As mentioned in my last post, I've signed up for Dreama Tolle Perry's Flow class. My intention with this class is to watch one of her demos and replay it while I paint along with it, recreating "her" painting. Then I plan to take what I learned in that demo and create "my" version. Eventually, I'd like to paint my version in oil, acrylics, and watercolor...trying to figure out which medium I prefer.
The first oil painting demo I chose to watch was a backlit rose in a small glass jar. I love roses, and when I ventured into oils the first time, I painted a lovely rose from my garden. This is the only painting from that era that I liked. As a side note, I have nine hybrid tea roses and four floribundas around the house. And since I'm in northern California, there are blooms on these plants for nine months out of the year! What a treat. I really should paint these beauties more often.
I'm happy with both paintings but for different reasons. The pink roses are from Dreama's lesson. I'd say that she's a colorist, and that color is her first priority. This really shows up in the lovely grayed purples in the flowers and the exciting turquoise accents in the vase and leaves. Now that I'm writing this and really looking at it, I can see that these additions are really beautiful...and lost in my version.
However, I really like my version and am proud of myself. Better yet, I actually ENJOYED myself while painting it, and that is what I've been searching for! I love the roses themselves (Voodoo hybrid tea, from my garden) and the transitions in the warm colors. I prefer the cool, grayed complementary background color, which I think makes the warm roses really pop, to Dreama's analogous background, which brings the focus more to the vase. (Part of this is my painting technique; her rendition wasn't this analogous.) I don't usually work with backlit subjects as I prefer stronger value shifts and side lighting. Lastly, those leaves. Although I like the value changes in the greens, they certainly lack the excitement of Dreama's turquoise.
There's more to learn from this lesson. Writing this has helped me see where I need to go next, which is why I started this blog. I need to:
- Do a charcoal three-value study for my version, making artistic decisions about how I want to distribute the values instead of blindly following my photograph.
- Focus on adding some exciting color, especially some tones in the shadows and vibrancy in the highlights.
There will definitely be more rose paintings in my future.
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