More Hydrangea

Well, I wanted to paint hydrangea again.  I don't know why I like it so much.  Maybe it has to do with the huge hydrangea at the end of my driveway at the house I grew up in.  My brother and a I made a fort inside it, and we were able to stand up without obstruction.  That just shows how big it was.  Like I said, huge.

For this painting, I decided to embrace hard edges.  I've painted hydrangea before and kind of muddled all the edges and made it all soft.  I've been trying to accept that I cant always stop hard edges, so I jumped in and went for all the hard edges I could get.

After drawing my little clump of flowers, I thought it would be cool to paint all at the top level and make the paint drip.  Then walk away so that it dries.  Coming back when it was totally dry, I started on the next set of petals.  Painting right over the drips from the layer above, I didn't even try to erase the lines.  I just kept repeating that until I got to the bottom.

I learned a few interesting thing.  First and foremost, when you want your paint to run, you almost can't do it. secondly, the addition of water at just the right time will lighten just enough of your painting to give some cool effects.  Of course you might want to sop up the extra instead of forcing a run.

I was also hoping to limit my palette.  Something I am always trying to do.  In the effort,  I made it look awfully monotone.  I did actually find a way to use two colors.

Hope you enjoy it,   I sure did.  Thanks for the view.

Hydrangea and Cherry Blossom at lunch

Spring has definitely sprung in my little part of California.  Everything is green, everything is growing, most things are in bloom.  It hit 80 here today!

Continuing on with my new fun painting style, I decided to revisit my cherry blossoms, and add a hydrangea.  I chose a simple cherry blossom.  Simple rounded petals, 5 to each bloom.  As for the Hydrangea:  4 petals, each diamond shaped.  Simple, right?  What could go wrong.  As it turns out, quite a lot.  But since I am trying to loosen up, I made an attempt to let mistakes go by the wayside and incorporate them into the final painting.  I don't know if you will even be able to pick them out.  I think probably I can pick them out because I painted them.  And if I hadn't mentioned it you wouldn't even know there were any mistakes.

Glad you could stop by to take a look at the pictures.  Hope you enjoyed the.  I thoroughly enjoyed painting them.

Oh, and sorry the pictures have a slight blue tint.  I don't have my scanner with me right now, and am sorely missing it.