I started by doing a fairly accurate drawing of a group of the flowers, vaguely following the photograph, but trying to keep the flowers in a tight cluster.
This proved to be a bit of a mistake, as I wanted to have lots of lost edges and to achieve this, I needed to wash in the background. The result of this was that later in the process, the pencil lines became almost impossible to remove! The wash should have come first, and the drawing second.
However, by doing it this way around, I was able to lightly blot out patches of leaves and petals that I thought would need to be lighter.
I started with the leaves so that I could use water to blend a dark base upwards into the pale pink, and I also wanted to paint the stems in before tackling the flowers. So it was just a case of painting leaves and flowers and adding darks between the stems until all that was left to do' was to loosely paint the flowers.
I started with the very strong 'Opera Rose' at the base of each flower, added lots of water and tried not to have too many identifiable petals across the top of the painting. It was at this stage that I discovered that I could not remove the pencil lines, so I had to resort to a bit of Gouache to cover them. It seemed to work well as I was able to add more water to the edges of the petals and get them to bleed into the background.
I added a bit of dark in places to ensure that some petals were pushed a bit forwards, and others were pushed back, and then a final good splattering of white acrylic gouache and the painting was complete.
'Cyclamen'
By my standards, this is only a smallish painting, 32cm x 22cm and is painted on Fabriano Artistico Extra White, 300g Not paper.
Lovely and dreamy Yvonne thanks for the detailed process
ReplyDeleteThank you for the comment. It turned out exactly as I'd hoped, which is nice.
ReplyDeleteA lovely composition Yvonne, and beautifully painted. I too enjoyed the detailed process shown.
ReplyDeleteThanks Ray, Its lovely when folks enjoy looking. Glad you enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteThis is a wonderful painting Yvonne. I love that soft background.
ReplyDeleteThanks Ann. I am trying to keep it all as loose as possible, so glad it appeals to you.
ReplyDeleteAnother fine demonstration for which I thank you. Your decisions about edge control are particularly instructive. An image with delicate and firm passages that sustain interest.
ReplyDeleteThanks Mick. I do not intend the posts to be demonstrations, but I suppose the teacher in me makes them come out that way. I am always pleased if they are interesting or helpful.Your comments are always welcome.
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ReplyDeleteA very gentle painting love the use of lost edges.
ReplyDeleteThanks Jan, your comments and support are always welcome
DeleteUsual high quality painting.
ReplyDeleteThanks Peter, glad you like it
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