Iris Painting Update
The Iris painting is coming along. The second step of painting after the background color, was to block in the shape of the irises with white gesso. That creates a clean white for the flower color to show up unaffected by the background color. When painting with acrylic paint, the mid tone colors are applied first, then I work towards the darks and back up to the lights. It is a different way of applying colors than oils or watercolors.
The leaves were based with a variety of light and dark greens, the combination of light and dark leaves create depth in the painting. I chose a maroon red for the flowers because I love red and I love the way the complimentary red pops off of a green background. I've started working towards the dark colors and shadows – take a peek
Laying in the shadows on the irises help create the wrinkles and ruffles of the flower. The first layer of shadows on the leaves helps to define their depth and movement. Stay tuned for the next update form behind my easel.
If you missed the beginning of the painting, you can see where it started from here:
http://www.sibstudio.com/starting-a-new-painting
Love your painting ! Very interesting…ah, how I wanted to be a painted. Wish I had the time to go play and follow your instructions.
Thank you Florence! I hear you on time – there’s never enough. Well my blog post will be here should opportunity arise for painting in the future! :- )
You could stop right there and it would be amazing!
Thank you Janet! The trick now is to not mess it up ! : -)
I really like that red. For some reason I was thinking you might make them purple, white or yellow. Red is so vibrant and rich.
Thank you Connie! For drawing out the irises, I used photos that had the shapes I was trying to paint, ignoring the colors in the photos. I have photos of gorgeous maroon irises that I’m using as a color guide, but I also used a little artistic license for the red. I’ll include the maroon iris photos in the next post. : )
It's looking good. Can't wait to see the finished picture. You surprised me with the red but I like it!
Looking very good and I too am waiting for the finished piece….gorgeous progression:):)