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.

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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.

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.