This is week #2 of my online class with the theme Autumn.
I love this weeks assignment. As soon as I saw the big red hips with the long skirt-like sepals I knew this was the picture I wanted to paint.
I did some color swatching. I also tested my inks for bleeding:
Then I drew in ink for 30 min. This is how far I got. It was fun using the ink.
I used my TWSBI 540 pen and my free Noodlers pen. The ink is Noodler's The Heart of Darkness.
I worked on my center of interest first. I tend to paint the thing that catches my eye. Those rose hips really caught my eye. I have learned that if I am interested the painting will be interesting. If I am bored the painting will be boring to look at. So that is why I will paint the thing that gets the juices flowing. I just love the long sepals on these hips too.
I wanted to get that glow that I saw in the photo and my watercolor paints didn't have that for me. So I took out my little glass yogurt jars that I got in France and put some ink, since this was an ink project after all, and diluted it with some water. I had one little jar that I let it be watery mud.
I continued to work from the center out. I did more ink work in black and then added some white ink. I would work a while and then set this painting on my mantel for the evening. Then I would just look over to it now and then. It is helpful to me to do this because I can see what my marching orders are for the next day when I will paint. I have to back up and view my work from a distance to really see what it needs.
So in the end I took the painting outside and took her photo. I tried different places in the yard, sometimes with the painting laying flat on the lawn, and sometimes sitting up on a table. It's strange how the colors change depending on the lighting of the yard. I can see it when I upload the photos.
I painted a black ink border around the painting too.
This was a fun assignment. I really enjoyed it.
