Water Beauty II - Work in Progress

This work has been commissioned by one of my collectors from Syracuse, NY. She already has several of my small roses and a commissioned version of the rose called Double Delight. This piece will be a recreation of my original work titled "Water Beauty" . However, unlike the original which measures 16 inches square, this piece will measure 48 inches square!! I think it will be stunning!

As with all my recent works, this one is being done on wood panel (Masonite). My local Home Improvement Store cuts the large panel to my specifications on their wonderful, large, accurate machine. This way I know the piece is exactly the size I want and the cuts are straight and true.

Then it takes about 3 days to get the wood panel primed and ready.

I use a good quality, white gesso which I roll on with a stain type roller. Once the layer is dry (I let it set overnight), I sand it with a very fine sand paper. Blow off the dust and roll on another layer of gesso.

I roll on 3 layers of the gesso and then sand the top layer. This gives me a great smooth surface on which to work, but it has just enough "tooth" to hold the paint well.

In this photo, you can see what one layer of the gesso looks like.

While the board was drying, I pulled my original photograph of the water lily out of my files and scanned it in. Then in Photoshop, I blew the image up to the correct size for this painting (48" x 48"). Then the fun begins.

I print out 8.5" x 11" sections and then fit them together like a jigsaw puzzle. What you see here is the result of about 8 hours of mind boggling work (I've never liked jigsaw puzzles) of matching all the subtle details.

But now I have a true version of the flower in the size I want it. This method beats the heck out of drawing it freehand or even griding it up. I've done both those methods in the past and this is just the quickest. Next I'll put transfer paper underneath and carefully transfer the most prominent lines to the board.

It's a little hard to see in this photo, but I've transferred the main lines of the water lily from the "printout" to the wood panel.

I use a special artist transfer paper, sort of like the old fashioned carbon paper that we used back when the dinosaurs were alive. You have to be really picky about what kind you use, some of the transfer papers leave a really dark line that smears all over when you paint over it.

Yippee!!! Let the painting begin!

I wasn't sure if I was going to put this piece up on the easel, due to it's size. But there really wasn't any better way to have it up. So on to the easel it went!

I'm going to start with lighter color layers underneath. This will help to give the background some depth.

Now adding a bit more colors to the base layer. But still keeping it light. Each successive layer of paint will have a bit more of the linseed oil mixture added. This allows the eye to actually "see" through the layers giving it more depth. Some folks see this as a bit of a Watercolor style technique, but actually it's the way the old masters worked. (When I started working in oils, I did a lot of research on the techniques).

The second layer of color is now in for the background. I'll have to wait a few days for it to dry enough to put the next layer on. But so far I like how it's progressing. It's a lot lighter than what the final color will be, so a few more layers to go.

In the mean time I can start on the center section. The first layers of the yellow are now in. The petals will wait until the background is done and a bit dry before I can start on those.

The second layer of color is in now. I added some Phthalo Blue to the Phthalo Green I've been using and worked that in. Still needs more grading of color from the green to the yellow, but that will come later.

Another layer of Phthalo Blue went on the upper left and lower left. And a bit of a mixture of green and yellow went in the upper & lower right section to tone down the yellow a bit.

It's slow work, but really rather enjoyable. Working with the colors is rather therapeutic!

Sorry this update has taken so long. I had a booth at an event this weekend and I spent a lot of time last week getting all the inventory etc... ready for that and then spent yesterday putting it all away and recovering.

But I did get some painting in, just didn't have time to get the updates on the website.

Anyway, some of the inner detail is starting to appear, which really helps it look like something other than just color. It's a bit difficult to translate the small snapshot of the flower into this large painting. It's sort of a brain tease. Anyway, it seems to be coming along.

I also put in another layer of the dark blue and toned down some of the yellow in the background. It's a bit dark now, but that will be fixed later.

Tried to put in one of the outer petals, but the background was still too wet. These petals should have a relatively sharp edge and I was getting that. So, that will have to wait.

But that gave me the opportunity to work on the center section some more. I added some shadows and shading and I think that it's really coming along nicely. I also was able to put the first layer of the stem in. I think that that addition really helped to define the flower.

I worked a bit on the dark section of the background adding lighter sections to it. It's difficult to see here but it adds a lot more depth to the background, which is really helpful at keeping interest.

I was also able to get some work in on a few of the petals. Hopefully the background will dry enough for me to continue work on them. I'm really itching to start the flower itself.

Yay! Finally getting to work on all the petals. Now you can really see the flower starting to come alive. It is a little difficult to really see all the detail that gives each petal definition in the small snapshot. But it's fun to figure it out. sort of like a jigsaw puzzle.

Slowly but surely! It really is rather difficult to find all the petals and have the flower make sense when you look at it. But it is coming along.

WooHoo! Lots of progress on the petals. Sure does make lots of difference. It will however take a few layers of paint to get the depth that I like. But most of the jigsaw puzzle of petals is finally in!

All of the petals are in now with their first layer of paint. And the center now has a second layer of color, giving it lots more interest and depth. And some more of the detail of the center section has been added.

Also I did some more work on that lowest of the lighter colored petals. Now it really looks like it's coming straight at you.

I know that it doesn't really look like there's much of a difference in this image. But if you look at the lower left petals I've done some detail work that gives them more depth and lots more interest.

And the center (along the top) got quite a bit of finishing work done to it also.

We're on the home stretch now. And a lot of the work will be hard to see in this small and image. Remember that the piece actually measures 48 inches square. So what looks subtle here is actually making a much bigger difference on the actual piece.

She's finished and now has her very own page in the large florals gallery.