Spring is in the air

At least we hope that this time, the sun is here to stay!

I joined skillshare because I wanted to learn more about gouache painting and I found tons of inspiration for other things. I suspect I will hang around for a while. 

Most tutorials are either short or divided in bit-size chapters. This works out great because I can fit them whenever I have a pocket of time. I found out tutorials on topics like pinterest marketing, opening and operating an etsy shop, self-publishing, blogging, writing and many more. Exciting stuff...I saved about 40 tutorials in my queue! I will have to start prioritizing the topics - or else I will fall down the rabbit hole of the net consumption!

One of the tutorials is about painting spring flowers, taught by Irina Trzaskos. It seemed appropriate, given that there was no sign of spring outside. I figured at least I can have spring in my sketchbook. My plan was to spend maybe 30 min or so going through the exercises - painting hyacinths, daffodils and tulips.

I was also doing my weekly challenge - 3 min sketches using the glass pen. So I started this way - sketched the outline of the hyacinth with glass pen and ink. I applied color first, planning to do a wet in wet flower. The scrap of watercolor paper I used was not of good quality, so my color mixing came out too flat. Note to self: use good paper....

But then I started wondering what would happen if....and I was down the experimenting path. For the next flower, I still used the glass pen and then applied the color. The third flower was done using the fude pen. From the first batch of experiments, the third one is my favorite. I find that the pen and color balance well, the pen created a bit of structure for the flower. The leaves however proved to be a challenge in all three of them. I ended up covering the leaves and bulb with collage paper and made vases for my flowers.

I decided to work in my good sketchbook with good paper. I looked up other reference images on the net. Did you know there are types of hyacinths that have less buds on the stem? The individual flowers are more defined because there is more space around them. Another note to self: one such flower could be used to explore negative space either in order to draw the flower or as an experiment with shapes that could be used in abstract painting. One of the benefits of exploring a subject like this is finding out new things about it. It would have been better to have a real flower, but the net offers a wide range of images from different angles.

I chose flowers that were in some kind of container and painted next one with less buds. Next image that caught my attention was of a bent flower. I thought it made for an interesting composition - different from the standard one. I am pleased with how this turned out, except for the leaves.

By this time I was a bit tired of hyacinths and I painted a daffodil. For the tulips, I wanted to try negative painting. I ended up covering all the whites. I think that the problem was the initial wash did not have enough variety and the colors were too pale. If this wash is good, then I don't need many more glazes to cut out the flowers. Sometimes I get carried away adding colors and I end up losing the transparency of the watercolor, which is what happened here. 

But then I saw an image with birds and I had an aha moment - how about adding a little bird? As if it was the bird that made the flower bend. I like the idea - cute, don't you think? I also painted some tulips on hot pressed paper. Not loving this paper. Good for pen and ink with some color, but not for mixing colors on paper. Can't even see the granularity of the paint.

And finally, I sketched again the flower and the bird on a separate paper. One last experiment - using the bamboo pen. I am pleased with the result, however more notes to self: 

• use the fude pen for the outline
• careful with the colors; on this last one I don't have enough white. I was again going for the wet on wet negative painting approach and lost some of the white
• revisit the bird in terms of color. It has to be a pretty bird, but also compliment the flower. Do I use complementary colors and have a sort of dialog going on between the 2 characters of the image? Or I make the bird more neutral and pop the color of the flower? What do you think? 

So here it is - a project that took a life of its own with a few lessons learned on the way. 

Happy Easter! Happy sketching!