Lilly

Here is the final result of my lilly project. It took a long time to get going - In the end, I worked from a cropped photograph, in which I enhanced the blue hue, so it's not as greeny-yellow as the original

The background took a good dozen glazes, starting with vanadium yellow, and a good few layers of hooker's green, phthalo blue and neutral tint. It was hard to get the fuzzy effect I was after, but I'm pleased with the result.

My main problem after that was the base of the flower, where there is a delicate play between light and shadow, which I found very hard to capture. Again, it took many glazes to get it (more or less) right. If I was to do it again, I wouldn't go as heavy on the masking fluid.

Once I was past that stage, I actually finished the painting very quickly. Cadmium red (pale hue) and Cadmium yellow, and neutral tint (or was it Payne's grey?) were the main elements.

I painted with fairly dry brushes, except for the background, and for the front part of the flower, where I worked wet in wet.

The next project is going to be something simpler. I'm looking at a close up of water on the river in Ballynahinch (we got a lot of good pictures there!), which looks quite abstract. I'm hoping to work with just a few colours, and to catch the abstract quality of it. I'll have to be careful not to go heavy on the masking fluid, or it will look clunky.