Friday, April 24, 2009

Creating Grape Leaves #6



This was an attempt at applying my leaf painting to an arbitrary value design. Thanks Mike for suggesting this. It definitely made my leaves beyond the obvious.

I started by scribbling 9 possible value patterns in my notebook and then choosing my favorite. In order to translate the thumbnail to fullsize, I tore pieces of construction paper (black and medium) and arranged them on a light background that would be the same size as my final painting. I tried to keep close to my original value design. Then I traced the design onto tracing paper. I then did an underpainting of yellow/orange and blue and transferred the light pattern only. I did a layer of orange over everything, preserving my lights. I then transferred the dark value pattern and did a layer of thalo blue, just where the darks were. Then I finally drew in where my leaves were supposed to go and painted them in on top. Finally I adjusted lights and darks for the final version.

I photographed it as I went, so I could watch what was happening. In retrospect, I probably should have paid more attention to when I was using semi-opaque layers (like Cad Red), but you can still see most of the layers coming through.


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