Change of Direction

Both Judy and Gail, my painting buddy, say that the cactus in the corner, and a few other close up blossoms I have been working on -see above- should be the focus of the painting, so it is re-composition time! This is what makes commissions fun, you never know quite where they are going when you start.

Nan Henke

Texas Hill Country Art

http://texashillcountryart.etsy.com/

Quarter sized trial painting complete!

Lots of detail work, especially on the yuccas. 

Note to self: paint the wet centers before the dry outer leaves next time!

Still pretty convinced that proportions need to change. 

Time to run it past the customer who commissioned the big one!

Nan Henke

Texas Hill Country Art

plant details

Starting the first layers of color on the plant details: ochre on the yucca flowers, greenish yellow on the sunset side of the yucca leaves, ochre on the lower sections. I did an orange-yellow on the cactus flowers, then added the red when it was dry.

Decisions: the yucca needs to be smaller in the final painting and the cactus much larger - to look like it is closer to you.

Nan Henke

Texas Hill Country Art

My favorite moment

My favorite moment is always right after I take the masque off.  The reserved white of the paper is so clean and crisp! 

I added a lot of shadows before I removed the masque - that way all I have left to focus on are the plant details.

Nan Henke

Texas Hill Country Art

Decisions

New: rocky area background colors, and mountain colors.
Decisions made: mountains need to be higher in the final version to balance the yucca height. Also, if the rocky area with cactus turns out well, it should be bigger too. I guess we will wait and see!

Nan Henke

Texas Hill Country Art

first layers of color

I have added two greens and some ochre (dusty yellow) for the grassy area, put some background color on the log that is in the cactus and rock area and added some pinks to the distant mountains and the "castle" parts of the nearer mountains.  Some of the pink will get covered with blue and some will stay pink.  The pink is a watery form of the red that is in the sunset and the (future) cactus buds.

Nan Henke

Texas Hill Country Art