THE MAKING OF A PAINTING

Photograph of a Devil's Trumpet - Datura*

Greetings!
I thought that it would be neat for you to see how I create some of my paintings.
When I was on a garden tour, I saw this beautiful flower and photographed it. I look for interesting shapes, shadows, and color contrasts. Devil's Trumpet or Datura is often confused with Brugmansia, whose flowers hang down.
First, I drew the flower in pencil on 300 lb Arches watercolor paper. Usually, I start painting the flower, but this time I thought that I'd do the background first. Since there were distracting tomato plant leaves behind this flower in the photo, I decided to ignore them and make a blend of colors instead. For this background, I used a combination of ultramarine deep blue, Russian green, and indigo blue - colors that I would use to paint the flower. I felt that if it were rich and dark, it would add great depth, making the flower "pop."

Next, keeping my photo close by, I started to paint the shadows of the flower and tried to remember to use values from very dark to light giving the illusion of a three-dimensional flower.

I used ultramarine deep blue until I thought that I had the shadows finished (below).

When I thought that I was close to being done, the flower looked dead to me. It lacked warmth. It had no character.

I decided to add permanent rose paint to the flower shadows and soften some of the hard lines and adjust some shapes that weren't quite right. Finally, I completed the leaves, adding a glaze (or thin layer of paint) of quinacridone gold to give it a bit of a glow, but not making it a distraction,taking your eye away from the flower.

"Devil's Trumpet"

by Barbara Rosenzweig



I think that it is finished! ...or is it? What do you think? I'd love to hear your comments and suggestions!

Linked to and Outdoor Wednesday. Alphabe-Thursday, Open House Party, Cottage Flora Thursday, Inspiration Friday, Macro Flowers Saturday (*This site has a wonderful description of the Datura!) .