Day 12 was different from previous days in the Challenge – not just because of the subject. The question today wasn’t when I was going to post, but whether I would have anything to post at all!
The day was fraught with issues. By mid-afternoon I even gave myself mental permission to skip a day and relax while watching Ohio State play Oregon for the national championship. That took the pressure off and things turned around. Here’s the story.
Last Friday night, Jay and I went to the New York Botannical Garden (NYBG) for the Holiday Train Show with strategically placed orchids, inspiring me to paint one. This particular flower (which remains nameless) came from last year’s lavish NYBG Orchid Show. At the time, I was too busy painting desserts for my Open Studio to take a detour into this exotic world.
I had high expectations for Day 12, both in terms of the process and the output. Maybe that was part of the problem. Some of my most satisfying days began without any expectations of “success”, something to keep in mind for the rest of the challenge. If success is defined as learning, then every day I participate is a “success”!
As you can see, I started with a detailed pencil sketch and added a few thin layers of yellow ochre acrylic underpainting.
Then I decided to use color blocking grounds, meaning different color underpaintings for various areas. White and magenta went under the flowers. This helped work out the composition in my mind (or so I thought), and I ended up adding two smaller flowers near the edges. It was time to bring out the oils.
A number of issues surfaced right away:
1. After many, many attempts, I couldn’t mix deep magenta. Like the internet suggested, I should have bought a new tube of dark magenta oil paint.
2. In its place, I used a new tube of alizarin crimson (replacing my Old Holland Alizaron Crimson which sprang a leak; AI Friedman was out of stock), which turned out to be a suboptimal color.
3. The detailed sketch and several layers of underpainting set the stage for me to tighten up for the first time during this challenge. Also, multiple layers of acrylic paint altered the smooth texture of the panel.
4. The background became busy and opaque when I started putting in the greens, detracting from the orchid.
At this point, I thought this painting was hopeless. You can see why from this photo (still cringing from it). Each step along the way just made things worse. Now I remember why I stopped using underpainting years ago.
The one good thing about reaching a low point, there’s almost nowhere to go but up. I had nothing to lose by going a little crazy with the oil paint and working freely again – virtually ignoring the drawing underneath.
I added dark blue to the leafy green background, simplifying it and adding contrast so the orchid popped. Then I got out my big tube of titanium white and covered up most of the day’s work, making the petals larger and more graphic (one of the reasons I chose the image in the first place). I located my leaking alizarin crimson and switched back to it. So what’s a little paint on my hands?
Finally, the painting started to resemble the initial concept. It just got there a different way than planned. Then I had a dilemma – to stop or continue. The petals still had large areas of white on them, without the subtle pinks in the photo.
I wanted to quit for the day since I had struggled for so many hours. Bonnie didn’t agree, and told me to keep going. Since she was cooking dinner again with Jay, I picked up the brushes and added in the pink, which I was glad about in the end.
Dinner was ready and I was done. Well, not really, more like fried. I decided the incremental value of continuing to paint had minimal incremental benefit. I was grateful this painting had come this far, and put it down for the day – which is getting easier for me to do.
There were a few morals to this story.
1. Above all else, I need to always stay focused on my personal goal for the challenge – to loosen up and have fun experimenting with new things. This means skipping such detailed sketches and elaborate multi-color underpaintings, which are counterproductive in this context.
2. Sometimes you don’t settle, like for a lesser brand of paint. I will order my favorite Old Holland Alizarin Crimson online tomorrow.
3. It’s important to keep the subject simple and focused during the challenge. This image had a lot in it – one or two orchids would have been fine instead of a bunch.
Bonnie made an astute comment when she suggested that I got so comfortable painting desserts that I need to re-learn how to paint everything else. Certainly I need to get used to using non-food colors such as green and red. My friend, Carol, was thinking along similar lines when she told me that she was glad yesterday’s Sedona mountains didn’t resemble marble cake! I’m still laughing over that.
I just turned on the game and am getting organized for tomorrow – a family event in the morning and painting in the afternoon. I’ll have to choose my subject carefully on Day 13 since I’ll be starting late. One day I’ll do another orchid painting, just not tomorrow.
Thanks for stopping by!
