A new lily pad painting

Pencil drawing

Two days in on the first paint layer

I enjoyed the last lily pad painting so much that I decided to do another one.  At 8×8, this one is smaller, but the lily pads are bigger.  This poses some painting detail issues for me. How much do I show.  I am not very good with details with acylics yet.  The paint always feels too thick to make fine lines , no matter the brush size, and the thickness of paint varies too much as I lay it down.

This is two days in on the first layer of paint.  Already I can see I am going to have problems.  I don’t want it to look unblended and overdone, but it seems to be heading that way anyway.  In the first one, the pads were so small that I could indicate them with just a few brush strokes. Here, they are so big that I have to add some detail.  But the more I add, the less I like it.  The water underneath needs depth, but the spaces between are so small that that is giving me trouble too. This one is going to have a lot of fussing to it.

Lily pad painting, done

I think it’s done

I think I am finished with this.  The more I let it set, the happier I get.  This is not normal for me.  LOL  Usually, I start to see all of the flaws as the days go on, but this one is growing on me.  I feel like I captured the water and reflections pretty well and the multiple layers of the lily pads as well.  The yellow pads help to layer the vegetation in a pleasing way.

I never thought that Boise would give me inspiration for a water feature painting over the buildings and the foothills.  These photos from the Depot were taken almost on a lark, but I’m glad I did.

Water lilies painting

Underpainting and layout

First layer of color

I wanted to paint a bit after the Christmas commissions and selected a photo from one of last year’s trips to Boise. The Old Train Depot overlooks a lovely water feature and I took quite a few photos of it as well as the Depot itself. Here is the start of the water lilies pond painting. Monet, I’m not, but I like the start.