Yellow + Red = Orange

Yesterday’s tulips were accompanied by red and yellow flowers, some negative painting, and color combining. I used reds and yellows (which ones, I forget) and some Pyrrol Orange to make the flowers. Thinking of black-eyed Susans, I used black for the flowers’ centers on the daisy-like ones. What are the red ones? Good question!

What I did here was try to work from large masses of color to details, top to bottom, and having things dry to a certain point before adding more color unless I wanted them to bleed.  White space, too, was thought about.  Near and far, even with a rather shallow depth of field, was pondered, and the idea was to use cold colors – such a cold yellow or green – to make something recede – and warm colors to bring things forward.  Light and dark were also used in an attempt to achieve this effect.

97. Tulips

Having photography as a hobby sometimes yields pictures that can be used to create more pictures.  I decided to give up the no-lines approach for now (though it is a great exercise to learn how to make shapes – I was just really frustrated by what I was doing), do some pencil roughing, and then work one color area at a time.  First the tulips in shades of red, orange, and yellow, mixing some oranges as I went.  Next, the greens of leaves and stems, consciously determining the areas to negative paint later on, as for the flower petals.  Finally, the bowl.  Before the whole was done, I went back to each area and tried to create a sense of depth by deepening other areas and being careful not to touch the areas I had left deliberately white.

Mission

We went to visit the La Purisima Mission nearby in Lompoc, California.  It’s a state park which is a rebuild of the mission itself, which was destroyed in the 1812 earthquake.  The mission rebuild was part of the Civilian Conservation Corps of the 1930s during the Depression.  This is from a photo of the roof.  The perspective is off, and it’s a bit muddy, but it was a lot of fun trying to figure out how to make the color for the curved tiles.

Lines & Shades

Once more, the house is in total disarray – the trees in the back yard have been removed or severely trimmed back.  5 trees out, 11 pruned.  The guy who did it all is an artist – you can actually see the branches on the trees, and the neighbors.  So what does it have to do with a post called “Lines & Shades”?  All this disruption messes everything up!  With such disruption – and being unable to leave the house – it was a strange sort of prison.  I read murder mysteries for the most part until yesterday.  It was quiet and no one was home except me and the dogs.

Back to basics.  Pen and ink, contour drawing.  The first one was kind of stiff, but as things moved on, it got easier and more fun.  I wanted to make “lost and found edges” as well, to make things suggested, not spelled out.

I also decided to scan in a value study I did from a photo I took years ago of the Santa Monica River in the mountains nearby, on a hot, dry day.  This is to remind me to follow a more traditional route in painting as my own sense of contrast – light – dark – is not the best.  As you can see, I did it some weeks ago, but I hope to make it into a watercolor in the not too distant future.  The hard part is finding the right color for the sandy river bottom, but I have an idea . . .