Poppy details

Did more work today, mostly concentrating on details.  Most of my time was spent "lifting" colour from some parts of the petals.  In some spots I lifted to define form to the petal (like the folds of the petals) and some spots were to remove the sharp light/dark edges where I didn't want them.  Now that I started doing this, I can see more places that need it.  I also want to add more "grey" to the inner portion of the right flower.  It's just too bright there for me.

I'm not sure that you can see it in this picture, but I also applied some sand paper to some areas to add "sparkle".  I'm not entirely sure it worked, but I don't think it hurt anything either ;)

You may have noticed that I also added some background.  The cool colours have really helped the red poopy poppy (stop that!) pop out of the picture!  I added some salt to create texture as well.  I want the background to be darker, so I'll be doing another dark wash over the whole background area too.

I don't want to say it too loudly, but we may be into the home stretch!

Poppy centres

I really like the way the camera took this pic - it's almost vignette with the flash!  Unfortunately, the painting isn't quite that good, but this illustrates well how lighting can create mood in a picture :)

I couldn't quite figure out where to paint next, so I decided to add the poopy poppy centres.  I thought that maybe by working on the dark centres, I might better see what else needs to be added to the petals. Mostly what I see is that I need to add more definition to the centres before I go further, but I might put in the background next.

There's a certain level of graphic design to this painting I think.  More so than the feel of lifelike reality that I am typically drawn towards.  I think that may be due to the lines in the painting.  I also don't think there are enough midtones - too much hard light/dark placements.  After I lay in the background, I will have to take a look and see if there's anything I can do about that.

As far as the background is concerned, I'm trying to decide how best to go about it.  The flower is very bright and warm with all the reds and yellows.  To make the background stay in the back, I will need to focus on opposite colour arrangements.  They will need to be dark and cool, with greens, purples, and blues.  Sounds like fun!!

Post Vacation blues

Way back when I was fully employed, I remember hearing about something called Post Vacation Blues.  It kinda made sense at the time, I've had it happen myself.  You have an enjoyable vacation, you're relaxed and relatively low-stress.  You show up for work all happy and ready to jump right in.  Within a few minutes (probably after checking your email), your stress levels are back to normal and the crazy hectic confusion comes back.

In a regular 9-5 job, this makes perfect sense to me.  What I find strange is that it can happen even when you're doing the stay-at-home thing.  Let me explain.  This past weekend my husband and I spent  some time in Collingwood.  It was a great weekend.  On the drive home I was so relaxed and energized!  I was able to figure out ways to get many of my projects done, and prioritize appropriately.  It was amazing!  I just wish I had a pen and paper available in the car :P

Shortly after coming home it all vanished, and the stress and overload came right back.

I don't know about you, but I am not one to take this kinda thing lying down!  So I took the modern approach and googled it.  Here are some sites I found with good advice:

http://www.wikihow.com/Overcome-the-Post-Vacation-Blues

http://www.healthcentral.com/depression/cf/slideshows/7-tips-to-overcome-post-vacation-depression/plan-ahead-for-a-day-at-hime/

Ironically, both sites recommend exercise.  I have just finished a month of training and had decided to take this week off before I start the next training set.  Maybe that was the wrong move :)

Creating depth in a Poppy

It might just be my warped mind, but every time I read the word "poppy" I see the word "poopy".  Or maybe it's my feelings about this particular painting coming out in a Freudian slip.  Either way, I set to work today hoping to fix my mistake last time.

I figured that my main problem likely lay in the fact that I was working too light a wash over a much darker area.  In watercolour, the only thing that could happen when you do that is what did happen, which was lifting of pigment off the paper.  So, I decided to tackle the problem in the reverse, which was to stop being a pansy and get some colour in there.  Instead of strictly using blue, I mixed some indigo with my vermillion to create a deeper red, then I punched right into the darkest areas with this shade. 

For the most part, I think it worked.  There's no more wishy-washy lift off of colour like before, and you can see more of the folds and edges.  And as you can see, the extreme contrasting shades really add interest to the shapes!  I think I may have stopped too soon though.  Some of the folds still look a bit under-developed and there's a few edges I'd like to have further words with.  I'm not sure I can correct those errors, and the reddest petal in the middle is starting to look overworked.

There are definitely things I'm liking about this painting, and I'm learning more as I'm going than I expected to :)  We'll just have to see how things continue!

If I may take a line from one of my favourite movies: Never give up!  Never surrender!

A Request

So, as part of my effort to put myself back on the "employed" shelf, I have been getting guidance and advice from a career counselling service.  It's been really great, lots of information (one might almost go as far as saying too much)!  But one piece of advice I received recently seemed most relevant in terms of my blog.  A blog needs a voice.  It needs something to say.  I'm not sure that I've accomplished that with this blog.  It seems to me that I mostly journal my creative/artistic efforts and throw it out into the ether in the hopes that it is of interest to someone.  To me, this doesn't fit the description of "something to say".

I want this blog to say something, to be more than just a journal to chronicle my efforts.  I'd like it to be useful for others as well.  At this point I'm not sure what to do to change it, so I'm putting this question out into the internet universe:

What (if anything) advantage have you gotten out of reading my blog to date and what else would you like to see in it (topics, images, tutorials, etc)?

I'd really appreciate any thoughts you could spare for me :)

Poppy bomb

(sigh) I was disappointed in today's efforts.  I wanted to add some pale blue to the more shaded areas and then apply some more red to the right side of the right flower.  I don't think it turned out so well.  The blue-ed areas look muddy and have a distinct line to them that I don't appreciate, and the right side of the right flower looks washed out and lifeless. 

It could have been that I used the wrong brush.  I noticed that when I was adding the wash today, some of the previous wash "lifted" out onto the brush.  I used a natural hair and it might have been better to have used a synthetic (since they don't tend to pick up as much colour).  I'm not sure how to correct this.  

Obviously blue was the wrong colour to add to the flower (muddy), I wonder if a purple would have been a better idea?  It might have kept the life to the shadow area since it has some red in it as well.  I will give that a try next time and see if that helps.  As far as the right side of the flower is concerned, I will likely have to hit it again with a proper wash and see what that does.

Poppies - Second Wash

Today I worked mainly on applying the second wash of colour to my very yellow poppies :)  I laid in some vermillion and cadmium red to the appropriate areas, darkening some sections more than others as appropriate.  I have to say that I really like the picture way more than the actual painting!  Maybe it's because I can get too close to the real thing and can see all the problem areas, but in the picture it all looks much cleaner.  Anyway, already I can see some spots that I will need to bring more attention to next time.

The left poppy is moving along quite nicely I think.  The right hand side of the right poppy, as well as the bottom-most petal are going to need more attention.  These areas should be darker and show more red, less yellow.  I will also need to start thinking about how I will be adding some cooler colours to move some spots into the back more for depth.  Then I will draw in the flower centers and start considering them more closely.

Things are definitely moving in an exciting direction now though!!

Poppies!! First wash

As usual, it’s been a crazy week at my house.  I’ve noticed that since I’ve been off work I’ve been so busy with house projects and job searches that my time in the studio is just as short as ever!  What’s with that?!

I did get to start working on the poppies though!  I’m very excited so far.  It’s been quite a while since I did any painting so I’m trying to keep my expectations (and the pressure) low.  I’ve only done the first wash which was just a few colours (some yellow and red for oranges) in wet petals.

I’m going to work on the shadows and darker red areas of the petals next J

Ammonites - Complete!!

I had a bit of a vacation from doing anything art-related last week.  I was finding it too stressful to do anything in my studio, so I took that as a sign to work on other things for a while.

I'm really glad I did, because it took almost no time at all to finish the ammonite piece!

I have to apologize for the quality of the image - my cell phone isn't doing the best job right now and there's too much glare to see it properly.  

If you read my last post, you'll know that I was toying with background ideas.  I decided to leave the smooth/graded background for best effect.  I ended up using conte at the very end as the charcoal just wasn't staying on the fixative anymore.

And now on to my next project :)  I have been hoping to get to this piece before the summer was over and now I will equally hope to complete it before the summer ends!  My red poppies!!  I've already got it sketched out on the paper and I've started assembling my colours (I did mention this would be a watercolour piece, yes?  Oh.  Well it is).  

After all that drawing, I'm looking forward to some painting!