"Flowers are those little colorful beacons of the sun from which we get sunshine when dark, somber skies blanket our thoughts." ---Dodinsky
On my search for something to brighten up the house for the fall, I stumbled upon this lively bouquet at Trader Joes. I was immediately drawn to the bright fall colored palette with the canary yellow center of the group. I brought the flowers home, put them in a vase and realized was taller than my eyes could see. So I put it on the floor at eye level, soaking up its beauty, while I brainstormed how I wanted to paint this piece.
The intensity of the color of the flowers reminded me of another piece I did of a cactus flower with a blue sky. I started that piece on a white bristol board with a watercolor wash for the bottom layer of the sky and the blossoms, and then went over it with colored pencil which really made the color pop.
For this piece I decided to try this same mixed media affect with my Canson drawing paper pad and began sketching the preliminary drawing directly on the paper. I have done watercolor mixed media with colored pencils before but never with this brand of paper.
The first photo is the start of the watercolor done on the drawing paper. I used bright colors to bottom paint under where I wanted the flowers to be extra vibrant.
The second photo is the completion of the prismacolor colored pencils layer on top of the watercolor. Colored pencils on top of white paper can take a while to get the intensity of color I was looking for. I like the effect of the intensity of the color, but the canson paper tended to buckle up and bubble so if I were to do this again I would be tempted to try a bristol board or a heavier paper.
The third and fourth images of this mixed media piece I decided to come back in with pen and ink line drawings on top of the last image. I have a complete shot and a somewhat close-up of the center flowers. I hope you like it and can't wait to hear any comments.
Fall Colored Flowers. 9" x 12", Mixed Media.
