Thursday, April 28, 2016

Done!

*****OOPS! Forgot to post this after all that work!*****
Finished! Man, keeping white flowers white while adding shadow to them to give them depth is both scary and really cool. Basically scary before you started and while you're doing it and after you've started (if it's going poorly) and cool when it works! Ha. 
Now for the grand reveal to a hopefully happy customer tomorrow morning! 

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Once a night owl, always a night owl

You know how great it would be to be one of those people that only need four or five hours of sleep a night? Alas, I am not one of them. Not even close. But what are you going to do when you don't get to start painting until after 9 PM and then you're on a roll and if you can just keep going, there will be no more of that darn greenery to paint tomorrow?
You stay up until it's done. 
And then tomorrow, you get to look at the painting with fresh eyes. And with the help of some chocolate and a lot of peanut butter, you might just get lucky and get it finished. I know, I know I'll regret staying up late but when you're on a roll, you're on a roll and it's really hard to restart dead inspiration. How does it work for you? Can you just turn your motivation/inspiration on and off at will? Or do you have to build up that momentum like me? And does it get harder or easier the longer the project goes on? For me it's much harder. I'll go ahead and blame my attention span on the quick convenience of iPhones and Google searches but I frankly cannot fathom how the old masters used to spend years and years on a painting or sculpture. Although I suppose if you had deadlines that stretched on for years, you probably would get a little more sleep.

Tuesday, April 26, 2016

There's hope!

Less empty white space yet! Wahoo! 
I might actually finish this painting after all.

Sunday, April 24, 2016

Now we're getting somewhere

You know sometimes what I need more than anything is just to fill in a lot of the white space. My inclination is to finish each little flower before moving on but even if I do, I look around at this big white page and feel like I've made no progress whatsoever. 
So after filling in a lot of the lower green spaces, I'm feeling a little better. I tried to keep it loose but I'm not sure I accomplished that. Hopefully the background doesn't take away from the flowers - I don't want to give everything equal attention or there's nowhere for your eye to rest. But my husband does assure me that it's only my eyes that go a little buggy looking at it, which by the way, is a good sign it is time for bed. And look at the time! My eyes are so right.

Thursday, April 21, 2016

WIP Day 3

A little bit at a time. Slightly discouraging but I've been getting less than two hours a night and the painting takes time but so does the thinking! I'm changing this:
 
into this:
with a little help from this:
So many decisions. So many colors to balance. So much needing to sleep.

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Day 2

Unfortunately my youngest two have decided sleeping is overrated. They're seriously messing with my sanity and my painting time, which are sometimes related come to think of it.
Why do I mention it? It's my excuse for not getting more done but I think the red flowers might end up being my favorite!
P.S. That picture didn't look nearly so awful on my phone! Darn lighting. Sorry for the lack of professionalism but I'm tired and going to bed instead of going back upstairs to get a better picture. Good night!

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

So Many Flowers

So my aunt commissioned me to do a painting for her! That's good news of course, but I've been super intimidated to give it a start. She showed me pictures she'd taken of a street artist's work and they were gorgeous but very unlike my style. I haven't really had a clue where to start. When I do florals, I do them a la Georgia O'Keeffe, up close and intense. It's what I'm drawn to do and it's honestly what makes them different. I don't really know how to do a large, zoomed out painting that incorporates many different flowers with different colors and things going on. It's a challenge. But after pumping myself up with some good podcasts ("The Unmistakeable Creative" is really inspiring), I had to give it a go. So it has started slow, but I have started. I'm combining images from three different photos that my aunt took at her cousin's flower farm so that I can get better balance of color than any one possessed on it's own. So add that challenge to the table and here we go:
It looks a little better now that I've stepped away from the paper. Isn't that so often the case? Why don't I remember that when I'm in the middle of feeling like it's not going well? Instead I kept painting and eating inordinate amounts of guacamole right before bedtime, which in retrospect, wasn't really the best idea after all.