Day #1

Painting #1 

June 28, 2012

My first painting pictured left is on an 8"x10" canvas board using oils. My goal on this was to challenge myself in the area of trying to not over think the image. To keep it simple and imply the image more than copy it. The image is taken from a friends photograph, which I first obtained permission to copy. With the promise that I would publish the painted image on FaceBook so that he could see it. I am fortunate enough to have him as a friend because he is such a wonderful photographer and takes a lot of what I refer to as micro's. His original photo is pictured below to show what I was working from. My first task was to create background that implied the foliage background of the original image without trying to paint actual foliage and then blur it out. I used mainly sap green, naples yellow and some white for the back ground. The leaf itself is also those colors with the addition of burnt sienna and a little ultra marine blue. The water droplets were a first for me and again I didn't want to over think them, just get them in and not be as nit picky as I can be. They are a blend of white, black, ultra marine and sap green. The original also had many more droplets than I put in place and of course the size variance is obvious. In hindsight I could have put more water in but I don't think it subtracts from the over all effect. I didn't want to try and put all the veins in, which I would have previously tried to do. I chose to just imply that they exist by throwing in a couple of lines here and there. Over all I am pleased with this project and think it was a great starting point. I did not come close to finishing this painting in an hour however, I estimate it was more like three.