Crocus II

We had glorious weather this weekend - I was finally able to tackle all the dead brick-a-brack in my garden and yard!  It's been driving me crazy ever since the snow started to melt!  The only downside is that today I am VERY sore.  And also weary in a sore muscle sort of way (does that make sense?).  So because of this I had to push myself into the studio today.

I figured that since I wasn't as "in touch" with painting as I have been, that I should take things slow and follow the steps.

I added some shadows on the right hand petals with a bit of blue (perhaps too much in some spots and not enough in others), finished the bottom-most petal and tested out some dark in the corner.  I also added some more red/pink to the top petal and attempted to darken the veins.  But for some reason I didn't feel that was enough and decided to add a bit more.

I added some shadow to the bottom-most petal and some dark contrast in the centre of the flower.  There's also a bit of work on the left-most petal and some more dark in the other two corners.  I had to force myself to stop at this point.  I could feel the painting getting away from me and there are some definite oopsies already!  

It's nice to work with the dark tones because I can neaten up my edges a bit.  Also it's bringing the flower out a bit which I like.  I'm surprised at how much more I can see needs to be done though.  I had expected this to be a faster process than it is.  It gets tricky when you are trying to only work in one area at a time so you don't have any bleeding of pigment.  I have to wait for everything to dry before I move on, but I can already see that I need to dull down the blue in the one petal, darken another and enhance the veins in at least two petals.  And then I get to work on the pistils!

I really like taking the pictures of the painting in process.  For one, it makes the image smaller so the mistakes don't stand out as much (always nice).  For another, it allows me to take the image away from the studio so I can see it with fresher eyes and better determine what it needs.

I'm already starting to plan out the next project.  I can't decide if I want to take a break from painting and do a pencil portrait or if I want to try out a different watercolour technique.  We'll just have to wait and see!

Raccoons and Crocuses

I'm a bad natural artist.  I was driving home late the other night when I noticed movement at the curb.  Being a keen observer of the natural world, I took a closer look and found that it was a raccoon!  "Cool, a raccoon", I thought to myself (I may have said it out loud too in a kind of gleeful squeel, I don't remember).  Did I stop the car and take a picture of the creature for future compositions?  No.  I was more than a block away before I realised that would be the appropriate response for a natural artist, and by then I was sure the animal had scurried away to wherever they go.  Note to self: your cell phone has a camera and you should must take pictures whenever opportunities arise!!!

Moving on...after struggling with fear and anxiety for about a day, I decided to take a deep breath and maybe see how the crocus might go.  This was a monumentus event.  Because my skill and experience in painting isn't what I'd like it to be, my natural inclination is to avoid any projects that could result in abysmal failure.  However, it seems I have an adventurous nature and tend to tackle big and scary things head-on.  It was an interesting 24hours, but the adventurous nature won out by applying logic - scary things don't get less scary by avoiding them.  So, I took the plunge.

I was careful not to think too much about what I was doing and followed the required preparation steps in a calm and methodical manner.  I figured that maybe if I creep up on it from the side, it won't see me coming and might turn out well - who knows?  I tried not to drag my feet in collecting my water, preparing my paints and transferring the image to watercolour paper.  That would be avoidance and what's to avoid in collecting water and preparing paint?

After doing the snowdrop picture, I thought I should try to keep the drawing to a minimum.  It probably isn't necessary to draw every vein in the petals.  Of course my anal nature did get a hand in and I think there's too much detail in the pistils and stamens, but we'll worry about them when we get there.  There's a whole bunch of other things to worry over until then!

Okay, so the first thing I thought I should do is apply masking to the pistils/stamens.  Because the petals of the crocus are purple and the pistil/stamens are orange, I felt it would help in the continuous movement of the paint on the petal to not have to worry about painting around stamens/pistils.  I poured out some of the masking fluid onto a lid and diluted it a bit with some water.  I used a popsicle stick to apply it to the painting.

Then I mixed the colours I wanted and tested them on a spare sheet of paper.  So far so good.  Nothing scary in these steps now are there?  Course not.  Now we just need to wet the paper on the first petal.  Go on, you can do it.  No big deal.  See?  That was easy!  Now add a little paint...just a bit more...there you go!  Once I got the first petal in, the rest wasn't so scary.  I kept an eye on my reference picture for accuracy, but I wasn't too concerned if I missed a vein or the colour was a little off.  It's the technique and the "feeling" of a crocus we're going for here.

After what felt like 10 minutes, but was actually an hour and a half, I had to step away because I'd finished all the petals.  It's at this point that my excitement can get the best of me.  I know because I've had previous experience with this.  I have had perfectly good projects go sour because I didn't stop when I should have.  It's kind of like when you go to the gym for the first time in ages and things are going really well...you start to get that high and all your muscles feel strong and your joints feel loose...and you say to yourself, "I think I could handle another 20lbs", or "I think I'll go for a run too, that would be fun"...and then you wake up the next morning and every muscle in your body is demanding payment for the treatment you've given it?  

That's kinda what happens in art too.  Things are going well.  You want to keep going because things are going well.  Then there's a small mistake.  You try to fix it.  Crap! You've made it worse.  That's okay, you can still fix it...oops no you can't.  Now it's truly broke and there's no coming back from what you just did.  It's either back to the drawing board or start something completely new and forget this ever happened.  Oh, and now that high you were feeling has turned into an ugly depression because what kind of a crappy artist ruins their own stuff like that...blah blah blah.

So, I figured it was time to walk away before I did any real damage.  I'm not sure how I feel about the image at this point.  I like some things, but not others, and it's too early to tell how it will all turn out.  I'm trying very hard to drown out the voices in my head that are screaming their opinions (they aren't the ones doing the painting anyway).  I think it's a good thing I have the weekend to step away from it and come back Monday with a fresh set of eyes.  Here's where it stands at the moment:

Snowdrops

So after watching Birgitt’s video on how to do a white flower I thought I’d try it out on some snowdrops, instead of following along with her example.  I did this for a few reasons: first, I find it difficult to do anything when I can’t see where it’s going or what the final result will be.  Second, I have no connection with the image Birgitt chose, so it is difficult for me to render it properly.  Third, having my own image means I can make my own map, with directions on how to get where I want to go.  And fourth, snowdrops are a simple shape, without a lot of bends and folds to follow.

I created an image of snowdrops from pictures I took during a walk with the family near my home.  They were fully in bloom and all the snow had passed.  From this image, I determined a light source and basically gave things a rough shape.  This is my map.  I didn’t worry about composition too much, or accuracy.  The point of this exercise was to paint the flowers using Birgitt’s technique – not get caught up in the details.

I re-watched some of the video for specific pointers.  For Birgitt’s white flowers she uses greens, yellows and blues with some yellow ochre or burnt sienna (I assume for the shadows as she doesn’t really say).  I quickly sketched my image onto the back of one of my other exercise pieces.  This time I think it’s a Fabriano 140lb – not Arches.  Then I prepared my paints and mixed my colours.

Ironically, the nice thing about painting white flowers is you HAVE to use a lot of water to keep the colours light.  I’m pretty good at this part (mixing rich, dark colours on the other hand…).  Then I got to work. I worked each petal individually and layered darker values for the shaded areas of the petals.

Once the flowers were done, it was a question of what to do with the background.  Birgitt says that a dark background will really help white flowers pop.  I figured that using a contrasting colour might also help, so I pulled out my handy-dandy colour wheel.  Since the flowers are mostly greens, blues, and yellows, the contrasting colours would be purples, reds, and oranges.  I did my best to mix up a thick batch onto my palette. Looking back, it might have been a good idea to take a picture of the flowers before I painted the background so you could get an idea of just how dark and colourful the flowers looked against the white paper.  Oh well.  As they say: hindsight is 20:20.

Here you can see my reference sketch relative to the finished painting.  It was drawn on a very small piece of note paper.

As the background was drying I thought that another way to help the flowers pop would be to add a texture to the background, since the petals are very smooth.  While the painting was still a little damp, I splattered pure water here and there for texture.  It had a really cool effect and I think it gives the suggestion of snow.

I am much happier with the way this painting came out than the succulents.  I managed to keep edges rather than lines, and I have soft and hard edges this time.  I didn’t find myself wanting to repeatedly go over everything in an attempt to fix the contrast.  I think this was in part because I had a map to draw from and see where the contrast should be from the beginning. I have to say that I like the picture of the painting more than the actual painting.  In reality the petals have more yellow to them and I’m not super-thrilled with that.

I did learn a few more things as well.  Definitely use larger brushes when possible.  Vary the brush when you need to so that you can keep your lines sharp (mine aren’t so much).  When you are reusing paper (i.e. painting on the back of something else), be sure to notice if the sizing has gone.  If you look closely at the top of the painting and in the far right petal, you will see dark spots in the even, textural pattern of the paper.  These started to come up as soon as I put water to the page and ultra-absorbed the pigments.  I would have been really annoyed if this had been meant as a finished piece and that had happened. 

I still need to work on my brush work.  My lines aren’t as even as I’d like them to be, and you can see a few places where I accidently went over the flowers with the background colour.  I tried to mop it out, but that only works so far before you start to wreck things.  Again, I’m hoping that practice will help with this more than anything.

These exercises have given me a lot to think about with my crocus picture.  I’m not sure if I’m quite ready to tackle that one just yet, but I am ready to start thinking about what I need in a more serious manner.  I’ll spend the next day or so thinking in that direction and we’ll see what comes of it.

Completed succulents

Okay so I learned a lot about painting in this one demonstration.  First, rushing really won't work.  Second, don't put your thumb on a wet part of the painting - it will leave a print.  Third, if you start out too dark, good luck saving the painting.  Now this last one is really ironic because I am normally terrified of putting too much paint and end up with weak and "insipid" colours.  So I'm finding it somewhat amusing to see that you can actually put in too much paint.

Usually in a drawing if you add too much value the best way to correct isn't to remove with an eraser, but to darken the darks more.  You need to create contrast and if you can get the darks far enough, the lights will still pop.  Then you can go over with your kneaded eraser and gently lift some of the sparkle back into the picture.

This doesn't work so well in watercolour painting.  If we're only talking small areas it isn't so bad and you can get away with quite a bit.  But in this demo the shapes are quite large.  I tried darkening the darkest areas - which admittedly got quite dark.  But some of the leaves ended up losing their dimension and texture which I found disappointing.  Also, the background leaves were supposed to be in bright light so shouldn't be so colour intense.

I decided to try to lift some of the colour off the highlighted leaves.  It worked better than I expected, though I did loose texture again.  So another lesson learned - try to get it right the first time!

While I was able to lighten the bright areas, I was also able to correct a few oopsies, like the blossom that was in the top right leaf.  But I think the painting looks more lifeless now, even though there's lots of dimension and intensity.  There's just no realism to it.  There's too many lines and not enough edges.  And there's a blurriness to everything that screams badly done.  All-in-all, I think I preferred it before i lightened it.  Aw well, I'm learning so many lessons I think my head might explode!  I'm going to move on to another video with Birgit next time.  She has a demonstration on how to paint white flowers that will come in handy with my crocus so I think we'll move on to that.

Much better painting attempt!

Today I was determined to retry the succulent painting.  I did a few things differently.  After setting up my painting area, the first thing I did was push my chair WAYYY back.  I  didn't want to even be tempted to sit.  I have learned from past experience that standing is one of the best ways to work wet-in-wet.  You get better arm movement and you can more easily see how the water is drying and what the painting needs.

The second thing I did was draw out the image.  After that I planned out my paint colours.  I prepared some in my palette and painted onto a scrap piece of paper.  I wrote down the colours I used to make them too.  This way I not only know how to mix them again, I also know how well the colours look on the paper.  And when I need to make more I have something to compare to so I will know how close to the original colour I am.

Then I started painting the first leaf/petal.  I continued working until I got tired, moving from wet leaf/petal to dry leaf/petal, making sure that the next petal I worked on was surrounded by dry petals.  As I moved along I definitely noticed improvement from one petal to the next.  You can see I have an unintentional blossom in the one petal at top-right - another lesson learned.  And there were a few places were the paper was dryer than I thought when I added more colour.

I think there's a definite improvement from my last attempt though.  The colours are richer and there's more dimension in the leaves.  It gets a bit difficult because I don't really know where her light source is, but I found that by slowing down and really thinking about what I want to happen and what needs to be done I had better results.  When I got panicky or rushed things went badly.

I'm going to let it dry for now and maybe work some more on the weekend to finish the leaves/petals, then I will let it dry before I add the shadows with dry brush glazing.  I'm nervous about this because I'm afraid to lift the underlying colour in my attempt to lay on a new layer.  Well...I guess that's what practice is all about :)

Bad painting...bad, bad painting!

Today I decided to follow along with Birgit O'Connor in one of her workshop videos.  She works wet-in-wet with large shapes and sweeping brush motions.  I thought things were going pretty well with her initial exercise to show how much water to use and ways to get the colours to blend on the paper.  I think mine turned out pretty well, with only a few backwash issues (the colours running between rectangles was done intentionally).

Then I thought I'd press on to her next demonstration - a succulent.  It all seemed simple enough, just follow the same steps as in the rectangles.  Of course it would help if I had the same colour palette, but I was not to be deterred by something so small - I improvised and did the best with what I had.  On the first petal I knew I had a problem.  Watching Birgit do it, with her broad sweeping strokes and ability to get the exact shape on the paper with her brush in one stroke, I thought it would be simple.  Turns out there's more to brush handling than I anticipated.

Now, I have painted before and it's turned out decently enough.  I guess I've always known my brush stroke could use some work, but now I REALLY know it!!  Anyway...here's my finished piece.  It's decent enough I suppose for a beginner.  Definitely could use some work.

Here's what Birgit did:

Let's face it, mine just doesn't compare at this stage :P

It's a good thing that I'm not overly self-critical, or I might just want to chuck all my painting gear and hide under my blankets until the world once again becomes a nicer place (I struggled with that thought for a long while).  I think I will try this demonstration again.  I got the impression that I was starting to get an idea of things at the beginning and the end, but in the middle everything went (to give it a Pratchett reference), "banana-shaped".  Ah well, there's nothing like dogged perseverance to learn a new skill!  And now that I know what not to do, the next time should go better, right? 

Skull - concept to finished piece

Oh my goodness!  I spent so much time watching art videos from Artist Network TV that I got nothing else done this weekend!!  I learned a LOT!  I was planning to apply some of my newfound knowledge in painting watercolour today, but I found that I was incredibly exhausted.  I know from past experience (and I've been instructed this way by Gordon MacKenzie) that if you are tired you shouldn't paint.  These two things just don't go well together!

So I took Mr. MacKenzie's advice and had a nap instead.  Since there is no progress to report today, I thought I might show some pics of the progress of the skull.  I don't think that I included any of the conceptual images in my previous posts.

So here's the original concept design:

Not much to look at is he?  But I think you can clearly see that I was trying to get the name to fit into the skull.  I had originally thought of adding a flame around the skull, but later discarded it.

This is a human skull image that I drew of an image I got off the net.  This is almost a medical drawing, but since I have never drawn a skull before, and I wanted it to be at least based on realism, I had t start somewhere.

You can see from these two images how I modified the original skull (traced it onto tracing paper then put a piece of paper on top to make a copy with modifications) and started to fill in the shapes.

This of course is the finished piece.  He came a long way from the concept image.  And I have to say that I had no idea how he would ultimately come out.  After I made my modifications, I mostly let the drawing decide what it wanted/needed to be complete.  I think this made it a better drawing because I had no real expectations.

Now if only I could do the same thing with painting!