Opium Poppies

There have been some glorious red, orange and apricot coloured poppies in a couple of clumps not far from the conservatory windows. It was too cold to set up all my painting gear outside but I took my pad outside and drew in the shapes of a small group. The wind and rain had been at them relentlessly so they were by no means pristine but could be described as 'interesting'

I am sorry that the photo is poor, but I was well into wetting the background before I remembered the camera, so there is a mass of glare from the wet paper.

When I had completed the drawing, I wet the entire background being as careful as possible not to get water on the flowers. I then dropped pigments into the wet allowing it to bleed into each other. I then covered the whole sheet with crumpled clingfilm and left it to dry completely. It is very tempting to remove or even just lift the clingfilm for a peek at what it looks like, but I find I get  crisper lines if I resist.

When I thought it was completely dry I removed the film.

At this stage, I was a bit disappointed, as I had wanted a much stronger background, but I kept going as you never know what might come of a shaky start.

I went back down to the conservatory from where I could see the poppies and proceeded to paint them fairly loosely onto the coloured background. I added leaves and stems using shapes which had been created by the cling film.

 Despite my early reservations, I am quite pleased with the result. I placed it on the floor and put a temporary mount over the sheet ( Don't ask me why I put it on the floor, but for some reason I always do! ) I thought it might be worthy of a frame. However, by accident, I moved the mount and it cropped off the top LH corner and I was immediately struck by the way it changed the image.

Lots of thought and I am still nowhere nearer making a decision so I am posting the alternate version and maybe you would like to share your thoughts on the two versions to help me decide!!

Usual Fabriano paper and my usual paint selection. I am going to give the rough paper a bit of a rest for a while. I have been printing some of my images as greetings cards, and ones that have been painted on the rough surface often produce disappointing results as the bumps and hollows in the surface tend to be exaggerated and they acquire shadows which are unsightly. I am hoping that the Not surface will eliminate this and I will keep the Rough paper for the more experimental work.