Butterfly and flowers

 

This has been my “reinvention” month. I implemented a new painting workspace using a small shelf to hold the paint and water in front of the easel. I can now reach paint, water and surface with the brush held in my mouth. Yay!

Inspiration:

I wanted to reinvent my art style as well and did some surfing (art + whimsy) for inspiration.

I found A E Whimsy (Amy Erickson). She is working with resist and dyes on fabric, a technique I particularly love. I’m attracted to the lines of white and the blended, bright colors of her art.

I also looked at colorful lilies bouquet floral by Reanie Britenbucher. She adds some darker colors and combines white and black outlines.

Lastly, I used a reference photo of a monarch butterfly on Mexican sunflowers.

 

Creation:

First, I did an underpainting with my brush. Then I added details with watercolor pencils. I left a white border around everything, hoping for a “resist” appearance. When I was done with those steps, however, the painting looked weak and washed out to me. I wanted to add black ink (marker) on the butterfly anyway, so I added it around all the foreground objects. Trying for whimsy, I put a dotted line around the objects thinking, as I did it, of life-energy. I added some green marker into the background to make it darker.

Insights:

As I was bringing this piece to the scanner, I looked back at some of my earlier work. I frequently find myself searching for a style and thinking I don’t have one. When I look back, I see work I like and would like to have be “my style.” It includes bright colors and lots of black marker work. I’ve also been impressed with the dimensionality I’ve been able to achieve with the watercolor pencils.

Could I combine painterly + bright colors + dimensionality + black marker scumble? I’d like to try.

Skills

Posted on

October 3, 2018

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