Sunday, May 16, 2010

DVD Painting Update 1

I have continued working with Jacqueline Gnott's DVD on painting a peony. After the dark background, I have tackled the leaves on the right-hand side of the painting.

I have just realized that I have never painted leaves before - flowers and petals, yes; leaves, never! Therefore, I tell myself that this first try did not turn out too badly. My first mistake though was in misinterpreting the  drawing when I used the liquid masking: I painted background in a few places where a leaf should have been, and I completely misinterpreted the lines that represented a large stem. Ah., well! It is still somewhat believable.

I also lost a lot of the highlights that Jacqueline kept. I probably went much too dark on certain leaves. Jacqueline achieved her darks in about 2 or 3 layers max....I must have at least 5 layers in certain areas. The pink on the bud is also too pink; I will go back and put in some magenta to darken it a bit.

Anyway, here is the progress picture with all its imperfections and sloppiness.  The next step will be to finish the leaves, mostly on the right-hand side. I can't wait to start the petals. However, I have just noticed how white the whites are in Jacqueline's painting - I am using 140 lb CP Arches - Bright white. Is there such a thing as extra bright?
Added Monday, 1200pm:
On my monitor at work, I have just noticed that the image is too bright - in real life, the green in the background hardly shows and the leaves are more subdued. On my monitor right now, the painting looks really ugly while I like it in real life.

7 comments:

  1. Good for you Christiane trying one of Jacqueline's dvds. I admire her work a lot and even envious of her oils lately. Can't wait to see it finished.

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  2. I think the computer monitor tends to change painted images - in most cases the paintings tend to appear more intense. I think this beautiful intricate drawing is going to be a beautiful painting and am looking forward to seeing the finished painting. I love peonies!

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  3. Not so ugly! No not at all! Can't wait to see it finished! Thanks Christiane for stopping by my blog and for your encouraging words. I greatly appreciate your comments. Nice to see you are still hard at it, and working on new things. Blessings, always. ross

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  4. Excellent, I follow her blog and I am enjoying your step by steps.

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  5. Thank you, Krista. But you are such a great painter of flowers, that I am almost embarrassed to post my humble attempts for you to look at:-)

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  6. Thanks Christiane for sharing this experience - its almost like having the DVD to ourselves. Its great you let us in on your problem areas and what you call your 'mistakes' - very good teaching tool. I did try to purchase one of Jacquelin's DVDs once but had trouble over here in the UK. If I can copy these two posts off for future ref, would you mind??

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  7. Joan, I will share many other "mistakes" in my next post. You can certainly copy these posts if you find them helpful. Don't hesitate to send me an email also if you want more details.

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