About 2.5 months ago, I posted this blog post, which teased a new 12"x12" acrylic painting that I was starting, which I was calling "Find a Proverbial Mountain." I showed the process of how I put down the first gestural layer and planned out where the flowers would go.
Since then, I haven't posted more about that painting on this blog. In August, I used this space to promote my notecard sets, which I printed up for the Art Market at the Paint Creek Center for the Arts in downtown Rochester, MI (and which are still available for purchase there and in my Etsy shop). In September and October, I started focusing on a series of posts about my large "30 Days" colored pencil drawing.
But just because I wasn't posting updates on the painting, doesn't mean I wasn't working on it! In fact, if you follow me on Instagram, you might have seen some further updates of my painting progress since that first gestural layer:
I'm still not quite done with the painting, but it's slowly, steadily coming together. I have a lot of photos of the step-by-step process (a lot more than just the five I've posted on Instagram!) so I'm going to take two posts today and tomorrow to share a few of the best "in progress" shots.
As I went about adding dimension to the petals, I started in the upper right corner and then went around in sort of a counter-clockwise circle. I focused on the upper right first because that was the flower that had the most detail/focus, so I wanted to make sure that one got plenty of attention. There's sort of a diagonal composition to this piece, where the flowers along the diagonal from upper right to lower left are the most dimensional and well-defined, while the others start to blend more into the background.
Here you can see that first step, of focusing on the upper right corner:
I even started to add some of the white/black stripes back into the background of that corner, though as I continued to go around the rest of the painting I realized it would be best to wait until I had all of the flowers more fleshed out and then go and add the stripes in during a separate step. So when we get to the later shots, you'll see that I stopped adding in the stripes as I went around, and instead added them back in at the end.
Then I continued around to the upper left corner, where the flowers didn't have to be as detailed. I wanted them to be similar in color and shade to the details I added to the upper right corner, but I kept them a little softer around the edges, so they would blend more into the background.
Each of these "corners" took anywhere from one, two, or three 1-2 hour sessions (which was the most I could dedicate to painting on them at any given time). So the above set of photos took me probably 2-3 weeks to complete. (I also kept setting this painting aside to work on editing my story or drawing my colored pencil roses, so that didn't help get this done any quicker.) :)
I'll post more photos of the step-by-step process tomorrow.
Since then, I haven't posted more about that painting on this blog. In August, I used this space to promote my notecard sets, which I printed up for the Art Market at the Paint Creek Center for the Arts in downtown Rochester, MI (and which are still available for purchase there and in my Etsy shop). In September and October, I started focusing on a series of posts about my large "30 Days" colored pencil drawing.
But just because I wasn't posting updates on the painting, doesn't mean I wasn't working on it! In fact, if you follow me on Instagram, you might have seen some further updates of my painting progress since that first gestural layer:
I'm still not quite done with the painting, but it's slowly, steadily coming together. I have a lot of photos of the step-by-step process (a lot more than just the five I've posted on Instagram!) so I'm going to take two posts today and tomorrow to share a few of the best "in progress" shots.
As I went about adding dimension to the petals, I started in the upper right corner and then went around in sort of a counter-clockwise circle. I focused on the upper right first because that was the flower that had the most detail/focus, so I wanted to make sure that one got plenty of attention. There's sort of a diagonal composition to this piece, where the flowers along the diagonal from upper right to lower left are the most dimensional and well-defined, while the others start to blend more into the background.
Here you can see that first step, of focusing on the upper right corner:
I even started to add some of the white/black stripes back into the background of that corner, though as I continued to go around the rest of the painting I realized it would be best to wait until I had all of the flowers more fleshed out and then go and add the stripes in during a separate step. So when we get to the later shots, you'll see that I stopped adding in the stripes as I went around, and instead added them back in at the end.
Then I continued around to the upper left corner, where the flowers didn't have to be as detailed. I wanted them to be similar in color and shade to the details I added to the upper right corner, but I kept them a little softer around the edges, so they would blend more into the background.
Each of these "corners" took anywhere from one, two, or three 1-2 hour sessions (which was the most I could dedicate to painting on them at any given time). So the above set of photos took me probably 2-3 weeks to complete. (I also kept setting this painting aside to work on editing my story or drawing my colored pencil roses, so that didn't help get this done any quicker.) :)
I'll post more photos of the step-by-step process tomorrow.
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