Peggy voted for more detail. So the next step is masque again, this time to protect the colors I have already painted. Some lines for stems, and some leaf shapes in the lighter areas, just to keep me from going too far overboard with darker details!
You can see that the new masque is white and clear, and the old masque (still needed) is gold.

Nan Henke

Texas Hill Country Art

www.TexasHillCountryArt.etsy.com

Purple Lettuce

I painted the sky and purple lettuce first, then after they were totally dry, I went back in with the light green and darker green lettuces.  It does not matter as much if the greens overlap a bit.  I painted the lightest shade of each color first, then bled in the darker bits, wet on wet.
I am trying to decide if I want to leave them with this soft look or add more detail in a later step...  Any input?

Nan Henke

Texas Hill Country Art

www.TexasHillCountryArt.etsy.com

BAck on track

I am back on track with a better sketch. I added masque to the bunny and the tower so that I could wash in the background loosely. It is kind of like rubber cement and will come off later to reveal the clean paper underneath.

Nan Henke

Texas Hill Country Art

www.TexasHillCountryArt.etsy.com

Initial sketch turned out badly...

This is a little hard to see, but it is the initial sketch for Peggy's Bunny.  It stinks.  The bunny is too high in the picture and there is no room left on top to finish the cute metal garden art tower. 

I do these sketches in watercolor pencil, so that once I start painting, they melt into the paint.  But it makes them hard to erase.  So, it is lucky that this paper has another side, cause it is going back to the drawing board!

Nan Henke

Texas Hill Country Art

www.TexasHillCountryArt.etsy.com

Playing some more...

Peggy has chosen her size, so we are off and running, but first a little more study of the photo. This time I used paint.net to "posterize" the colors at various levels.
The more I study this photo, the more impressed I am with it. Peggy, does great composition come easily to you, or did you have a hard time convincing this bunny to sit in the right spot so that his sunlit fur was framed by the darkest lettuce?

Nan Henke

Texas Hill Country Art

www.TexasHillCountryArt.etsy.com

play with the photo

Next, we play with the photo on the computer. Black and white, high and low contrast and even inverting the colors, helps to hilight details and depth of color.

Nan Henke

Texas Hill Country Art

www.TexasHillCountryArt.etsy.com



Next in the commissioned art line is Peggy's bunny. This cute little guy lived under her lettuce leaves in last summer's garden... sounds like a Beatrix Potter story, doesn't it?
While Peggy is deciding on the size, we will go ahead with some of the preliminary study work, so stay tuned!

Nan Henke

Texas Hill Country Art

www.TexasHillCountryArt.etsy.com