I have started with the heart of the flower and not the background as I usually do: I was really scared of those filaments criss-crossing and did not want to waste my time painting the entire painting first to find out that the center was a failure. At this point, the heart of the flower is almost done - will come back later to fine tune everything - I think that it is ok enough for me to continue with the painting. I hope that you agree.
The darks spots that you see are areas masked to preserve some highlights.
Have a great week-end. We are having our first real snow storm of the year - it is very pretty, but the roads look very slippery.
I'd say your right on track , Chritiane. It's going to be a beauty.
ReplyDeleteChristiane, the center is looking great. I love Clematis they are so delicate. Can't wait to see it come to life :)
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to seeing this one progress!
ReplyDeleteThank you, ladies for the vote of confidence! I will try to post regular updates. This should be fun to paint...I've realized that I like all those petals: each one is like a mini painting - so if one is not too great, there are still a million more:-)
ReplyDeleteGood start; "they" say you should begin with the most difficult area first - makes sense! Also, after that the rest is easy!
ReplyDeleteHi Christiane. Great start on your flower painting. Good idea to paint the difficult part first and then move forward. It is coming along nicely. Isn't retirement great? One can paint all day if they wish. Yahoo! Thanks too for your encouraging words and your support. I greatly appreciate it.
ReplyDeleteDeb, I usually prefer to start with the easy part...but this time, the center did worry too much to do that:-)
ReplyDeleteRoss, don't thank me for the encouragement - I LOVE your work! However, I have not found a way to paint all day yet...there is always something else to do also:-)
Fairly small at a quarter sheet size? What size do you usually paint, Christiane - full sheet? I should have noticed that before, but seeing your beautiful work has driven any thought of size out of my head! This one will be a stunner too, I'm sure :)
ReplyDeleteActually, Pat, this painting is more like 8.5 X 11 before matting. My Venice paintings are all half sheets and most of my florals until recently have been true quarter sheets. I am certainly trying to work smaller: smaller is what sells in my group shows; smaller is easier to send by mail; smaller is also usually faster to paint. However, I find it easier to paint on half sheets - was it Nick Simmons who said:" It takes a large mistake to ruin a large painting, but only a small one to ruin a small painting."?
ReplyDeleteSmart girl to start on what you think will cause problems and get that done - then the rest is cake. And this looks really good so far :) All of the WetCanvas photos are copyright free, I was told several years ago by one of the moderators. It's a wonderful reference library of photos to use - the problem is, if you travel all over painting sites like I do, you often see the same photos done here and there and you remember seeing them on WetCanvas so it's popular for artists to use those photos.
ReplyDeleteRhonda, I am finding the rest of the painting hard also:-)
ReplyDeleteYes, the WetCanvas photos are used a lot- the secret is to crop them and significantly change the colors whenever possible. Another nice site for photo reference is Paintmyphoto
I much prefer using my own photos, but I am running out of interesting florals...can't wait for springtime - I will be out with my camera every sunny day:-)
This looks like a great piece but complex from what I can see so far. I think you have it mapped out well and know how best to tackle it. I really should do a flower piece soon, I keep threatening to. :)
ReplyDeleteFinding photos is challenging and I'm really trying to take most of my own wherever possible to avoid seeing a similar piece elsewhere.
Jeanette, I would love to see you paint a floral - I think you would love it! I have thousands of photos of Venice for my "Memories of Venice" series, but I have started only recently to take pictures of flowers. Ottawa has the National Experimental Farm with its splendid ornamental gardens: that's where I got my peony photos last spring and I will be a very frequent visitor this coming spring:-)
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