My Second Venture with the Rose ... and Bruno ...

I am still bound and determined to capture the essence of this rose ...

... but have decided to go yellow rather than peach in color.
Both of these photos are taken in my friend's back yard. She does love her garden! And I do, too!!!

This is after at least 10 w/w washes of aureolin, phthalo green,  burnt orange and alizarin to get the dark background. Thankfully, the masking cooperated this time - YAY!!!
The shadowed areas of the rose I have painted with a thin glaze of aureolin. The leaves are done w/w with aureolin, phthalo green, quin. gold and burnt orange. I think there's a touch of alizarin and indanthrone here and there, too.

More color on the rose shadows - thin quin. gold.

I have done the shadows again with a brown mixture of quin. gold, alizarin and phthalo green.

I think I am done with the brown. My plan is to go into the shadows again with warm, bright colors - yellows, pinks, oranges ...

As for Bruno, he had 5 days off [he pulled a shoe, I had to go into Vancouver, it was pouring rain ...]
When we finally got together yesterday, he wanted to play a rip-snorting game of "Who's the Boss"! Horses, being herd animals, constantly jockey for higher positions in the wild. The acts can be subtle - a look, a posture - or extreme - an all-out fight-to the-death. One must be vigilant and observant, noticing slight changes of posture and position, shifting of hooves. It's a quite the job, maintaining one's leadership. I really find it so hard to be masterful and disciplined all the time with a horse. I see all of them through the eyes of  Anna Sewell and "Black Beauty". Yesterday, His Nibs tested me the entire time, and I was exhausted, but I saw the exercise through to a good conclusion. Here's hoping today will not be so trying!!!

Thank you for dropping by! Your comments are always welcome!

Tempted by a Rose ...

I had done a drawing, sketched it onto watercolor paper, and left it on the board to demo in the watercolor class. The class will not be happening till the Fall, so I decided to work on it now. I couldn't resist!!! It seemed much less overwhelming than the Rio painting. Procrastination strikes again!!!
Here, I have done an all-over aureolin wash, and started the leaves with mixtures of quin. gold, phthalo blue and alizarin crimson.

I've darkened the leaves [too much on that bottom one],  and started on the petals using permanent rose and quin. sienna.

Much more glazing has been done on the petals. I have  done two washes for the background, and it looks like it will need many more.

So far this morning, I have painted another wet-in-wet glaze of quin. sienna over the lower petals , and started adding some shadows there as well with alizarin crimson. I think I'll do an hour or two here, and then tackle Bruno. He is going through a bit of a feisty stage - moving beautifully, listening well - and I have to be super-vigilant and disciplined with myself to keep him in that most excellent space.  In "rider-ese", it is said that you must ride every step! Proving once again, good riding is not about the horse, it's about the rider.

Thank you for dropping by! Your comments are always welcome!

Here It Is ... Rose #3 - WIP

This is the 2nd or 3rd wet-in-wet wash. I didn't mask, and wish I had done so. The colors for the background are permanent rose, aureolin, quin. burnt orange and pththalo blue.

 ... and more washes ...

I've started the rose, using aureolin, perm. rose, and later some quin. siena.

I am continuing to increase depth in the rose, adding shadows and more intense color here and there.
After masking a few spots, the leaves are glazed with aureolin and  dried. Now I am glazing the local colors and shadows. The pigments for the leaves are quin. gold, quin. burnt orange and phthalo blue. I am finding the blue to give  richer and more varied shades of green. The stem is primarily alizarin crimson, with some of the lighter green mixture, and some burnt orange.
Fabriano paper and I do not get along well. I tried twice with this same image, and when I got to the point of darkening the background, no matter how I painted it, it came out streaky. So I have happily returned to the Arches.
I couldn't post for a while, as I had no camera. I had been using my sister's, but she wanted it back, so she could take photos of her new dog.  I am happy to report that she got another Boxer, after having lost her two earlier this year. And she got a rescue. Her name is Ellie, and she is SOOO sweet - love just oozes out of every pore, and her eyes melt your heart.
I can't believe it. The last time I posted it was still summer. Now it's wet and cold. Long pants, rain gear, Bruno in his winter blanket, the cat won't go outside - yup, it's winter!

Thank you so much for dropping by, and your comments are always welcome!  

The Rose on Fabriano Continues ...

Here are the results of two W/W washes of dropped in color - quin. rose and aureolin.

I then went into the greens, a mixture of phthalo blue and quin. burnt orange.

 I did a second W/W wash with the same mixture.

At this stage, I can see that it will need a lot more of the dark green, as well as colors to intensify the rose petals. I worked on it a bit last night, but stopped when I found myself becoming impatient. I had a strong urge to mask the rose, and dump on the dark green.
I was hoping to finish yesterday, but thankfully checked my inner voice - the one saying "let's get it done NOW".  And as I am working for the next two days, I thought I would post the progress today.

Thank you for dropping by, and your comments are most welcome!

The Tea Rose and the Swallow ...

I kept looking at this rose, and thinking it was too insipid.  So I have pumped it up, and played with the background a bit. I must admit I like the background - dark where it needs to be, and softer elsewhere. 

I am still darkening the feathers, but basically it is done. Now I'd like to try something different.


As always, your comments and critiques are most welcome!

Duality

On the lighter side, I'm playing with a rose, as a botanical.

On the dark side, I am working on this at the same time. I am finding it to be quite emotionally difficult, as you can imagine. Here's the story ... The dentist with whom I work is very concerned about "sugars" in his patients' diets, so I thought I'd do some research. I found a site, with Dr. Robert Ludwig from UCSF discussing the increased intake of sugar, and especially in the form of high-fructose corn syrup [it's only been around in our foods for about 30 years] It is in almost all,  if not all, processed foods. And it is nasty! We do not metabolize it as glucose, but as ethanol, as in alcohol, and it has the same deleterious effects. Dr. Ludwig considers it the cause of the world-wide trend to obesity, as well as the increase in so many diseases - Type II diabetes, heart diseases, allergies ... it's a long and horrific list. From there, I followed the trail to what is being done to our food. I found two extremely good documentaries, "Food, Inc." and "The Truth about Food". I could go into great and gory detail, but won't. Suffice to say, that I was shocked, horrified, saddened and appalled at the complete lack of any moral fiber in some of the meganational food corporations, Monsanto being one of the top on the list. Of course there were clips in the documentaries of slaughterhouses, so that is the reason for this painting. I sincerely hope you all get a chance to watch the two documentaries.

As always, your comments are most welcome!   

WHY Do We Do This???

Some light initial glazes ...

... and I end up here

Leaves are basically, there, but need more touching up.

Start petals, w/w with aureolin, quin. pink and cobalt blue.

The model

Why do we paint? And ride horses? - not just ride, but aspire to dressage movements? I'm feeling like a caged tiger today. I usually do get this way when fall is starting. It must be some sort of atavistic behaviour, like following the migrating herds.
I'm feeling very frustrated today. Still fussing with the *%&# bridge, though John said to frame it - he'll take it for his office. The leaves in this painting look like felt cut-outs. How to fix?
The weather is cooler. Bruno has been gradually getting his winter coat. He is also full of himself - makes for much more "exciting" rides. That's another "why". If I had known what it meant to ride and keep a horse those many years ago, would I do it? The number of times I left a lesson in tears of frustration, the many times I was injured ... And I still go back for more! If anyone has some answers, please let me know. I think I need to go out and do some physical work.

As always, your comments are most welcome! 

Done

I left off about here ...

I've darkened the background, the rose in spots and glazed some of it with a thin aureolin. I think I've done all I'd like with this. Flowers just don't seem to be doing it for me right now. I have a craving for more portraits and landscapes. 

This is the second rose I started, same flower - different angle, and cooler colors.

Meet Trigger. He must be nearing thirty years of age. His owner was at the show I had last weekend [which was quite successful - YAY] and she decided she'd like a portrait of the lad. So I was over at her farm on Monday taking lots of photos. She wanted him painted while he still had his summer coat, as he goes very white and shaggy in the winter. More good painting news for me - my brother-in-law likes the painting of the Burrard Bridge, and would like me to have it framed for his office. But I must admit, I STILL don't really love the painting.

As always, your comments are most welcome!  

A Brief WIP and a Question

First washes were aureolin and two orange hues. Then I started going over those with a green mixture.

This was after the two complete washes.

I did another w/w wash with a much darker green.

Several glazes were done on the flower.

The first few glazes are done on the leaves.

I've posted about a third of the photos I've taken of this rose in progress.  I'm also working on another, the rose at a slightly different angle, and in predominantly cool colors. For a while, I have been thinking of creating an e-book, a short pamphlet of detailed and illustrated instructions on my technique of painting one subject. If it received a positive response, I would do more on other subjects, perhaps animal portraits and still life. My question is would any of you readers be interested in such a book? I have had requests to do a video, but my technique is slow, and would be about as interesting to watch as watching cement dry. I really would love to hear what you have to say about an e-book.

As always, your comments are most welcome!