"Subtle Roses"

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"Subtle Roses"

8 x 10 in

Oil on Canvas Panel

I really liked the roses I painted at the demo, I decided to get another bunch that where similar and painted them again.  This time I felt I had more time and a better set up to paint.  These roses have so much beauty between each pedal, you have to be careful painting pedals they can become generic very quick.  The ferns also played a supporting role to the roses, I decided to keep them soft and not rendered as much as the roses.  This keeps more of the attention to the roses which was more of the direction I was going.  I did this painting in a flemish style, I was able to render the values with a burnt umber  and just concentrate getting all the tones right.  Once the tones are working I add color on top of the values, doing this allows me to have a stronger painting since the drawing and tones are in tact.  I'm a firm believer that you have to know how to draw in order to paint well, essentially painting is drawing just with a brush and some color.

I started the drawing with a bit of details in it, since I'm painting roses the placement of their pedals are important.  Once the drawing is complete I state the background with ultramarine blue, naples yellow, and titanium white.

Then I start on the first rose, as stated before I'm using the flemish technique to render each tone with a bit of raw umber.  I use raw umber because it's the middle overall value that I see in the rose.  I apply a very thin passage of paint at this stage, remember the point of this stage is to get the values working and also work the edges.  I'm thinking of this stage as a drawing,  I want the drawing to come out right before I apply color to it.  Then I apply the lighter values and their specific forms, I also apply color at this stage I do the same in the shadows.  Since the drawing is stated and working well with the values, it's simple to just apply color on top and blend it in with the values.  The colors I used for the first rose where raw umber, titanium white, ultramarine blue, cerulean, naples yellow, and cad. yellow light. 

I repeat the same process with the the second rose, I first render the rose with one color which is raw umber.  The reason I use this color is because I see its the middle overall value to that rose.  I stay in this stage until the drawing is correct and the values are perfect.  Then I apply the colors on top using quinacridone magenta, viridian, ultramarine blue, cad.yellow light, and titanium white.  

I then do the same with the third rose only this time I use a different color for the middle value, I used naphthol red, raw umber and ultramarine blue.  

Once the third rose was completed I moved onto the leaves and ferns.  I wanted to keep the simple and not to rendered, this allows all the attention to stay at the roses.  I didn't use the flemish technique in this stage, instead I just covered it with the middle overall value and worked into the darks and lighter values.  You can say I did the same approach to the red rose.  The colors I used for the leaves were viridian, ultramarine blue, cad.yellow light, and raw umber.  It was fun painting this one in a different manner, although its pretty similar to the way I usually paint I do like the flemish approach.  I plan to play more with this technique in future paintings.  I hope you enjoyed this one as much as I did, thanks for stopping by and viewing!