Finally Finished.

For anyone still interested in these freakin daisies, I have finally finished. ;-) It really didn't take me too long to do the actual painting, which is why it is strange it took a year and a half to get it done. Well, now it's complete and we can all move on with our lives!

I can't honestly say this is my favorite painting I've ever done, it was really more of an experiment for me.  I'm usually very tight and detailed and I wanted this one to be a little more free.  

When I was doing the background, I had the flowers outlined in masking fluid so the background wouldn't wash into them.  When I decided to give the background a very spattery look, it started dripping into the flowers and I thought, "oh no!" But then I just decided to go with it.  I knew the spatter and drips would show through when I painted the flowers, and thought it might give it an interesting effect.

I'm also not thrilled with the composition. I don't know what it is...but either way, it was fun to paint and I love the colors of gerber daisies. I'm sure I'll be doing more in the future. 

Many things all at once!

I've made a little more progress on the daisies.  I finally finished the yellow one! 

Yes, it's been slow going on this painting, I think it's been in the works for about a year now. Or longer? I know it was started in Krakow last year before going home for the summer. Yikes. 

I'm taking an art class at the local art museum here in Edinburgh.  We're using an exhibit at the museum called "Witches and Wicked Bodies" as inspiration to make an artist's book full of fun, witchy artwork.  The final class is on Tuesday, and I will really be sad when it's over. It's been one of the most fun art classes I've ever taken. Here's a sneak peak on what I've been doing for that class:

I'm really loving all the fun creatures and familiars.  I'll do a separate post on this when it's finished. :)

Daisies Are Back...

I have finally gotten back to painting those daisies that I started I don't know how many months ago...I think last time we saw them, they looked like this:

Only the stems had been completely painted and a few bits of yellow on the top daisy. Well, now it looks like this:

Got a bit more done on the yellow daisy and started playing around with the orange one.  We just moved again and while I was waiting for a shipment of our stuff with my watercolors in it, I tried using watercolor pencils on the orange daisy. I didn't get too far and figured I'd just wait for my watercolors to show up. So now I will continue to work on these, and keep you updated on my progress :)

Also, over the summer, I also got a new paintbrush! 

I know, I know, you're so excited about it, too! Well, I told you I'm an art supply dork and stuff like this thrills me. I love this brush! It holds so much paint and water and it's ridiculously fun to splash paint around with it. So anyway, back to work!

Part 3

Still working on this painting, although a bit slowly. Not going for photorealism here, just picking colors and having fun. I finally got the stems painted, and now will be starting on the petals! 

Daisy Painting Part 2

I've finished the background for the painting.  I definitely went a little crazy, and far out of my comfort zone with this one.  The end result though, was worth it and I really like it.  I'm still a little nervous, because obviously it isn't finished yet so it is still kind of in the "ugly stage".  Once I start painting the flowers, I will feel a bit better! 

First, I wet the whole paper with a large mop brush.  Then I picked some blues and purples and just started putting them all over the paper, and since it was so wet, I picked up the painting and moved it around, causing the watercolor to move around. I've never tried that before and it was really cool! The colors run, mix and blend in a way you can't get with pushing paint around with a brush.  So I let it dry, and repeated that process a few times, giving it several layers of paint. 

When I was turning the paper all around trying to spread the paint, it started dripping over my masking and into the flowers.  I decided to keep the spontaneity and let the paint drip through the flowers. Why not?! This is an experiment in loosening up, after all.  The drips and splatters will show through even after I paint the flowers, but it will give it some interest, I think. (Hope!) 

I then decided to add some texture, so using the back of my paint brush I just started scribbling into the paint like cursive writing.  I didn't write anything legible or of any significance, just scribbling because I like like look of cursive writing, but I didn't actually have anything to say lol.

I figured at this point, the masking is pretty irreverent, so I removed it.

After the scribbling, I did more layers of paint and let it dry. Then I started just using a wet brush to move some dry paint around, hoping to cause some blooms in the paint. I thought it still needed something, so I mixed up some very dark versions of the colors already used and started flinging paint at the paper randomly.  Some got in the flowers, but again, so what?! :) Flinging the paint was the most fun!

So now I have this crazy background and I hope it doesn't turn out ugly, but we will find out! The background is done, and onto the flowers! Stay tuned ;-)

A step by step daisy painting...

I want to start another painting of gerber daisies, and I've had this particular one sketched on watercolor paper for about 8 months.  I had been busy with commissions and now I have some time to work on my own projects. So I'm going to post step by step as I work on it. I forgot to photograph the drawing before I started masking, but you'll get the idea. I'm using my own photos of gerber daisies, three different photos and made them into one painting. So first step, I had to go buy some masking fluid because I left mine at home in the US.  Then I got out my ruling pen so I would have nice, even lines and not worry about using a brush. 

Also, you might notice the ripped tape around the borders...I want it to have an uneven, kind of ripped paper looking border, hence the strange tape job ;)

I'm going to mask only around the outer edges of the flowers, since I'm going to work on the background and I want to keep the edges of the flowers crisp and visible and not worry when I'm busy splashing paint around.  I'm using the ruling pen carefully, to avoid gouging the paper.  You don't need to press hard. 

I really love the ruling pen, it gives you such clean lines! I highly recommend it!
So now the flowers are all masked...

And I wait for it to dry, then have fun with the background!
With this painting, I really want to try loosening up and not do my usual tightly rendered style. I want to splash paint around and not worry about a lot of detail.  I want to mask the flowers to keep the shapes while I go nuts with the background, but after that all bets are off. We'll see how it goes! More tomorrow...

Crazy Daisies Are Done

So I've finally finished my watercolor daisy painting! For once, I've managed to remember to take photos of the painting in progress and I thought it would be fun to put them all up!

 Crazy Daisies, 11"x15" watercolor. Thanks for looking!

Works In Progress

I've been working on a few different pieces, all different sizes and mediums, but one common theme.  I love gerbera daisies and I have a lot of pictures I've taken of my own flowers that I'm using for reference. I have a larger (well, large for me) watercolor 11"x15", a small 3"x5" acrylic on canvas and a 6"x6" colored pencil on bristol paper. Here are a few shots of the watercolor in progress:

I love this picture! I'm having so much fun painting this, and I love the angle of it, the "worm's eye view". It's a little more of an unusual viewpoint, which I think makes the painting more interesting. The unpainted left flower will be yellow. I'm a little worried about the background, I'm not sure what to do yet. I like the idea of a dark, almost black, background to make the bright flowers pop and create a lot of drama but then I don't want to overwhelm with so much dark. Any ideas and suggestions are welcome!

This one above is my little 3x5 acrylic on canvas. This painting is going to be bright all over, the background is going to be blues and violets (a little darker in value than the flower, so it pops). I don't usually use a lot of complimentary colors together because I'm just not a fan of those combos, but yellows and purples are nice together. Other complimentary color combos, like red and green is too Christmas-y, blue and orange is too NY Mets (I'm not a a sports fan). Maybe different shades of blue and orange would be ok, just not that dark primary blue. Anyway, getting off topic a bit ;)

This is the 6"x6" colored pencil.  Obviously all I have so far is the outline drawing.  This daisy is going to be pink. I'll post some more updates soon! :)