Egg Tempera Vinca

Trying to get into the swing of things with egg tempera. The big no-no is applying another layer before the last is dry. Notice my holes on leaf tips. I was applying light washes of alternating blue and green, developing some shadowing. Just like that, whoosh! All the layers were gone!

There's a saying with egg tempera, "Make haste slowly."

Vinca - Composition

I'm wrapping up my composition. I'll add third stalk tomorrow with a fresh sample detailing a flower in rear view. I think that will be it--simple, with lots of open space to lend a delicate nature. There could be some movement of the stalks during a transfer. For instance, I might rotate the left stalk a few degrees clockwise.

Vinca - More Skteches

I began this evening with a few little thumbnails, just to think about possible layouts.

And then I got back to a few more sketches. Sketching is becoming a lot of fun. I try to forget about looking at leaves and simply see the shapes and the spacings between them.

Vinca - Test Sketches

I took a few closeup selective sketches to become more familiar with this little plant. After the first few, I can let up a bit on the mental editing and just let them flow. Not always easy to do!

Vinca in the Box

Yesterday I potted up a bit of Vinca for indoor study. It sure looked shabby last night but by morning had perked up considerably. This evening it was positively beaming.

I love the elegant twists of the stems...

A few stems. A flower almost straight on, another profiled, and a third as bud. That is how I roughly envision my composition. I want to fall back to pencil as I try to put this all together.

Vinca - First Leaves

Here's a bit of a composite--a graphite sketch transferred to watercolor paper with my vinca green mix. I first used the Quin Orange mix but had difficulty getting dark enough so back to Cad Orange I went. Deep, rich green then came easily.

Most veining is a result of razor knife scratching. Also experimented with lifting to simulate highlights.

It's rough but I'm having fun seeing the pieces come together. I suppose I'll be in this iterative loop of improving sketches and coloring. I'll bet the flowers would really kick against these greens!

Vinca - Green Studies

I'm reminded of my earlier work with Blue and Yellow Don't Make Green. I'd placed all my charts in plastic holders in a binder for easy review. Surprisingly, I found few greens that would  help--most were too clean and saturated.

Now for my little tests...

As expected, a mixture using Quinacridone Gold instead of Cadmium Orange lent to transparency. The resulting greens are quite similar.

Many artists don't use green at all but mix from blues and yellows so I thought I'd try that here. Not bad, reasonable, but a bit limited in range.

Also read that sometimes siennas are used. Although labeled as burnt sienna, this is really raw. Again, somewhat reasonable. Below is our same Thalo Green Yellow Shade, this time with Dioxazine Violet. This mix went straight to bluish and very dark. Useful in its place but not here.

And lastly, our same green mixed with Cadmium Yellow. Really too close to yellow to veer off the desaturated path.

These exercises have been most useful. I feel like there is hope for getting at least close to the coloring of Vinca leaves. I have concentrated on the tops but I don't expect much trouble with the undersides. And now I have some ideas on dealing with flowers. Next up would seem to be assembling a few sketches with coloring. Sometime in the future I must dig into more detailed studies of green mixtures, something along the article Mixing Green within Bruce MacEvoy's incredibly rich and deep Handprint web site.

Vinca - More Color Work

Today I thought I'd try to shape up leaf color. My early attempts came in too saturated and too light. After switching to Phalo Greens and Cadmium Orange, those fearful thoughts that I would never find the color slipped away. Although not yet right on, I think I'm getting close to color mixes that will work. Additionally, these green mixes lift nicely for veining.

There is a considerable color difference between the front and back of the leaf and viridian with cad orange seems appropriate for the backside.

Also tried Ultramarine Violet instead of Dioxizine Violet for the flower--not sure about that yet. Either way, I'm shading and highlighting with Ultramarine Blue and Permanent Rose respectively.

So now, I can clean my little palettes and start over with a lot less paints as I try to tune in my colors.

Vinca - Experiments With Color

Here's an experiment with Vinca flowers. Haven't painted much purple/blue... I might be leaning too far into red but it's okay for now. Just trying to get down shapes and veins and everything else going on in this little flower.

You know what's cool here? It's getting to know the subject--looking closer and beginning to notice subtleties. I stop worrying about outcome and just get into the details.

I figure that daily practice with these flowers, and leaves soon to come, will leave me in good stead.

This evening's play worked from top to bottom.

Vinca For The Fells

I'm going to try Vinca for an upcoming exhibition. Here are a few initial shots to help me work up color and composition. Not sure how this will play out but I'm thinking of a colored area surrounded with black and white. Watercolor and graphite or egg tempera and silverpoint, not sure yet...

More Vinca

Here I get in a bit more practice with foreshortening. Keeping track of negative space and watching the angles helps a lot!

Vinca

I'm using a little bit of Vinca to practice foreshortening. I like the curves. More of this tomorrow...

Vinca minor is flowering

Common Periwinkle, Vinca minor, is an evergreen perennial classified as invasive. Imported in the 1700's from Europe as an ornamental, it is said to take over forest floors, choking out native species. Regardless, I really like this little one. The leaves are bright and shiny and the flowers so pretty. Around the lake it grows in shady spots and doesn't really seem that overpowering. I'm sticking up for it. After all, it does provide a nice touch of green, as it did on my Christmas post.

















Today is my fourth day in a row for a mini vacation of sorts--it is sadly back to work tomorrow. Each day I have been happily collecting photographs and specimens. Identification is proving a good deal more challenging than the gathering. I am without comfortable tools for determining species by newly developing buds. No worries... I may soon have to post a bit without names until leaves develop--there are some very lovely buds...

Vinca minor

Here is Vinca minor, low growing and evergreen. It's a rather lazy day here today and there's not likely to be any research. I really just wanted to show a bit of green that's been hiding under all the snow. After two days of balmy plus forty degrees, most of the snow has melted, uncovering for me a few new specimens.

Speaking of research, I suspect that I will be adding posts and photos on specimens already mentioned as I stumble over more and more information. That is a real treat compiling this blog, the always new little discovery that makes this endeavor so exciting!