ound was frozen this morning, so I didn't feel guilty to spend the day indoors with my son, painting the bird house he received for his 5th birthday, and working on my garden painting layout.I'm not being too precise about the paper layout, just getting an idea of which flowers and colours I will be using, and roughly how many I will be able to fit onto the canvas, to achieve a full-but-still-orderly garden effect. The scale of the printed flower themselves, and the colours, are not quite right, but will give me some sort of guide as I paint.
I'd love to hear any criticisms or comments on the layout. I've chosen a bird bath as a feature. I plan to add in a few birds, maybe one bathing, and one sitting on the edge. Lots of bees and butterflies, wherever I can fit them in, especially on their favourite flowers. The flower attached to the bird bath is a passionflower, I am considering painting the vine winding its way up the bird bath, so it will become part of the garden, rather than stark stone (I think I'll try for a light grey cement look) against the flowers.
I think my garden is a bit messy, and I may end up painting a smaller variety of flowers, but in larger clumps. As I was putting it together, I became aware that I really do have a tendency toward purple and blue flowers, but I don't see this when I look from a distance - there seems to be enough colour variety.
My next step is to buy a set of acrylics, and some small canvas boards, so I can practise with a few flowers. I don't yet know if I should start from the back (top) of the garden, and work forward, or from the front (bottom) and work backward. I'd love any advice in this area, otherwise that will be something I'll need to experiment with.
See also Garden Painting Day 1 : Paper Layout.
I came across this website that is so full of information it makes your head spin. I've spent several days trying to digest it all. It gets quite intense and he is stuck on not using black as a color. I now understand a lot about color, reflections, shadows and perspective. He has demonstrations of how he painted his picture which helps a lot. Start with the color wheel and follow links to just about everything.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.realcolorwheel.com/realcolorwheel.htm
Now I just need to try using all that I learned.