Mira OBrien
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Jojo this is stunning! As usual you are your own worst critic 😉 but I hope you’re gonna put this one up on the wall or at the least on the fridge so that it can be admired. It is lovely to see so many poppy parts together and it looks all quite accurate. Yes I agree that if drawn at a larger scale you would have been able to fit even more detail.
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I think masking fluid would be helpful here and I am looking forward to seeing how you will use it when you have the chance. It seems the photos is a bit dark, but also try reserving the darker colors for where you see shadows so that you can achieve more contrast/ tonal variation. I think that the tonal variation, goinfr om light to dark within one painting, is more important than a perfect color match.
It looks like you achieved the lightness you were after. Bravo. I like the looser style here, it feels very natural.
I think this looks great! The filaments look dark enough to me. The anthers could use a little more white just on the upper edge, maybe not filling in the the entire shape again. You want some variation. Nice work!
Yes of course I see that now! I was so focused on the technique before.
So pretty Alix! I love how light and alive this feels. Maybe you could try using the white gouache technique in the center of the flower, on the stamen/ pistol parts. It could be nice to try and get a little more contrast there.
I think this is stunning! You are quite critical of yourself and understand that you want to learn and improve, but don’t forget to give yourself credit where credit is due 🙂 I think now that it is totally dry you could redo the bit of purple in the center. I do not find this muddy though. It feels full of life.
Oh lovely! I feel like you could actually keep working on this more, if you wanted to. In the areas of overlap you could add some more tonal contrast to more clearly define the shapes – meaning emphasizing which leaves are brighter and which have a shadow on them. Do you have a photograph to work from? Otherwise just something to keep in mind next time. Focusing on tonality can also help from getting things jumbled up.
Wow! this looks fantastic. It is great to see they way it developed. Sometimes it can really help to take a break and come back to the painting. I especially love the spiraling tendrils.
Wow this looks very realistic! The color and shading are both excellent.
Try taking photos of your work outside using daylight and you might get even better image quality.
Oh I see. Maybe water is coming out of the water brush making it impossible to control the amount of water precisely. I would get another brush! Try to avoid frustration stemming from your materials/ tool as much as possible since the techniques are difficult enough.
Great to see this loose approach! The different shades of green are working really well in the painting on the right. Love it!
Hi Laura,
Great to see all of these together! I particularly like the top right corner painting. I think the colors are blending well and the composition makes it quite 3D. The bottom right painting looks like you used too much water and didn’t let things dry completely between layers. I think that also happened in the center of the lower left painting. Make sure when you are layering or when you are switching colors, that everything dries completely.
Hi Karen,
Yes the structures of plants can be complex and it helps to be realistic about exactly what you want to achieve in any specific composition. If you plan to complete a painting in 1-3 hours, then it is likely not a realistic expectation that you will have time to capture every single detail. What you could do is select one or two leaves in the foreground to add all the small details including the veins. I can talk more about painting leaves during class today.
If you find hot pressed paper torturous, then try the botanical style with cold press. Hot press is what is traditionally used for botanical illustration but there are no hard rules and you are the one making the painting and should enjoy it. Otherwise please expect that it takes time to get used to any new material.
I think you did a great job with the flowers! The shadow layer works well and the bunches of flowers have a lot of three dimensionality. Great job!
