Playing with Paint: September #1

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I've been PLAYING WITH PAINT on this in the mornings...very slowly, not my usual mode of operation. But, it's so relaxing and clears my mind. 

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 Here is the stage I'm at now, at day three of painting.  I haven't been worrying about the background and I've been concentrating on building up layers. This is a painting and not a photograph, so you edit and add where your composition takes you.

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This is the color study I shared before during my Mather Watercolor classes in August. Right now, I'm not worrying about anything other than building up layers...

This is much moodier than my new painting, I hope to capture some of this in my layers in the future.

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My color wheel from my paints. I probably should have made one just for this painting, but that would seem so limiting, I do refer to this constantly.

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My working Palette. I'll give you a list of the colors I've used  so far:

Lemon Yellow

Cadmium yellow Medium

Cadmium Red Light 

Carmine

Thalo red 

Sap Green

Foliage Green 

Yellow Green

Purple 

Prussian Blue

Burnt Sienna

Burnt Umber

Paynes Gray

Watercolor resist

My reference photos which are very bright because we have had such brilliant sunshine this summer. 

               

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Reference photo

Working from nature is always a challenge, as of course Nature is perfect.

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reference photo

These Mandilla had drooped but I watered them again and again, and they are still going wild.

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Reference photo

Early in the morning they seem to follow the sun. Note the white throats...I used resist on 

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Dahlias...are amazing, you wait so long for them to bloom. Mine have tons of foliage to produce these few blooms.

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I started with light washes of lemon, on the pot, yellow green on the baby tears and the leaves to the Mandilla. The Mandilla are Carmine, Cadmium light with brown under tones from mixing a bit of green for shadows. The white streaky stuff around the stems is where I had resist shich is now removed.

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You can see how the mixing space has become very dark, watered down,  layers/washes are applied, and some is lifted to try and give the petals highlights.

I also haven't attacked the centers which will be much darker with yellow/gold highlights.

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The opposite of the Mandilla at the bottom are the Dahlias with two layers of reds applied, Thalo and Carmine. I've added a bit of purple to a light wash to start enhancing the depth in the petal bases. The resist has been removed on the petal tips and in the buds, so I'm working carefully now. The greens are just in the early stages.

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The tones in the study are not as bright...but I'm doing the flowers in the sunshine now. 

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Mixing pan with Thalo, Purple and some Prussian blue, I think. Purple is very strong...so I'm trying to be restrained in adding it.

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I think this was with three layers of color, I still have to deepen the petals to make them not appear so flat. I've done three layers of washes for the leaves, these will need deepening. and more leaves/deep washes in the background.

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Balancing out the reds ...is a challenge, totally different and then with all that green in opposition. 

I may do another study, just to see how I should use the darks for the backgrounds?

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The container got a second layer of  Cadmium Yellow Medium

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I'm really glad I have labeled my pans...makes life easier to do these posts.

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I'm pretty sure this is Burnt Sienna, Cad Yel Med. and maybe a bit of sap green, I used in some of the leaves in first wash. The yellow at the top is being used for shadows on the pot.

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The pot is very flat now---I will add dark to both sides to make it appear rounder. In real life it is LEMON YELLOW.

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Working on the baby tears...I seem to do here and there. I think they will really pop when I do that lower right corner. So far, they are a mix of Lemon Yellow, Yellow Green and a bit of Sap Green.

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That's all for today, lots of other things have to get done around here.

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I can't wait to see where this goes next! I'm considering using whites for veinings...as I've washed the leaves almost too much?  

Do I know what I'm doing, not necessarily!

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Sandi