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.
Laura, this drawing is fantastic…great use of the read and green!
Thanks, Sharon. It was not the easiest colour palette to deal with so that was a definite challenge.
I like the way the poppies turned out. Now me…I don’t do people.
Thanks. I guess we develop skill sets in the subject matter we are interested in. I do wish I could do a slightly more decent job of botanical illustration though.
I like it! I like it a lot. The colors really work in this. 🙂
Thank you, Judith.
Well, I love the poppies. Just saying.
Thank you!
I love this one. The expression on the woman’s face and the poppies. Beautiful.
Thank you!
I think this is lovely, Laura. It’s interesting that even if the arm might be anatomically incorrect (and I’m not sure it is), it works beautifully in the picture. It’s not like the leg in Tischbein’s famous portrait of Goethe: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goethe_in_the_Roman_Campagna#/media/File:Johann_Heinrich_Wilhelm_Tischbein_-_Goethe_in_the_Roman_Campagna_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg
Ha ha! Thanks for that, Michael. I’m going to tell myself – every timr my proportions are off – that at least it’s not as bad as that leg.
I love the color combination and it doesn’t look christmassy at all.
The picture is beautiful – arms and all! – and I think you could have even left the woman naked or only covered in poppies.
Thank you very much, Aurian. You know, I really think leaving the female torso blank and white and just covered in poppies would have looked great. I wish I had thought of that. Thanks for reading and commenting.
🙂
Nice use of both layering and transparency!
Thank you. I had hoped for a bit more transparency but I went in too heavy with the first wash. But that is why art journals are for experimenting and trialling new materials.
That’s why I love sketchbooks and journals too. I can make a mess/experiment there and learn from it. I also believe that if I’m not making a mess regularly then I’m wasting time …. So congratulations on your experiment!