Practice makes Perfect

Or so they say! I have been painting and drawing Blackberries, my earlier painting on this subject was one that I took along to the Society of Floral Painters Exhibition in Wiltshire for some critique, and the comments regarding this painting made me realise that I need to take things slower and study my subject more before jumping in with pencil and paper. It has been a slow transition from painting landscape images where you have a great deal of artistic licence to having to portray a subject exactly, and due to back problems I have had a lot of time to practice, so here is one of my blackberry's.

The painting is life size about 25 x 30 mm painted from photographs and sketches I used for my original painting back in September. Painted in watercolour an Arches HP paper, I use the lifting out technique for  the highlights so I have to be careful what pigments I use when mixing the colours to avoid colours that are to opaque and also staining, the mix I use for the black is French Ultramarine, Alizarin Crimson and Raw Siena, This mix will lift out even after it has dried. The same mixture and technique also works on black grapes and the results are very affective. If you are into painting fruit give this a go and I think you will be pleased with the results.

More Leaves

The first paining is Horse Chestnut (Conkers), I have always been fascinated  by them, the way the outer shell splits when the nut is ripe.

The second are pencil drawings, I have been looking for curled leaves as these are far more challenging to draw.

Im not sure what the first leaf is and I didn't spend much time on this I only wanted to get a feel of the way it was curving, the second is Sycamore shown from the underside, this leaf was not only fascinating

but very difficult to capture the texture.

Inspired by Dianne Sutherland 30 leafs in 30 days

I follow many Botanical illustration blogs and Dianne's blog really appealed to me as I always spend a lot of time on painting the flower and sometimes neglect the detail in the leafs so I went out to find some leafs.

This is my painting of my first two leafs.

Autumn Colour

This is my latest watercolour a selection of leaves berry's and nuts to form a colourful composition that to me reflects the vibrant colours of autumn.

Honing my pencil skills

I have been interested in coloured pencil work for some time but I have had the time to spend experimenting  with this media, but now I have had some time and these are the results, the first drawing is a graphite drawing as I need to improve my tonal work so what better way than go back to basics and draw! The second is a coloured pencil study of autumn colour.

I was very pleased with the results, but it is not my opinion that counts it is the people who look at them and hopefully want to buy them.

I visited "The Society of Floral Painters" Autumn Exhibition on Friday 30th September, I took 2 paintings to get some critique and get a feel to see if my work would be accepted for full membership. overall the comments were good and I know where I am going, hopefully I can make the improvements and get the attention to detail that they require and I will get my work accepted.

Sessional Delights.

I have been working on a sessional subject, blackberries. unfortunatly the picture was taken after the painting was framed and some reflections have spoilt the photograph, I will have to have the painting taken out and photographed again. but here is the painting.

The painting has taken several days to complete. I have painted grapes before and I use the technique of taking out the paint to get the shape and high lights, but I found it very difficult with the berries and ended up painting the with gouache so that I could add the white of the high lights later, I may have another go at painting the subject some time using my normal methods. I am still pleased with the final painting and the composition.

Barrie