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.

Splatter Splatter

I love a good splatter painting.  It can be very cathartic to literally throw some paint around.  You get to be messy and sloppy and it all works out in the end.

You can probably tell that I painted these in the same session.  They use the same colors, the same positioning, and generally the same feel.  Usually I will have included a few buds in the painting to allow for something a little more natural, or as natural as a splatter painting can get.   My head must not have quite been in the game when I did these, or I'd have included a few.

Well, anyway, they have nice colors in the, and aren't too hard on the eyes.  Enjoy

A Couple of Coneflowers

Ok, for some reason, I can't seem to get away from flowers.  Here I have two different cone flowers.

I don't know what it is I like about these, but since I saw the first pictures of coneflowers, I've had a thing about painting them.  I must have painted a dozen coneflower or more (some of which have made this blog.)

I apologize for not having a good story to tell about painting these paintings.  Its been a long day, its late at night, and I'm about to go to bed.  So, since I don't have a lot to say.....   Hope you enjoy these paintings.

A Rose is A Rose is A Rose

A nice loose rose for the weekend.  I had a little spare time and I decided to paint a few things.  You can see a painting so close to this that I couldn't crop it out.

I don't know if I like painting flowers or if I think I am good at painting flowers, but.... since I think I do them better than most other things I paint, I just keep bringing them.

Not sure I totally got the top of this, where the petals open up.  But  I'm not sure it really distracts from the overall painting too much.   There is just enough going on to make you a little distracted.

Actually, I bet you look right at the middle of the painting more than anywhere else.  I put in just a bit of yellow to warm up the painting in the very center.  It really does make your eyes kind of hang out there.

Anyone else notice this?

Iris

Two quick iris tonight.  The first one on top is a 5 minute study.  Don't give yourself time to overthink what you are doing.  Just get your work on paper.   It makes me try to get to the essence of what I am painting very quickly.  There are some things I really like about this.  The yellow petals stand out quite a lot.  It's easy to see how defined they are, and the red/orange petals morph from the yellow.  I like the transition.  But..... Ugh!  that pencil line.  hmmm, well, it was a quick study,  I guess I shouldn't be too hard on myself.

The second one, i really like with one glaring exception.  The yellow is so muted next to the red and the petals have almost no definition.  Ooops I guess that was two thing.  But I like the composition, and the flow in the second one.  I wanted the two flowers to almost meld into one across the painting and that is exactly what happened.  I drew a few veins in the petals, just enough that your eye will pick them up.  And look, no pencil lines.  I drew the petals with yellow and red watercolor pencils, and the stems and buds very lightly with a green one.  They washed away as soon as water went over them, but left enough for me to know what I was doing.

Wait, did I just say I knew what I was doing?  Ha, what a joke,  What I meant to say what that I did what I intended to do.  Which is distinctly different from knowing what to do.

Well at any rate, hope you all like them, and thanks for the read.  Enjoy

Solitary Cone Flower

So I had a little time while I was waiting for my paint to dry on different painting and I thought I would just get a little more wet int wet practice.

A really simple, but somehow nice coneflower.  I know its nothing special, but somehow being simple makes it nice.

I've got so many flowers I ought to be a florist

Some more quick loose flowers.  Still trying to get coneflowers right (don't ask me why).  And working on roses.  I like the way my roses turn out.  From a distance they look really good, and as I keep at this method, they should continue to get better.   The coneflower is interesting.  I keep adding layers, and it keeps looking better.  I start with the outside petals, and then the inside and finally the ones in the back.  seems like it works, but I still have a little way to to to get it right (whatever that is).

At any rate, I'm having fun painting the flowers.  Hope yo enjoy looking at them.

simple coneflowers

So I was doing some doodling again last night.  Thought it would be fun to paint some coneflowers.  Before you begin, let me say that I didn't really look at any pictures of coneflowers to know if I've done it right.  And I know they have many more petals than these have.  And I know that the stems here are just green lines.  Blah Blah Blah.

Yes I should have done at least a tiny bit of research to know what I was painting, but these were kind of a throw in at the end of my painting session.  For what they are, I think they are pretty good.  I'll have to check to make sure these are actually colors that cone flowers come in, and probably change my color palette for my next attempt.  Also, I'll have to find what the stems and leaves look like.  Oh, and the heads too.  Whew, that seems like a lot of work all of a sudden.  Oh, well, for a quick painting at the end of the night, I think they turned out pretty good.   Thanks for taking the time to look.

Poppypalooza

I went home last night with the intent on painting some hydrangeas, and guess what happened... Poppies.  This time it was a little different painting from little pans (All I have at home is a small travel set of paints).  I wasn't sure if I would be able to make up enough wash to really work this style of painting.  Luckily, I found out I could.

Also, I should say, I wanted to paint yellow/orange poppies, but somewhere between palette and paper, my mind forgot, and I got these red ones.

I can't express how fun it is to paint these.  Most of my whole artistic (if you can call it that) career (part time dabbling with paint) I've been painting tight pictures, and it always bothered me that they didn't look like the pictures I was painting from, and they were rather lifeless.  Additionally, if I were to paint outside a line, or paint something wrong (whatever that is) it would make me nuts.  I could never figure how to let the water and paint do their own dance on the paper.  

Now with this style, I feel much freer to let the paint be the paint, the water be the medium to make the paint dance, and the paper to record it.  All I have to do it keep refilling the brush and move it to the paper every now and again.  I know these pictures aren't accurate representations of poppies (or whatever I'm painting).  But what I think I get is the expression of the poppy (or whatever I'm painting), or the feeling of, and that is what is important.

Anyway, I'm gonna keep along these lines for a while.  Don't expect me to be painting inside the lines.  I had fun painting this, hope you had fun looking and reading. Thank you and see you next post.

12 Poppies

I got a bit ambitious today and decided to do quite a few poppies. Why 12?  I have no idea.  I just kept getting paper out and painting.

The first two I drew so that I would know where the flowers would be.  Don't ask me which of the 4 paintings they are.  The next two I did freehand.  Again, I couldn't pick them out without looking closely at the paintings.

These are of course orange poppies.  I don't have orange in my palette, so I mixed Cad Yellow Medium with Scarlet Lake.  It really make a vibrant orange.

I don't know how far I'm gonna go with this technique, or with painting flowers, but for now, I'm having fun with it.

Hope you all enjoy.

Even More Poppies

Once more into the breach with theses poppies.  Maybe its the fact that they grow so well here in California and that I seem them every day from mid spring through fall, but I can't stop painting them.    Actually, I think I might be coming to the end of my time with these.

I am loving this style of painting.  Using this I get to do what I think painting should be.  I get to give the viewer a feeling of, or the essence of, the flower, without having to paint a flower exactly as it is.  You get the idea of exactly poppies are, but I am free to play and have fun with the paint, free of bounds and borders.

I am gonna try to move this technique to other subjects.

Mostly I think I like this technique because I get to play with the paint and let it flow around the paper.  Soooo fun.

Hope you enjoy these.  Thanks for the view.