Sunday, February 14, 2016

Another Rose

By pure chance, this subject is perfectly appropriate for Valentine's Day!

My previous rose was painted on rough watercolour paper.

For this one, I decided to try out hot-press paper - a new challenge for me! The paint reacts completely differently on this paper. So this one will be strictly for experimentation!

This was my first attempt. The paint got all blocky and uneven, so I abandoned it.

This is my second attempt. I read somewhere that hot-press paper will work better if you work wet in wet. So, I'm working section by section, wetting each in turn and painting it. It feels a bit like painting by numbers, and it's a VERY slow process. But worth exploring further, I believe.

A week on, I've completed a few more sections. Slowly getting there. The colours look completely different simply because I photographed it under different light conditions. The truth is somewhere in the middle, I guess. Hopefully I'll be all done in another week. Or longer if I decide to explore glazing to give it more of a pop (but it could also ruin it all - it's always a hard decision - when to stop)

This one is a completely different attempt, using a light wash of colours before actually painting the rose itself. But then it became too much of a mish-mash of colours. It's very three-dimensional, which I'm happy with, but the brushstrokes show too much for my liking. Plus I've read somewhere that Opera Rose is not lightfast, which is a real shame, because it's a beautiful vibrant colour.
I think that by the time I'm finished with this rose, I'll be ready to move to a completely different subject. I'm thinking big skies and nothing else!



2 comments:

  1. Can almost touch these. C

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  2. Thanks Cathy. The hot-press paper is really velvety, which gives a lovely feel to it. But it's so hard to paint on it!

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