Orchid Background Final

I grew up in a close and large extended family. My Aunt Sal was known as quite the eccentric but she truly had a heart of gold. Over a period of time, she took each of her nephews and nieces on an individual trip "downtown" to wander about a few stores and eat at the Woolworth's lunch counter. She would also have a small sum of money for each of us, to buy Mom a gift. I selected a little ceramic plaque that I am now so very much reminded of when I see this painting.





I reworked the bamboo repeatedly with tracing paper and a few times on the painting. Once drawn in, I lightened it up with a kneadable eraser. I'm not sure that I followed the spirit of the exercise, perhaps more closely followed if with a brush and wash or something or other--but, I did follow my spirit. :-)

Orchid Background

This week's third and final exercise involves adding a background to an existing painting. Here I dropped a sheet of tracing paper upon the painting and tried out some sketches. It's obviously rough at this point but I'll be pecking around with element size and composition and determining the medium. Graphite, or perhaps some very light brushwork with Payne's Gray.

Second Orchid Wrap

And that's it for the orchids!




Learning to paint is such an interesting process. Naturally, one must gain competence with paint, brush, paper, and water. What I now feel is a greater challenge is to see and feel with all the detail that a flower offers. I call it "honest seeing". As a beginner, I can mentally gloss over details that I sense beyond my ability, or I can accept that I'm not working out all that I see--kind of a "I'll wait until I'm better" mentality. I play it both ways, for now.

Orchid Petal-by-Petal

This is the beginning of the second exercise where I am asked to complete a painting one element at a time. So hear I went, one petal at a time. Phew, three hours later...

I am asked to compare this technique with the previous exercise where I worked the painting as a whole and then offer my thoughts on my preferred method. Well, I think I saw more going petal-by-petal. But who knows at this early stage in my practice which I might prefer?



You will notice quite the color shift from the first exercise. Yup, it's the same orchid. I'm actually a good deal closer to actual color with this second painting. I am amazed at how far off I could be without noticing. Am I filtering out color as I struggle with wash and shading? I don't know... Weird...

Orchid Finished?

This post is titled as a question as I'm not sure yet. Maybe a bit of smoothing on some transitions. Perhaps better to stop now and call it a good practice. After all, next up is the same image painted petal by petal. That is, instead of how I worked the entire painting here a little at a time.

I'm a bit light on the anatomy here. I thing I need to get in with a bit of magnification and sketching. That will probably be for after the course.

Orchid Starter

About three hours here. In this exercise, I move from element to element with light glazes, feeling my way along.

Orchid Sketching

Here are snippets from the guidelines for the week 4 journal:

Sometimes I find that it takes me awhile to settle into painting, and then when I do, it's all I want to do. But getting there is a challenge.
...
Do you find that you have mental steps that prepares you for the creative process? Reflect on what happens prior to painting, and how to foster that sense of settling into your work.

I suppose that today's been a good example of my process. I spent a couple of hours poking about on the web before heading out for a model. I'd thought about a sunflower but had trouble finding one so I figured I'd just take a drive and see what showed up. Pretty loose, eh? :-) I hadn't gone far when I ran across a local florist, one that's been there forever but I'd never visited.

The kind owner, with closed sign in her window, kindly let me in. I explained what I was up to and she patiently offered suggestions. I noticed some lovely orchids in the back of the walk in and she helped me pick one out that might face well for my exercise.

I got it home and in the fridge and then spent an hour or so killing more time. Finally, I set it up with lots of tape in a vase and got down to sketching. I've done little sketching lately and it wasn't long before I felt that I was in over my head. Then I remembered my lessons... Block it in. Watch the angles. Negative space.

I simplified by scaling down to one flower and bud. I sketched and transferred a few times. Now I'll try a transfer to watercolor paper.



Well, that's the story. What I left out was the emotion. Doubt, unsureness, negativity. The job looks too big. A few lines appear and I feel a bit better. Hey, maybe I can do this. A rough flower appears and I accept it as that. Try again. I'll get closer. If I don't, I can erase. I can try again.