First pass underpainting on left side, second pass on right side
If you have read this blog with any kind of frequency I’m sure you’ve seen me state more than once that I never know how a painting is going to turn out while I’m working on it. Well, this one has decided it will totally have a mind of its own.
On the left side is the first pass of transparent oil over the poured paint background, where all I did was try to block in lights and darks with only three colors. The right side is the next pass over what originally looked something like the left side. Neither side has colors that resemble the original source material in any way. I like the intensity of the second pass colors and will try to keep that feeling going as I continue on the left side.
You can see my drawing lines of all the lily pad leaves still to go as the arrangement marches upward and off to the right. The colors of these upper leaves in the original photo are not like the colors of the flat leaves on the bottom, so I have some leeway here to make the rest of them some other color combination as long as this second group stays consistent. The fact that there is more than one variety of waterlily in the pond accounts for diversity in color.
The idea of the flat leaves being one color family and the “stand-up” ones another is fine with me. I had intended to do that in the first place. Just not with the colors that seemed to pop out of my paint brushes unbidden!
I love the transition from left to right or right to left so much, it is so perfect, I would like to suggest you consider not going over the ones on the left with the darker shades.
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Too late! For once I got my painting act together on the same day I published a blog post.
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Oh well. But perhaps an effect to consider for another one.
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I like this explanation and it also gets me to look at the painting much more closely and with an artists eye. So thank you for that.
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I love the green ones…I’ll call it the depth or details in them, but the others are intriguing also. I hope you keep them as they look now. It’s a nice change from the more ethereal ones.
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The ones along the bottom of the painting all look like brothers/sisters now. The rest of them going up off to the right will be entirely different. Stay tuned!
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