Pond reed painting

Pencil up with the ground layer

Two sessions in

I thought I might be done with the pond paintings, but my husband commented in passing that he liked the reed reference photo. I said, what the heck, and decided to try another.

I was feeling pretty good about the three I had done so far, but this vegetation was quite different than the lily pads, even if the color palette was close to the same.  As I worked along, I tried to remember to keep it loose and define the shapes with dabs of color rather than sharp lines.  The preliminary work was okay, but I knew I needed more depth.

Final of Pond Painting Three

Lily painting three

Here is the finished painting of lily pond three.  I like the relative scale of water versus lily pads much better here because it allowed me to concentrate less on the individual pads and more on the overall texture and colors.  Playing with the varying tones in the water was a lot of fun and allowed for some freeform brushstrokes.  I was able to go with bolder application of color on the individual lilly pads too and create an almost abstract work that still had very identifiable objects.

I am thinking about the possibility of making reproductions of this series.  For almost the first time I think the work might be good enough and the subject matter generic enough for some sort of licensing on the drop ship websites.  I need to investigate what photography would be needed and the relative costs involved. What do you think?

 

A third lily pond painting

Pond pencil up

First layers down

I have enjoyed these pond paintings much more than I thought I would.  It is the first time I have been even remotely satisfied with what I have done with acrylics since college (low those MANY years ago).

Since I felt that the relatively bigger size of the lily pads in the previous painting was harder for me to deal with, I decided to go bigger in the canvas (14″x11″) and smaller again for the pads.  This is actually a rather large size painting for me, so that added its own bit of stress.

I put down most of the water before I moved on to the lily pads.  It seemed easier to place most of the background down first and then add the vegetation on top of it.  Then I could also shade under the pads and adjust the water to add depth and interest.  I was pretty pleased at this point, much more so than with pond painting 2.  Smaller pads were definitely the way to go for me.  Who knows where this will lead in my acrylic adventure.  It’s been fun so far.

I thought number 2 was done

I thought it was finished

But now it’s redone

After I finished the painting in the first photo, I thought I was done.  I had added depth by increasing the yellows and oranges in the pads and yellow ocher to the water to make it less monochromatic.  But, still, the more it sat, the less I liked it, even as I worked on another, larger one.  I fussed with the colors more, taking out some details with broader brush strokes and putting more yellow ocher in the water, but something still wasn’t right.

One day, right after I had cleaned and put down the brushes on the third painting, it occurred to me  to just take out a few pads and thus increase the amount of water in the background.  I needed to think about it, but the next day I still thought it might be a good way to go.  So I did it.

In the end, I think I worked more on this little painting than the other two larger ones combined.  Still, I think it was worth it.