Apple Blossom

Found a nice little picture of an apple blossom on pmp-art.com.  Couldn't help myself, I had to paint it.  I think it came out ok.  I'm working on putting light next to dark and smooth transitions of colors.  Also If I can get multiple colors into each space, so much the better.  The leaves are mostly HBC green #1 and #2 but I've snuck in some Perm. Yellow Lemon and some Viridian too.  The petals are Rose Madder and Vermilion. 

In the original picture the whole branch must have been set on a white sheet, because it had a very soft grey shadow.  I tried to replicate that here. 

I hope you like this one.  I think I'm gonna do a video for htis one, keep a check out for it.

Pink Rose

A Pink rose watercolor.  Maybe I could have used a few white highlights? What do you think?

Camellia

Ahhh the lovely camellia.  Such a nice flower.  I wanted to paint one and and thought this would be a good time to do some graded washes.  Well, I accomplished both of those things with this painting, but I don't think I did either really well.

The painting is OK.  There really isn't anything wrong with it, though its a bit banal.  I could really have punched this up by doing a couple of things.

See, in watercolor to make a dramatic painting you need to have lights next to darks, and darks next to lights.  Well, I've got lights next to darks with the petals.  you can see how the center is lighter and the tips darker.  This makes for a nice petal (here its a bit bland, but nice).  But Ive also got a background that is the same intensity as the petals.  There is no room for light and dark to touch, both edges are dark.  Hmmmm what to do...

Well, I could just as easily put on another row of petals (this would have made the flower look fuller too.  Right now its a bit small).  The outside row of petals would have been all light.  That lightness would have served two purposes.  First, it would have ensured that they looked as though they were behind the petals in front, then it would have allowed me to make my background as dark as I wanted.

Well, there is always next time.  I think its a good project for tonight, paint this one again.

If you have interest in seeing how I did this one, watch the video below.  Thank you.

 

Purple Poppy

By now you must all know that I have a thing for Poppies.  I think because they are simple flower, but look fantastic.

I started with a light wash of a nice reddish purple color.  Then, kept adding layer upon layer of paint.  Each one just a bit darker than the last.

Throw on a nice background that helps to make the flowers stand out and you've got a nice little painting.

Hope you enjoy


For anyone that wants to see a video of my painting this, there is a video below.

Poppies

This is a fun painting I did for the coming of spring.  It's Poppies!!   The state flower of California.  I've got these growing wild everywhere around my house.  They add a beautiful splash of color.  

Many poppies have a dark center.  This variety instead has a bright vibrant yellow center.  I thought they would make the perfect subject to paint.

Oh and as for the background.... Well, I wanted to play a little and let these have some fun.  So a half wash and some splatter were just what the doctor ordered.

I painted this picture with a very limited color palette, and was delighted to see that even with that you can paint a beautiful paintings.  I really hope you enjoy it.

Oh, and if you are curios about a video of this painting, I've got just the thing for you.  I did make one and posted not long ago.  (yes, I've been delinquent about posting to this blog).  Anyway, you can find the video below.

Christmas Card - Poinsettia

As you have seen in an earlier post, I've started on my Christmas cards a bit early this year.  I didn't want to wait until the end and then have to rush to get them done.

Yes, this is essentially the same card I did last year, if you were lucky enough to receive one of those, but with a couple notable exceptions.

Even though this years cards are not really what poinsettias look like they are much closer than I got last year.  Last years had much longer thinner leaves/petals.  This year, I've moved to a bit more of a realistic flower, but not too far.

This flower, as you can see, has red petals, but each petal also has a healthy dose of yellow also.  The effect gives the petals a lot of life in them.  They look much better than just a plain old red petal.  And if you look closely at the second level of petal, you will see that not only is there yellow in the red, but the shadow color is actually green.  3 colors in those petals!!!   Finally, the green leaves aren't just green, they have a bit of yellow in them as well.   Just enough to bring them to life a bit.

Well, thats probably more than you wanted to know about how I painted this christmas card, but since you asked.  Oh, wait, you didn't?  Well, I wanted to tell you anyway.  And don't forget, if you want to watch me paint it, you can do it below.  Thanks for the quick read, and take a look at the video, it's really pretty good.

Don't forget I've got some social media accounts.   Check them out below.
Links: Youtube   Instagram   Twitter

Painting Negative Spaces with Hydrangea

I did a similar painting several months back.  It just kind of happened organically.  I didn't purposely go into thinking I would paint all the negative space around an object, but it kind of worked that way.  In this painting, I specifically set about trying to paint only the negative spaces.  I do with I had mixed in maybe a little purple or magenta with all the blue but I came out pretty neat.

Also, I think, that if I do this again, or maybe I'll go back and do it on this painting, that I'll incorporate some veins into the leaves.  I did put the button in the middle of these flowers, but that was all.  Perhaps a bit of veining will really bring this painting to the next level and give the leaves a little more texture and depth.

Well, regardless of whether I go back and do more or not, I had a great time painting this one.  I hope you enjoy the painting, and if you would like to watch it, I do have a video of how I did it.

 

More Coneflower

I have been out of the studio for about a week.  I didn't really think I would be able to sit on the stool and paint an entire painting without my back erupting in pain.  Last night I ventured out, and the pain was manageable. So, with that in mind i started to dabble again.  This is the result.

Enjoy

Coneflower

I painted a few flowers on my lunch hour today.  They are just quick coneflower, not the most detailed, but for me, thats ok.  I want to give the essence of the flower, not an exact copy of it.  I think they look great and were a lot of fun to paint.  (yes, I realize I forgot the splatter on the first one.)

Hope you enjoy.  (oh, and you might see a video of a coneflower soon.)

Loose Red Flowers

This lovely little painting is the product of my video last night.  I sat down to just paint some random stuff and flowers popped out of the painting.   Ok, I knew I was going to paint flowers, I just didn't know what they were going to look like.

After dabbing some paint on the paper, and allowing it to dry a bit, this is what I got out.  Not too bad.  Looks like some flowers popping out of a little garden area.

More Bougainvillea

I know that I recently posted another bougainvillea, but they look so nice and add such a nice punch of color to my yard that I had to paint another.  There is a slight twist to this one.  I MADE A VIDEO ABOUT IT!!!

True story.  I have had several people ask me how I paint my flowers.  It seems that that is what people think I paint best.  So I finally did it,  I broke down and started filming.

Don't expect Scorsese quality filmography.  This is me were talking about after all. But I kinda had fun doing this, so I'll probably make a few more, and we'll see how it goes from there.

Hope you enjoy this flower,  I'll put up a post when the video is up and then the secret will be out.  LOL.  I'll keep you all informed

Bougainvillea

So you may have noticed that I took a little time off from painting.  Let me tell you why.  I hurt my back and its been hard to sit, stand, lay, move, hold still, etc.  I think you get the idea.  I've not felt like trudging out to the studio to do any painting.  What I've felt like is, well, horrible.

But on Friday, I started feeling a little better.  I made it out to the studio.  On the side of the driveway, next to the door to the garage, is a bougainvillea plant.  It's got these really nice magenta flowers on it.  I gave it a quick study and then off I went to give a try at painting it.  Actually I was trying to film it too, but that didn't go well.  (yes, you may see Dabfly Arts videos soon)  What I came up with, you see on the side.

I did it all with a number 2 paint brush and a couple of watercolor pencils.  I've been watching videos again (i know, that can be trouble) and found something that was mentioned in passing in several, but not highlighted in any.    If you hold your brush back past the bulge of the barrel, you can't paint with any real detail.  You are forced to think more about basic shapes.  You, unless you have the steady hands of a brain surgeon, won't be able to work in tiny little places and wont be able to put in tiny little details.  You'll be using a slightly larger muscle group and as such will only be able to make larger strokes.  The thinking is that if you can only make larger strokes, you will force yourself to try to reduce whatever it is you are painting into its basic elements and only paint them.

I tried that with these.  What I got was, ... , well, kind of a mess, but kind of really nice.  I can see how holding your brush so far back changes how you paint.   I think I'll explore this a little further.

Oh, and I guess I should mention that I did add a few details with a watercolor pencil.

Thanks for the view, hope you enjoyed it.

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.

Faces (not mine) WIP

Submitted for your viewing pleasure are a couple of WIPs.  I did this much last night and will probably spend much of the next few nights finishing them up.

I really just started with slapping some paint on, trying to block in some color, Then I remember that I stink at painting hair, and thought I should try somehow to make the hair more realistic  that in paintings past.  I can't tell you how many strokes I have in the hair on these two.  And I'm no where near done!!

Well, Tonight I will probably work more on the hair, some shading on the faces and maybe the shirt.   Then finish the hair and the background.   I don't know, I'll have to play it by ear, and see what hits me when I get back out to the studio.

Painting on Photo Paper

This picture may look a bit of a mess.  And I guess it is a bit of a mess, but there is a very good reason.  I tried to do an experiment with this.  The painting is on photo paper.  I had some extra ink jet photo paper left over from a printer that I don't even have any more.  I thought it would  be a good experiment to see if I could paint on it.  

I found that it was really difficult to paint on.  since it was made for an inkjet printer, the paper really soaks up the water, and doesn't give you any time to move paint around or let it mix much. And then when the paper gets too wet, it just sits on top for a looooooooong time.

Well, it was an interesting experiment, but I don't think I'll follow up on it, unless......

More Hydrangea

In a quick painting session I had with my daughter, I painted a few hydrangea.  I didn't have long, as her attention span yesterday seemed to last only about 5 minutes on any one thing.

I actually got about 10 minutes out of her, but I was the one who had about 5 after getting paint, paper, water, and towel to paint with, then cleaning up after she was done.

Well, we did have a good time while it lasted.  Too bad it was such a short amount of time.

Hollyhock

So I decided to branch out a bit.  Today's offering is a simple hollyhock plant.  I tried using watercolor pencil to draw lines on the petals, but I don't know how successful I was.  While I don't dislike the finished product, I don't truly love it either. I think that I rather like using a brush better, but I still want to give it a fair try, so I'll probably do this again.

Well, I had fun painting, hope you have fun viewing.

Too Red Poppies

Two things I really like.  One, for some reason, painting poppies. 2 painting where I don't have to stay in the lines.  This painting checked both those boxes for me.

I did one thing a bit different with these poppies that I didn't do with all my other paintings of this style.  Normally i'll start by putting down some color in the general shape of the flower, making sure that all the color flows from the bottom of the petals, and gets lighter and less intense as it goes up.  then I redefine the shape of the petal on a second layer of paint.

On this particular one, I didn't worry so much about keeping the bottoms intense.  I really let the paint and water go where it wanted to on the first layer.  As a result I got a fairly uniform layer of paint.  Albeit a layer that still had not a lot of shape or definition to it.  As before, I went back with a second layer and defined the petal edges.  The only difference is that on this one, I tried to then go back to the base of the petal and put in some intense red and let it diffuse to the now defined petal edge.

Not entirely sure I was successful.  But from looking at the picture, I wasn't completely unsuccessful either.   Enjoy.

Some Kind of Red Flower

Just playing around last night.  I thought this turned out nice.  Some flowers of undetermined species.

Got the whole paper wet, and threw down some red, blue, yellow and green.  Then when it dried I put in a little red to bring the petals to the foreground.   After allowing those to dry, went back and drew in the stamen and leaf edges.  A little water to tone them down and voila.

It turned out to be exactly what I wanted.  A loose painting of some flowers.  Done quickly, but with enough interest that it's enjoyable to look at.

Hope you enjoy it.  

Conehead

I've gotten some kind of fascination with coneflower lately.  I don't know if its the big ball head on it or if its all the leaves around the sides, but they seem really nice to me right now.

I've tried to put the yellow in the background to make your eyes travel to the top of the painting.  I didn't like the green on the bottom, so, instead of trying to fudge with it too much, and overwork it, I'd rather just move your eye away from that.

I'll bet you didn't really even notice it until you read it, but now that you have, you notice that your eye just naturally drifts up in the painting.

Well, enjoy the painting.