Category: Flower Art

How to Overwork a Painting

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date March 15, 2007
11 Comments on How to Overwork a Painting

I started this attempt at acrylic painting with a lovely bouquet of flowers and a plan to be free and easy, working from life but also from my imagination. I covered the canvas with a loose wash of orange and red and purple paint. Then I sketched in the flowers using a brush with thinned violet paint. Next I blocked in the colors and shapes of the flowers and the background with fairly thin paint. So far so good…nice and loose. Here’s what it looked like at that point:

Acrylic on canvas, 12×16″ – I wish I stopped here

I was happy. It was free and loose and going pretty well. Then I had to go back to work, so I missed a few days. When I returned to the painting I completely forgot about my plans for loose and free. I started trying to get realistic which was dumb since I’d invented some of the flowers, there was no good directional light to model the shapes of the flowers, and they were starting to smell badly and flop over. I kept working for another couple nights anyway, trying to at least cover the canvas and finish it. Here’s how it ended…

…because I got sick of working on it (and of the smell of the gross flowers). Now it can join the pile of “learning experience” paintings I’m accumulating as I continue to try to learn to paint with oils and acrylics.

(Above) One of many useless reference photos I took but didn’t use (note how the light from above creates unpleasant shadows but no real modeling of form and no reflections in the vase).

What I learned:

Remember my original inspiration and stick to it (or end up with a weird hybrid creature, neither free nor realistic)
Take the time to get the lighting right if you want things to look three-dimensional.
Acrylic mediums are my friends — use them to make the paint the consistency I want because it sure isn’t right out of the tube.
The Stay-Wet palette will keep acrylic paint wet indefintely but will also turn it to useless colored slime. (Skip the special paper and just stick another palette inside the box atop the sponge–the paint will stay wet without absorbing water.)
There is no Golden Acrylic equivalents to Winsor Lemon Yellow, Alizarin Crimson, New Gamboge or Permanent Rose (mainstays of my watercolor palette) so practice mixing the colors I need with other pigments.
Before applying a mixed color to the canvas, test it on a piece of paper…yes you can repaint acrylics forever if you get it wrong, but why go through that?!
Acrylic paint dries darker because the white medium makes it look lighter until the medium dries clear…just the opposite of watercolor which dries lighter…so take that into consideration or add a little zinc white to compensate and make the color the same as it will dry.

And most important of all:

Lighten up, enjoy the learning process, humbling as it may be, and remember that in a year I’ll probably be much better at it (as well as a year older, so don’t rush to get there).

Tags Acrylic Painting

Flower Art Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Judy’s Tulip Tree

Watercolor in large Moleskine watercolor notebook
To enlarge, click image, select All Sizes

After a day spent doing art business (finishing framing for the show I’m hanging Thursday evening, writing up the descriptions of the four flower paintings to be published in a book on flower painting, and sorting photos to make room on my hard drive) I needed to sit down for an hour and paint a pretty flower in watercolor to soothe my spirit.

I took the photo I painted from just a week ago when it was bright and sunny and my friend Judy’s Tulip Tree was in bloom. Today we’re back to winter with cold winds, sideways rain and gray skies.

Flower Art Oil Painting

Funky roses under wrong light

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date February 19, 2007
6 Comments on Funky roses under wrong light

Oil on canvas board, 12×16
Click image to enlarge, select All Sizes

My next door neighbor was about to toss this bouquet of roses on Friday because they were at that funky, fully-bloomed, starting to get a little stinky stage, but I swooped in before they could go in the recycling bin and rescued them to paint. I was trying hard to loosen up and have a more painterly, impressionist way of painting them. But I discovered the importance of good lighting when mixing colors and painting with oils.

The painting looked really pretty while I was painting under the lights I’d rigged up to my easel. But the next day when I looked at it in daylight it looked like dull mud instead of brilliant. The lights I was using were too much on the pinkish side which made all the colors I mixed look much pinker and brighter than they really were so once the lights were off…mud.

Above, top left: my new Verilux florescent lighting. Top center: outdoors at noon. Below, top right: the lighting I was painting under originally.

I started researching lighting for easel painting, and after buying numerous different “full spectrum” and halogen lamps, I finally found a solution that worked: an overhead florescent light fixture designed for kitchens with 4 Verilux full spectrum florescent bulbs. The fixture has electronic ballast that prevents typical florescent noise and flicker. The light is amazing–very much like bright noon sunlight. Maybe even a little too bright, but I’m not sure because I’m slightly migrainey today, making my eyes overly sensitive. If it’s too bright I can swap out any of the bulbs for a warmer or cooler version, according to the lighting store where I bought it.

To test all the various lights I tried, I set my camera at “sunlight” and then took pictures under all the different lighting arrangements of the same image and they all came out terrible. With my new light and the camera set at sunlight, I took this picture and it is pretty accurate! Yay. A good painting light and a good photography light!

Here’s all the stuff that didn’t work:

an Ott floor lamp that gave virtually no light at all
a Verilux floor lamp that gave twice as much light (but twice nothing isn’t much) but the light was very blue and only from one side — nowhere near enough to paint by
an easel lamp designed for my easel that is attached at the top to the center post — tried it with a verilux full spectrum bulb, a screw in halogen, a GE Reveal bulb (these are evil–they make everything look beautiful but are way too pink and that’s what messed everything up)
a “Combo Lamp” clamped to the side of the easel — it has a circular florescent and a regular light bulb in the middle (these are what I use on my drawing table, one on each side and they work great for watercolor and drawing).
Halogen torchieres in the room already
A photo light stand with a variety of different bulbs in it
All of the above

Then after all that shopping, I had to do an equal amount of unshopping! Yuck. What a way to spend my days off. But thanks to my darling son who helped me hang the new light fixture in the studio, at least I have my new light all set up–just in time to go back to work.

Flower Art Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Potato Vine for Anne Dowden

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date January 27, 2007
10 Comments on Potato Vine for Anne Dowden

Drawn in ink and watercolor from “live specimen” (picked from my tree)
Solanum wendlandii AKA Potato vine or Divorce Vine

I LOVE THIS QUOTE: “Hers was a life of friendship by correspondence.” (Said about botanical artist and author, Anne Ophilia Todd Dowden, who died recently at 99. “She never worked from photos, only live specimens. When certain things were in bloom you didn’t see her. She knew a lot of people but she wasn’t that social. Hers was a life of friendship by correspondence,” said her friend, Lotte Blaustein.

I can relate. I treasure my friends and family but see them infrequently, instead staying in touch by e-mail or phone calls — a friendship of correspondence. The quote makes it sound elegant instead of something one should apologize for (as I’m always doing). The people in my life understand my need for solitude and are supportive of my passion to paint, but I wonder if I’m doing them and myself a disservice.

What do you think? Do you feel torn between preserving time for your art and others’ desire to have your company and attention? Or do you thrive in the company of others and it feeds your art?

P.S. Do you like this new blog template better than the previous one? I thought the type was easier to read on this one and it’s simpler without the blue on each side.

Tags Pen and Ink

Acrylic Painting Flower Art Sketchbook Pages Still Life

Scruffy Roses – Scruffy Day

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date January 21, 2007
9 Comments on Scruffy Roses – Scruffy Day

Acrylic on mat board, 7 x 12″
To enlarge, click image, select All Sizes

Graphite in Aquabee sketchbook, 6×9″
To enlarge, click image, select All Sizes

I had a hard time getting started in the studio today. I’ve been studying and reading many books on technique: oil, acrylic, monoprint, drawing…and I’m at the point of too much information and not enough practice. It’s like learning how to drive by reading books, without actually doing any driving — you might know lots of techniques and rules, but are terrified at the idea of getting behind the wheel and driving off. I started feeling paralyzed, unable to decide which medium I wanted to explore, what subject I wanted to paint, and after looking at all the fine work in the museum Friday and my books and on others blogs, was beginning to get that awful, “why bother, it’s all been done before and much better than I could ever do” sort of feeling. I also had a headache and had some annoying errands to do.

I did some organizing in the studio and then gave up and went out to do the errands and then it was dinnertime and still no painting. After dinner I finally got to my drawing table and just started sketching this scruffy, battered winter rose from my bush that still hasn’t been pruned. Then I scanned it, printed out the drawing a little bigger, and using Saral transfer paper (like carbon paper but waxless), transfered the drawing to a piece of matboard and then painted it with acrylics. I know I would have done a better job with watercolor, but it was fun experimenting and learning how to “drive” the acrylics by taking them on a little jog around the block.

Tags Acrylic Painting

Flower Art Monoprint

Magnolia Monoprint 1

Monoprint; Gamblin oil-based etching ink on Arches 88 paper, 6×8″
(To enlarge, click image, select All Sizes)

I made two different monoprints of this image, applying ink to the glass plate and then wiping it away and drawing in it to make the design, working from the same drawing for each. I’m just posting one for now but I’m going to add watercolor to each of them with two different color schemes. I’m too tired tonight to add the color but now that the ink is dry I thought I’d go ahead and post one in black and white. Tomorrow I’ll add the color to both monoprints and post the colored versions.

I successfully delegated one of my most dreaded monthly work projects to a colleague this week who did a great job with it, and saved me hours…no days…of misery and made it look easy. I’m so delighted by this and also by our hiring a new support person today which means being able to delegate even more projects to our support team. I’m hoping that will mean not having to work quite as hard so that I still have some energy and a little brains left for artwork and play when I get home in the evenings.

Flower Art Still Life Watercolor

Opinion please?

I need to design a postcard announcement for the show I’ll be having the month of March in the newly rennovated Art Deco Cerrito Theatre‘s cafe called the It Club and their meeting room on the other side of the lobby. I couldn’t decide which of these images to put on the postcard and decided to ask for your help. If you have an opinion please use Comments (above) to vote for the image you think would look good on the postcard.

The opening will be on Friday, March 2 from 6:30 – 9:30 in case you’re in the area and want to come. I’ll post an invitation a couple weeks before but since people have asked I thought I’d include it now. Here’s the images:

Grandma’s Orange Juice Squeezer

Pink Rose

Bearded Iris

Birthday Tulips

Tomato in Green Bowl

Watermelon (not for sale, limited edition print available)

Rose in a Bottle (Just sold, but limited edition print available)

Thanks for your help!

Drawing Flower Art Photos Sketchbook Pages Still Life

Starting Over

Graphite in 6×9 Aquabee sketchbook
(To enlarge, click images, select All Sizes)

I’ve been struggling with an oil painting of this image …

and finally realized that it wasn’t working because I hadn’t first done a value study and compositional sketches. So tonight I set aside the painting and started over with this sketch to simplify the image and study the values. I took the photo on a rainy day in December when the sun suddenly broke through and lit up these roses I’d just clipped from the garden that were still blooming despite the December storm.

As much as I love to draw, sometimes I’m impatient to get to the fun, juicy painting and so I skip the preliminary studies. Once in a while that approach works, but more often it ends up feeling like I’m wandering and lost in a maze, with no end in sight.

But if I start with a study or two first to determine what really interests me about the image, how I can simplify it, where I want the focus to be, where the lights and darks are, what I want to exaggerate or de-emphasize, and what colors I’m REALLY seeing, then I have a much better chance of success and hence a lot more fun with the paint. I might still get lost along the way, but I know my destination and how to get there.

I wonder if I should have one leaf overlapping the front of the bottle. If you see any compositional problems or have suggestions, I’d be happy to hear them. Sometimes I find it so hard to see the problems in my own work. Just looking at now in the post I can see I need to lengthen the stem on the top left rose as it looks a little too short to me.

I’m going to start over, using my new sketch as a reference so I can focus on the light, and the colors in the bottle which was what interested me in the first place. If I don’t get tired of it, I might try it in oil, acrylic (bought some acrylics today) and watercolor, just for fun.

Tags Pencil drawing, Photos

Flower Art Still Life Watercolor

2007 Art Plan: Balance

Watercolor on Arches paper, 8 x 10.5″
(To enlarge, click image, select All Sizes)

Since I posted my 2006 art accomplishments I’ve been giving a lot of thought to my art plan for 2007. In December I decided my goal would be to have a one-woman show by the end of 2007. But within a couple weeks of saying that, I already had one scheduled for March so I had to come up with something else. I thought about my art plan during a long day and night of matting and framing my paintings from ’06 (including the one above that began as a watercolor class demonstration of painting glass).

While doing nothing but art business the past two days, I kept thinking that all I really want to do is paint, draw, explore, play, investigate, dream, learn, experiment, write about art on my blog, read art books, look at pictures, hang out in my studio, visit other artists’ blogs and share the fruits (and challenges) of being an artist.

It reminded me how important balance is. Not enough and you fall over, too much and things are boring and static. So… my art plan for 2007 is:

Continue my explorations, follow my inspirations, investigate, learn, and play all while maintaining enough balance to take good care of myself and the people I love. That means doing enough art business but not so much that it intereferes with doing art. My plans will evolve as the year does. I don’t need to turn my art into a job with rules and deadlines and schedules and business plans. I already have a day job for that.

Art is the center of my life, the thing that brings me joy and meaning (and struggle and challenge), the reason I’m alive, the question that can only be answered with another question, and another. It’s more fun than just about anything else I can think of (or at least anything that can be done for hours at a time). I can’t wait to get started!

Flower Art Gardening Sketchbook Pages Still Life Watercolor

Where did my muse go?

Watercolor then Pentel Brush pen in large Moleskine watercolor notebook
(To enlarge, click image, select “All Sizes”)

I spotted these roses in my garden this morning, still blooming, even with morning frost and rain. I’ve enjoyed having them in the house and tonight decided to make a quick painting of them for posting.

I’ve been sleepy and uninspired all day today. First I lost yesterday to a migraine, then today all sorts of things got in the way of painting. I had to take Busby to the vet for a sudden bladder problem. When I got home I realized that I couldn’t put off vacuuming any longer so spent a couple hours cleaning house. Then I didn’t get into the studio until after 3:00 because I fell asleep in my recliner after eating lunch. I guess I’m still recovering from yesterday’s major migraine.

Once I found my way to the studio I worked on an oil painting for a few hours and I think I finished it but will wait to look at it with fresh eyes tomorrow to see if more is needed.

Hopefully tomorrow my inspiration, energy and muse will return.