, brilliant orange and indanthrone blue.
I started a few of the petals to see how the colors would flow together, and then painted the cast shadows with a mix of pink and indanthrone.

The petals were all done with the wet-in-wet technique. 

Then I started working on the form shadows, again doing them w/w.

The centers were done with a dark violet.

I decided the pink in the upper right flower needed  more intensity to make it stand out a bit more. And now it's done :)
I REALLY needed something BRIGHT to paint. I may end up playing with screamingly bright colors all winter!

Thank you so much for dropping by!

Painting ... Making Mistakes ... Hopefully Learning ...

I played with the background of the chickadees, using "sludge" colors. That's what I call sedimentary pigments, as they are heavy and cover almost everything else. But I must admit, they give a decent look here. I'll probably try these two again, after touching up the drawings and doing a proper value study.

And this cutie will be done, too.

I started this in class last Saturday. I like the mountains, and the sweep of the hills ...

... but somewhere I lost it. I don't think the green was a good idea.
 

I did a quick finish at home. I think oranges and yellows throughout the work, with some violet shadow would be a better plan. The class wanted to do a landscape, so I thought I'd try to paint something along the lines of the big painting I have to do with all the animals. The person who commissioned the work lives in a part of the States with dry, rolling hills, with tall and rough-looking mountains in the distance, so I tried a practice run on the background. 

This is what I am playing with right now. Again, it was something I started in class; this one is preparation for a larger painting. I need the bright colors, and  the  accommodation of flowers - they don't mind too much what you do with their shapes and colors in a painting.

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A Bird in the Hand Is Worth Two in the Bush????? ... Works-in-Progress

I liked the sketches, and had good plans ...

... somewhere along the line, I lost it.
Started off with some brown madder.

Darkened the madder with some burnt orange and indanthrone.

Branch was painted with quin. sienna and alizarin crimson.

Then I made the mistake of sponging on cobalt blue and burnt orange. It might be salvageable ...

Bird #2. Again started with brown madder. It's a lovely soft pinkish-brown.

Browns and greys made with brown madder, indanthrone and burnt orange.  For the blacks I used quin. violet rather than the less intense madder.

A bit of burnt orange to brighten him up.

And another so-so background. ARRRGGHHHHH!!!!! 

I like the chickadee, but I'm hoping I think of something spectacular to improve the background.

There's still Bird #3 ...

In class last Saturday, students wanted to work on a simple landscape. So I started this one [again - it works well as a teaching demo].

I couldn't resist taking a photo of this adorable face.  I was on dog-walking duty for one of my neighbors last week. I think she has two or three bull terriers, all rescues.

Bruno is "ride-able" again, in a very limited way. I can only walk him for 20 minutes at most, with no tight circles, nothing fancy, just big and easy movement. But it is SOOO GOOD to be back in the saddle, and he likes the work and attention, too!

Thank you for dropping by!