Sunflower Trio

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Sunflowers Three Ways

On the note of summer flowers, here is an interesting study (not quite like Van Gogh’s sunflowers!). I did all these pictures from the same photo I took of a sunflower in our yard. However, I used different media for each. The top one on the left side is colored pencil, below that is acrylic, and the right hand painting is watercolor. They’re all done on plain paper, but the acrylic one is a card. In fact, you can see it up close right here in an earlier post. It’s very interesting how similar the colors came out in each version, but the effect is different depending on the medium. I think the acrylic is brightest, while the colored pencil is very blended, and the watercolor seems most realistic. Which painting do you like the best?

Mud Valley Reflection

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Mud Valley Watercolor

Can you believe I did another painting from this road? It is watercolor this time, and one of the same fishponds as in "Forest Fire." It’s an earlier painting than my last two, and has less detail. It’s got quite a bit of vibrancy and movement for a watercolor, with not so much focus on realism. On top of that, I think it was done on plain paper, which gets really soggy, wrinkled, and can even dissolve! I guess there’s a reason I haven’t used watercolor for a long time! This makes a nice addition to my Mud Valley collection, though.

See the original picture at J Beachy Photography—its color and detail are quite different from my painting. It's sort of a study in mood and tone.

Wildflowers

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Wildflowers on Roberts Pass

This painting is very similar to “Fireworks,” only it’s a watercolor that I painted two years earlier. I combined several photographs we took on a biking trail called Roberts Pass near our house. The greenery was next to impossible, and the goldenrod and honeysuckle proved very hard in watercolor! I donated the painting to a fundraising auction for our local Madison County Parks and Trails, who maintain the bike path.

Glass Frame

Here is a little poem I wrote about the painting a while later:

To make a painting of the trail,

I chose a subject—flowers.

I carefully drew each one to scale,

And painted them in layers.

Soon purple, lavender, and white

Stood out against the green.

I’d caught a sparkling memory of

A radiant summer scene.

Forest Fire Photo

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Original Scene

Did you think this is my painting? No—I’m not that good—it’s my reference photograph. It makes it clear really how little detail the watercolor has; that’s why artists often use pen and ink on top of watercolor. You can see how I made the green and blue in the painting less intense and buffered the orange. I think the vibrant colors make a more peaceful and interesting scene than the photo. I guess that’s what they call the artist’s liberty!

Forest Fire 3

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Final Detail

Now that everything’s dry, it’s time to finish up the tree leaves and pond ripples. I put even sharper detail on the fence posts since they’re in the foreground. After removing the rubber cement, I nestled in some nice barns and houses below the trees. The way to harmonize two contrasting colors in a picture like this is to buffer the intensity of one of the colors.By adding some of the complementary color, in this case blue to the orange, the red-orange does not clash with the intense blue and green. It sounds complicated, but really makes a nice painting!

New! You can now purchase this painting as a greeting card here at my Countrygirl Art shop on Etsy.com!

Forest Fire 2

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Darker Colors

Next layers give depth to the light washes—paint a little, let dry, add a darker color, let dry, and let dry! The tree is just beginning to get some good body in the leaves. In contrast to the bright orange, the background trees are shades of brown and blue. There was a trick I used on the background buildings to keep them nice and white: apply rubber cement with a toothpick to those areas, let it dry, paint over it, and then peel up the rubber cement. Much easier than trying to avoid the little houses with that wet paint!!

Forest Fire 1

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Pastel Washes

Here’s another watercolor painting—this time a landscape. I’m going to be working each part of the picture in layers. First are the pastel washes. They establish the color relationships and undertone, create the mood, and lay out the division of space in the painting. And, if you don’t put too much paint on top, they’ll even show through in the final painting as highlights. This is an important stage!

Summer Festivities 3

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Final Touches

What do you think would be a good background color for this scene? Red sure does make it pop. I like how the wash dried with splotchy dark places that look like shadows. Now is the time for details, once the first coats of paint are completely dry. I’ve put in highlights on the cups, speckled the apples, and added texture to the cake. Watercolor is really a tricky medium to work with; it’s so watery that detail must be done a little at a time on a very dry surface. I’d say this summer still life came out well!

Summer Festivities 2

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Coming Together

Here come the fruit bowl and tiny cups. I mixed a lot of yellow with the green and grays to make them warm colors. The brick-red brown pot, apricot yellow cake, and scarlet apple are on the warm side too. Even the white cake base is an ivory shade. Warm colors really aren’t limited to that red-to-yellow half of the color wheel; almost any color can be warm if it’s mixed with red or yellow rather than blue.

Summer Festivities 1

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Sketching In

I enjoy art almost more than history trips! I’ve been painting for as long as I can remember, in both acrylic and watercolor. Here’s a still life I did in eleventh grade. The hardest thing about still lifes is picking out/arranging the objects to paint! This watercolor was easier since I limited my palette to warm colors and used my own miniature clay sculptures. In this first stage photo, I’ve sketched in the cake, flowers, and fruit.