My sketchbook had to come out today, it's not always needed as I paint daily and can now draw straight on my canvas with a brush. However, I have been looking at my hydrangea's for a while, they are blooming beautifully in my front garden and are just about turning different colours. We must have clay soil as we are very lucky to have blue as well as pink blooms on the bush.
Firstly I sketched them outside before the rain descended on us, a few days ago. I have finished the sketch but felt I had overworked my work once again.
The sketchbook came out!
Working from photos this time I really enjoyed just working small in my sketchbook, enjoying being loose and not adding pressure to what I painted, moving on to the canvas was easy. Working in a sketchbook can sometimes sort out problems like tone, colour and in this case composition. The hydrangea plant is just stunning! There is so much to see and paint and it was overwhelming, my sketch cut out a lot, I wanted blue in my painting and odd numbers of flowers plus some sky. Having sky is adding more light and colour to the work, and having painted from plein air last week, I realised too much green can be just too much green.
It's taken me all day to reach this stage of the painting, I have uploaded a Timelapse vid, which are fun and give an insight to how I build my work. Instagram is the place for these, followers love them and they can be useful in looking how to start off in painting.
I'm not finished, I have decided I am blind to the image now after looking at it all day. I am slightly disappointed I have not finished the painting in one sitting, but it is 12x12" and bigger than my daily paintings I have been completing, so I'm giving myself some grace on that.
I still have issues with how it is going.... art is a process of problem solving using the creative part of the brain, and the other side in my case being left handed. I'm hoping a fresh look tomorrow will indicate where I need to tweak and stop over doing it!!
I hope to upload the finished piece, I have a very nice frame made by Picture Frame Express in Coventry, I use them for my professional pieces... they are fantastic!
A rest overnight, fresh eyes tomorrow and fingers crossed I will achieve the expression I am l searching for with this piece.