I'll use this post to elaborate a little on my process...
For a painting to be realistically precise, it must be preceded by a thorough drawing process. On a personal level, for both my drawing and grisaille stages, I like to exaggerate my values (light, shadow) a little bit. Experience has taught me that sometimes when you finally start applying color, it is very easy to get carried away and cover your previous work a little too much.
This becomes especially difficult when there are elements that you need to bring out and elements you need to hide. More specifically, I want volumes brought to the front and hard pencil lines out of sight. Real life objects do not have line contours, so knowing how to get rid of those lines without losing the subject becomes essential.
Even so, when defining values, I do prefer to use a sometimes hard cross hatched pencil line pattern. It has proven to be extremely helpful, because the hard pencil lines require a focused effort to get rid of, which gives me time to work on achieving depth and volume. Besides, I usually use a neutral color as my background for 99.9% of my canvases and boards, so a finger smudging and blurring approach will simply not stand out enough, at least not for me.
As you might have noticed, I mentioned that my newest project consisted in a triptych and a solo canvas. Even though I started to work on all four paintings at the same day, the level of detail I needed to achieve for the solo piece was so great, I couldn't finish it on the same weekend I did the other three. The triptych will showcase the California Poppy, and the solo painting (the one on this post) will feature the Matilija Poppy.
I came across this flower while visiting a botanical garden and I was mesmerized, to say the least. This huge and beautiful thing is so graceful and mysterious, it had to become my central piece for the contest. Its paper-like texture will prove to be a great challenge to paint (it has already been one of the most detailed things I've ever drawn)...
At this point, it does not look like I'm going to finish, but a man can dream...
For a painting to be realistically precise, it must be preceded by a thorough drawing process. On a personal level, for both my drawing and grisaille stages, I like to exaggerate my values (light, shadow) a little bit. Experience has taught me that sometimes when you finally start applying color, it is very easy to get carried away and cover your previous work a little too much.
This becomes especially difficult when there are elements that you need to bring out and elements you need to hide. More specifically, I want volumes brought to the front and hard pencil lines out of sight. Real life objects do not have line contours, so knowing how to get rid of those lines without losing the subject becomes essential.
Even so, when defining values, I do prefer to use a sometimes hard cross hatched pencil line pattern. It has proven to be extremely helpful, because the hard pencil lines require a focused effort to get rid of, which gives me time to work on achieving depth and volume. Besides, I usually use a neutral color as my background for 99.9% of my canvases and boards, so a finger smudging and blurring approach will simply not stand out enough, at least not for me.
As you might have noticed, I mentioned that my newest project consisted in a triptych and a solo canvas. Even though I started to work on all four paintings at the same day, the level of detail I needed to achieve for the solo piece was so great, I couldn't finish it on the same weekend I did the other three. The triptych will showcase the California Poppy, and the solo painting (the one on this post) will feature the Matilija Poppy.
I came across this flower while visiting a botanical garden and I was mesmerized, to say the least. This huge and beautiful thing is so graceful and mysterious, it had to become my central piece for the contest. Its paper-like texture will prove to be a great challenge to paint (it has already been one of the most detailed things I've ever drawn)...
At this point, it does not look like I'm going to finish, but a man can dream...