"Ranunculus"

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"Ranunculus"

8 x 10 in 

Oil on Canvas Panel

I haven't painted flowers in a while and wanted to paint these, I gave these ranunculus to my girlfriend and decided after a couple days that I needed to paint their beauty.  I've been busy painting larger paintings and producing ball point pen drawings so it was nice to change the pace to these alla prima's.  After not painting alla prima's for a while it was tough to get started and find a rhythm, after half way through it started to click and come back to me.  I really do miss painting these guys on a daily basis but at the same time I like devoting most of my time to my larger more personal work.  The sole purpose of these alla prima paintings is for practice and try to understand the oils as best as I can.  Painting flowers are a bit different than painting a regular object in a still life, first flowers move by the hour and second their form is far more intricate and complicated.  I found painting flowers you have to simplify their shape as much as you can and towards the end of the painting stages thats where you can get complicated with the rendering.  Overall it's a joy and pleasure to paint a beautiful subject matter as this.

I started with the usual dry brush approach by just applying a bit of raw umber on the brush and using no mediums.  When the drawing is completed I then stated the background and after the general statement of the flowers and vase.  At this stage I just lay in a thin layer of paint which creates a nice surface for the oils in the later stages.  I am also concerned of the movement of light at this stage, big form modeling if you will.  I used ultramarine blue, naples yellow and titanium white for the background.  For the roses I mainly used quinacridone magenta for the initial stages, and for the leaves and vase I used viridian and naples yellow.  I usually don't lay out my colors all at once because I like the keep the paints fresh in every section I work in, I do know with certain colors you are able to get away with that instead of having a dry look towards the end of the painting.

Once the big form modeling was complete I then started to just concentrate on individual sections, I choose the first left roses to paint.  First I stated the darker values with their specific shapes, the colors I used were quinacridone magenta and ultramarine blue for the darker values.  Once the darker shapes were complete I moved on to the lighter shapes and stated their specific forms.  I used titanium white mixed with quinacridone magenta for the highlights and lighter values.  I repeated the same process with the middle set of flowers

As you can see its the same process when stating the lighter values after the darks are complete.  It usually flows nicely when you complete each stage well,  there are at times were you do have to go back and adjust certain things to get the overall value or paint quality right, just depends on how the look of the object your painting.  I repeated the same process with the third set of flowers on the right side of the painting.

Once the flowers are complete I moved onto the vase and stating the middle to darker values, the colors I used for this stage were viridian, and ultramarine blue.  This area is a good lesson in not painting every hair on a dog to get the point across that theirs a lot going on, as long as you paint a representation of the form and whats going then your find getting away with it.  If I was to paint every single strand of stem and leaf then it would start to come out bland.  You have to choose your battle and see what information is important to leave in their when you paint, what will help you'r painting out if you were to leave that out or push it more in order to get the message across.  Remember your the director of this frame you can choose what the viewer see's and feels.

I finished the painting by stating the small stems poking out of the flowers.  I hope you guys enjoyed this one, I know I did and hope to do more in the near future.  Thanks for stopping by and viewing!

"Ranunculus 2"

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"Ranunculus 2"

8 x 10 in

Oil on Canvas Panel

I wanted to paint another version of these beautiful flowers, as stated in previous post these guys remind me of peonies thus the reason I like painting them.  I've been so busy lately doing other paintings its always good to come back to these alla prima's and have a fresh eye.  I believe doing alla prima paintings are essential for painters, it keeps you fresh and allows you to experiment with your own technique.  I've been painting flowers for a good while now I have to say its taught me a lot with my own approach to painting.  Flowers have an abstract shape to them to me thats what makes them so beautiful, once you think of them as abstract shapes then it becomes easier to paint.  What I like about these ranunculus it seems as if the lights radiating from the middle of the flower, it's all in the coloring of the flower and how its dispersed through out its body.  It's amazing how mother nature conjured up all these wonderful flowers.

I started with usual dry brush approach using no mediums and a bit of raw umber on the brush, I didn't want to get to detailed since I'll be adding most of the flowers in the later stages.  After the drawing stage is complete I stated the general colors with middle values, I don't want to add highlights or darker values just a a general statement.  The colors I used for this stage is titanium white, quinacridone magenta, naphthol red, viridian, and raw umber.

Then I added the background using yellow ochre, ultramarine blue, and titanium white.  Adding the background at this stage allows me to get a general feel of the colors.  I can now start adding darker values and their specific forms with the first batch of flowers.  The colors I used are ivory black, raw umber, and ultramarine blue.

Then I add lighter values and their specific forms, the colors I used for this stage is titanium white, quinacridone magenta, and naphthol red.  Once thats completed I start on the other section of flowers and repeat the same process.  I also use the same colors as I did before, I start adding middle and darker values and their specific forms.

Then I add lighter values and their specific forms.  I'm constantly going back and forth between values and adjusting them to the right look, this always happens when adding a new value.  Once the flowers are taken to a close finish I start on the stems and vase, I start on the middle to darker values and their specific forms.

Then I add the lighter values and their specific forms and take it to a finish, I then go back to the flowers and tweak some highlights and darker values.  Once I've taken the flowers to a finish I take the painting to a completion.  As stated before in the beginning I truly do love painting flowers they teach me so much about painting and its textures, it's great practice overall and enjoy every second of it.  I hope you enjoyed this one as much as I did.  Thanks for stopping by and viewing!

"Ranunculus"

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"Ranunculus"

10 x 8 in

Oil on Canvas Panel

Todays alla prima painting is of ranunculus, these beautiful flowers resemble peonies to me even though I know there not.  I went to my favorite coffee place in town and met up with a couple friends which I'm glad I did because I ran into these beautiful flowers.  They were sitting right on my table and instantaneously I fell in love, the movement within the petals and rich colors made it more of a reason to paint.  I thought I was going to be done with painting flowers for a while and suddenly changed course again after seeing these beautiful flowers.  That's one of the reasons why I love doing these alla prima's, you never know what your next painting might be and if you do it can change in a split second.  Inspiration comes from everything I see and what moves me is what I enjoy painting the most, I hope you enjoy this one as much as I did.

I also wanted to let you guys know that I've finally published the video of the portrait demo I did at dick blick last Saturday, thank you to everyone that was able to show up I greatly appreciate it and had a lot of fun.  I have the video on youtube you can see it by clicking here.  

I started with the usual dry brush approach using no mediums and a bit of raw umber on the brush, again not spending to much time on the inside of the drawing just stating the general shapes.  After the drawing is complete I start on the background the colors I used are ultramarine blue, naples yellow and titanium white.

After the background is complete I state the general colors and keep all the edges soft, I'm not concerned with details or the darkest values just the general statement of colors.  I keep the paints really thin at this stage this creates a base for when I put more paint it'll glide easier and blend better.  Then I state the darker and middle values and their specific forms, I start narrowing down the shapes at this stage still keeping the edges soft and subtle.  The colors I use at this stage are quinacridone magenta, viridian, cad. yellow, titanium white and ultramarine blue.

Once the darker and middle values are close to completion I start on the lighter values and their specific forms, I'm able to take the whole section of the flowers to a finish when painting this stage in.  I'm constantly going back and forth between values and adjusting them to their specific look that's why I get to a close finish with the darker values, when I paint the lighter values I can really take the whole area to a finish.  After the flower section is complete I start on the vase and also darken a bit of the lower section of the background to have more of a fall of light.

I sharpen a bit of the edges on the vase and add highlights which brings that section to a finish, then I go back to the flower and tweak certain highlights and shadows.  I'm glad I was able to run into these flowers today and paint them, I had fun doing so and learned something new.  I hope you enjoyed this one, thanks for stopping by and viewing!