So this is my newest project - an acrylic painting I'm calling "Remembering Home in the Spring" (I grew up in Knoxville, TN… about 40 miles from the Smokey Mountains - and this scene reminds me of Cades Cove near Townsend, TN) I've been feeling pretty home-sick lately, with it being spring right now and knowing the dogwoods are in bloom this time of year, I decided to sit down and create something that would be from my heart.
Painting is fairly new to me, so please try to put up with any flaws or strange composition you might find in this piece of artwork…unless you are an artist who can critique it and help me out! I'd love to get feed back.
Anyway, I found 3 photos and included parts of all of them in this painting. I decided to paint this girl looking toward the mountains. (or maybe she's looking at the dogwood tree)…in a field of orange flowers (GO BIG ORANGE)…and I liked the thought of a distant dogwood in the middle of a grassy field…so that's what I did!
I painted this in the course of the last 5 days. It has helped me unwind from the day to day stress at work and just create. I have loved every minute! (Each step shown below was a different day of the week this week.) I have been coming home each day after work, changing my clothes and hanging out in the spare room / make-shift studio. I probably wouldn't have stopped to eat dinner, except that I have such a loving, caring husband who would make something and bring it up to me. (He gets me and understands when I get in these moods!)
I use a combination of Liquitex and Golden Heavy body Acrylics and Golden Open Acrylics (which is a new version of Golden's Acrylics - it dries a little slower than regular acrylics - which helps with blending.) And I use a variety of brushes. I admit I don't know a lot about brushes yet. I just grab whichever one I think will do what I'm wanting…however, by the end of a painting session I'm stuck in front of a sink for a pretty long time cleaning each brush…Maybe I'll learn soon! Hahaha!
DAY 1 (MONDAY)
First I drew in the main things I knew I wanted in the painting (the girl, the distant mountains and more forward trees.) I didn't take a pic of the drawing, sorry! But I used a charcoal pencil to draw it in and made sure it was covered by paint. Then I blocked in the main colors that I wanted. I wanted a bright cheerful day, but I think I would have been happier with a little more grayed out, subtle colors for the background. (But, let's move forward).
DAY 2 - TUESDAY
The next day I worked on the sky (I wanted it to be a pretty spring day…so few clouds…mostly blue. I also put more definition in the distant mountains, but didn't want too much detail since they are far away. (The smokey Mountains look very blue from far away). I also darkened the closer tree line and made little blobs that would look like trees. I placed a tree trunk where I thought I might like a dogwood tree, but wasn't too sure, so I didn't go far with it. I also put some detail in the girls hair and started building it up…I like drawing and painting hair…
DAY 3 - WEDNESDAY
On Wednesday I worked some more on her hair and skin tone on her arm and little bit of face you can see. Skin tone is very hard…I went through some paint trying to figure it out…but I felt pretty good about where it was going…now about that hand….uggghhhh! Oh, and I also darkened the foreground grass…but wasn't too happy with it so it will be changing...
DAY 4 - THURSDAY
So, as you can see, on Thursday I brightened the distant grass a bit, I felt a little better about it, but still wasn't sure if I liked it. I also put a little more darkness in the girls hair, I had added a bit too much highlight in it the day before and now I'm happier! I also put some details in her clothes. I decided on blue to feel a bit cohesive with the sky and mountain colors and because I knew that I wanted orange flowers…and since blue and orange are complimentary colors I felt like it would be the best choice. (What is your opinion?) Below is a close up of the girl…YIKES…that hand!
DAY 5 - FRIDAY!!!!
Yay! I'm off today and was able to paint as long as I wanted and I was so excited! As you can see my pallet was getting a bit messy! (I will learn how to mix paint easier and stop making such a mess soon, I hope!) So, I put out a new set of paint blobs to start the day. (by the way, I use a stay-wet pallet. I like it, but haven't quite figured out the best way to use it. My paint is either too wet or too dry so far). The colors seen here are Ultramarine blue, Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold, Naples Yellow, Cadmium Yellow, Alizarine Crimson, Burnt Sienna and Titanium White…but all too soon it looked like below…oh well...
So after I tweaked stuff like the girl's dress and hand…(finally okay with it…though not perfect, I don't hate it anymore!) I also painted in the dogwood and foreground grass. I was pretty nervous at this point. I thought I may have gone too far and too dark, but I knew if I just pressed on it might work out.
Ah, okay…so, maybe after adding a lot of highlights and such into the grass before I painted in the million flowers it wasn't as dark as I thought.
Finished!!! (Above is the side view and below… a close up! - Oh, and did you notice I put a flower in her hand…aren't I clever?! (Although it makes you look at her hand a little too closely…so maybe not so clever…LOL)
I hope you've enjoyed going on this painting journey with me as much as I've enjoyed it. I know that I have a lot to learn…but I'm enjoying figuring it out. I've learned a lot from You Tube! There's one person I subscribe to that I've learned so much from - Will Kemp Art School…search for him on YouTube - he's a great teacher!
GOD BLESS YOU!
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