Poppies

In my Art Snacks box this month, among the items I received were phthalo green watercolour paint and a red watercolour pencil.  I was utterly stumped for a couple of days because the colour combination was just so horribly Christmassy.  All I could think of was Christmas trees and magical elves.  Aside from the fact it is only September, it is also utterly sweltering here.  It is so hot here that my kids were sent home early on their second and third days of the school year.  Am was, therefore, definitely and absolutely not feeling the Christmas vibe.  I then remembered that I had a bunch of Art Journal Adventure prompts I hadn’t used and one of those was P.  P for Poppies.  Poppies are red and their stems and leaves are green.  I had an idea!  But, as long term readers will know, I do not do botanical illustrations.  I suck big time at drawing flowers.  Not my thing at all.  My solution was an obvious one because it’s a subject I resort to all the time in my art journal: throw a female figure in there.

I went way too heavy with my first layer of phthalo green watercolour which meant the subsequent layers just got darker and darker.  The clothed portion of the figure is way too dark and opaque.  I dislike it.  Also, that arm is way too long.  She would have orangutan proportioned arms if that arm was straighter.  I think, however, that I just about get away with it.  Maybe.  I chose to stylise the poppies because I knew I would never be able to pull off more realistic poppies.  I quite like those.  So I feel rather meh about this art journal page but I am glad I did the Art Snacks box challenge because it was the shove I needed in a hectic, busy, difficult week to eke out some much-needed art time.  The value of that can never be underestimated.