Monday, January 23, 2012

Work in Progress: Spring Breeze & Hide and Seek

I did some work on both of the "Spring Breeze" paintings today, adding wet-into-wet overpaintings. On the first one, I finished on pedal so that I could refer to it regarding the value contrasts on all the other pedals. I love the rich red orange, but had a real hard time deciding the exact hue of the deep shadows. After some frustration, I decided to do an experiment, and opened the reference photo in photoshop. I used the pipette tool in photoshop to take sample in the shadow area of the flower -- Wowla! It's a dark reddish purple brown. I thought it could be a really good training -- look a a color in the context of all the surrounding colors, try to mix and match, then isolate the color to compare with the swatch you made to see how accurate your color perception is. Maybe I will try to spend 5-10 minutes everyday for this exercise, in order to sharpen my color sense...



Spring Breeze,  Watercolor on Arches 140# Rough Paper , 7"h x 5"w, WIP 2

For the second one, I mainly worked on the background section by section, taking care to wet larger areas than the area I intend to cover, so that the edges would appear soft between background shapes. To keep the background muted yet colorful is the challenge here, and so far I'm happy with it.


Spring Breeze II,  Watercolor on Arches 140# Rough Paper , 7"h x 5"w, WIP 3

Finally, I worked a bit more on the rose painting "Hide and Seek", mainly because it had a similar palette to the tulip paintings. For this one I just carefully worked on one pedal at a time, wetting each time before dropping in colors, and layer more after the last passage has dried. It is a very time consuming process, but allows accurate control for the shapes of any soft color passages. This is a painting with mainly saturated reds, oranges and mauves but very little true white, and I am trying to be very careful not to cover any areas that should be left white. 


Hide and Seek,  Watercolor on Fabriano Artistico 140# Cold Press Paper , 5"h x 7"w, WIP 4

15 comments:

  1. My goodness but you have been busy! And your paintings are coming along beautifully. I love all the juicy, transparent color. Thanks for sharing your process with us. :o)

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    1. Thanks for the kind words, Sherry. What's amazing is your work -- all the beautiful details and the attention behind them... I saw your newest progress in pastel -- looks like you've been busy yourself too! ;-)

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  2. It's always interesting to see works in progress and get a window into how other artists work. I love the first tulip painting. The background is wonderful.
    Happy Painting,
    Nora

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    1. Thanks for stopping by, Nora! I am such an uptight painter and make progresses so slowly... I wish I would be as free and lose as you!

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  3. This is a great blog for information on the process. Thanks for sharing.

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  4. The variety of reds in the top rose is absolutely amazing!! And I am most intrigued with "Hide and Seek" - it looks fabulous !

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    1. Thanks for the kind words, Kathryn. I'm crossing my fingers not to screw up in the overlay washes... This is the most nerve-wrecking stage of a painting -- you've already put in enough effort yet it's far from done. You still have to do a lot, but every step is in the risk of ruining what's been accomplished before... You know how it's like ;-) Pray for me... :-P

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  5. Your work is progressing wonderfully Arena! These are all just beautiful! :))

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    1. Thanks for stopping by, Crystal, I know you are so busy... ;-)

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  6. Three gorgeous works of art , love your rich colors and your explanation, I really couldn't pick a favorite, all are really beautiful!

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    1. Thanks a lot for your kind words, Jane! It's unbelievable to meeting people from all over the world through blogging and looking at other blogs -- I love the bold color statements and free brushwork of your paintings too! For me, it's all very Italian ;-) (Although I know you are Danish :-P)

      Maybe when I travel to Milan one day, we can go out in the field and paint together! ^__^

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  7. Love the tulips! Beautiful colours.

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Thank you so much for taking time visiting and commenting on my blog! Your feedback and encouragements are things that keep me going with I am feeling down or frustrated... I will try my best to reply to every comment ASAP but sometimes life gets in the way and I am a bit slow in my response. I would like to apologize if that happens...

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