EXPERIMENTING ... It's a Good Thing

This photo of my neighbor's sunflowers was my inspiration - taken several weeks ago, during a cold snap.  

My drawing

First washes. I wet the entire sheet [15 x 22 inches] and stroked on some quin. burnt orange.

I did some detail work on the old flower and leaves, using quin. gold, the orange and indanthrone blue for muted greens.

I masked the flower, wet  the paper all over again,  and stroked in some green, mixed from gold, orange and blue.

I added more detail and shadowing using orange, quin. violet and blue. The techniques were a combination of wet-in-wet and wet-on-dry [softening the strokes].

With the masking off

I felt there was not enough strength/support for the sunflower. So I wet the left side and stroked in some of the dark brown mixture.

This was the experiment. I saw the painting as lacking integration, no sense of wholeness. So I wondered .... ??? Could I get away with wetting the entire thing and not loose what had been so far painted?
YES!!! After letting it dry overnight, I wet it all, and applied gold, orange and brown in a circle shapes with the center around the flower. I then sprayed a bit to encourage the colors to move and blend. I am very pleased with the result! If you plan to try this technique, I encourage you to read Nita Engle's book, How to Make a Watercolor Paint Itself. I could get away with this because I had used staining colors; anything else would turn to mud. 

This was the same stage as the above painting, but taken on "auto" mode. The previous one was with AV mode.  I find it works better in winter under an artificial light.

And this is the next project.

For a while now, I have been wanting to push my paintings further, using shapes, values, colors, design to convey some emotion. One way I plan to do this is to religiously prepare several value sketches to work out kinks before painting. And I want to be able to skillfully use more of the lost-and-found techniques for edges.

Hmmm ... I guess that's it for today. Thank you very much for dropping by!

Wishing All of You the Best of New Years!!!

Gorgeous double daylily for a reference

I masked the flower, and did a w/w wash with burnt orange and indanthrone.

Re-masked the stamen and pistils, and started playing with the petals w/w, using aureolin and quin. sienna. 

Trying to take consistent photos is impossible at this time of year.
More w/w glazing with the orange for the flower, and quin. gold and indanthrone for the greenery.

I took this last summer at a neighbor's - I was taking care of her animals for a week. I don't think I'd seen hanging begonias before this.

The colors used so far were indanthrone, gold and brown madder. I masked the flowers, then wet everything and daubed on the three colors, then when dry, went back to work on the leaves and stem.
 

More detail on the leaves.

This gives a better idea of the actual colors, though I find with  multi-colored washes and glazing that the color is  very difficult to re-produce with photo and computer.

Just another example of how varies the colors appear.

Started to add more color to the flowers - alizarin crimson and quin. sienna - and glazed the fallen petals with alizarin.

This is where it stands now - almost done! I did want to create a moodier piece, focussing more on overall atmosphere rather than the plant. 

I finished up the chickadee, too, but somehow he looks like a stuffed bird to me.

It has been a difficult time for me. My aunt passed away Dec. 20. She helped bring me up - was around a lot. And for the past number of years, she was a strong supporter of my art. She had a good - no, great - eye, so was invaluable as a critic. She was my mentor and patron. I do, and will, miss her immensely.
Slowly, I am getting back to painting, pushing myself, because my heart is not really in it.

Thank you all for dropping by, and I wish you all the best in 2016!

It's Been a While ... Chickadee - Work in Progress

I think you may have seen this drawing earlier.

I wanted to something different with the background,  something suggestive of brambles. I used daVinci's indanthrone[which is a not transparent] and some raw umber, splooshed them on wet paper, and then dropped on some plastic wrap, and let it set. It gave a nice random texture to the heavy pigments.

Started to work on the bird's local color. Those are my handy color reference photos beside the painting.

I lifted here and there in the background, trying to follow the pattern set by the plastic wrap.

More thin glazes ... I used my favorite triad - quin. burnt orange, quin. violet and indanthrone in various combinations to get the browns and blacks.

A bit more glazed shadowing, and I am here now. I think he's done, but I'll let him perch for a few days to see how I feel about the painting as a whole.

Meanwhile, it's been a bit chilly here - frozen ground, heavy frost, and Bruno snuggled in two blankets at night.

Another scene from our walk. We are out every morning. My dog, Maggie, dances at the front door waiting to go, and her friend [my landlady's dog] barks from her spot inside her house where she can keep an eye on me. I don't dare ignore them!!!

There have been a lot of coyotes this winter - very large, healthy-looking specimens. I don't believe they'd go after  a fair-sized dog alone, but if they are in a pack, definitely. The one above was trotting down a main road out here at 8 AM. Then he stopped and watched the three of us disappear into the park. I am keeping a close eye on the girls when they are off leash.

Thank you very much for dropping by! 

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.

Thank you for dropping by!!

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!