Back to Creating

I’m back! Back to creating, that is! My back is finally starting to feel better, so I thought I’d push it a bit, and try to get something done. Plus, I  have blog hop coming up this week, and had to get my project finished for that. Luckily, I only had to finish putting together my blog hop project. So, I decided to do a bit more watecolouring on Yupo, for Sandy’s Poppy Challenge. I had posted a week or so ago about this challenge. You can read about it HERE, and see the first Poppy Bloom I did in watercolour on Yupo.

POPPY CHALLENGE

Part of the details of this challenge are to create 10 poppy paintings, in watercolour, on Yupo. Each piece is to measure only 2 1/2″ x 3 3/4″. Sandy has a lot of reference photos on her site for those who have taken her classes. You can read about it on her blog post HERE.

Here is one of my mini poppy pictures, with the reference photo I used.

Wow – I could sure tell that I’d been away from doing this for a while! Plus, I need more paints. I don’t have a dark enough red, but mixing with black made it too dark.  Or maybe I wasn’t gutsy enough to go with it. Oh well – practice, practice, practice!

POPPY DETAILS

First, sketch out the poppy on your piece of Yupo, in pencil. Next, start painting. When using watercolour paints on Yupo, the most important thing to remember is that less water is better. As you know, Yupo is a synthetic, non absorbent substrate. So using a lot of water won’t help  at all – it will just sit on top.  I started with the leaves and stems, combining yellow with the green. Next, I move onto the small bud and then the flower petals.

I think I could go back and work the petals some more, adding more layers of red to deepen the shadows, and the main colour. I did add a bit of black paint to the shadow areas. The background is creating by adding Quinacridone Gold with Goethite, for a sepia look. When I felt it was finished (do we ever feel like we’re really finished? No- because I’m already talking about going back & reworking the petals!) I used a fine  point Sharpie marker in black to add some outlines.

I do admit that the pain in my back was a factor for rushing this one a bit.

SUPPLIES

If you’d like to join the challenge, check out the details & Sandy’s short video HERE. She says that more details will be coming on July 1st – that’s just 2 days away. Creating 10 paintings with the same flower – although not identical images – helps create ‘muscle memory’ for painting. It’s also a great way to practice the techniques needed for watercolour on Yupo. Just don’t leave too long in between paintings!

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