Spider Mum Study

Spider Mum Study

8x6in  oil on canvas panel  100.

Using the same flower arrangement I painted from yesterday,
 but concentrating on the Spider Mums.
They are more of a delicate flower than I realized. I think of mums as sturdy
because they last a long time but the long thin petals easily bruise and droop.


Artist Note.

I had to concentrate on breaking the background into the oval mass of petals
in an uneven manner to show the long, thin petals.
For those of you who like to have a more painterly approach the following
is how I do it.

 First, make a mass of base color
in general shape.
Sargent used an olive color to mass
in his whites. I used transparent
Indian Yellow with
ultramarine blue and a little bit
of transparent oxide brown (if too green.)
I also find orange and a yellow green
is very good but I wanted it to be transparent.

    Next I placed my cool color reminder...
    underneath and in the shadows
    and then I found the center which in the
    actual flower is a green shade.
    I used a soft blue/violet gray
    for the shadows areas.

  I get a general idea of the petals and
  use a cool color in the shadows.
  It helps not being too careful with this stage
  - just plunk strokes down and leave them alone.
  Having some of the base color between the
  petals is good.

This is the important part.
I painted the background into
and between the petals, which
merges some of them softly and allows
me to have a few crisper edges.

This method can create 
the desirable, uneven negative 
areas.
Even if the flower looks perfect
all the way around, (in real life)
I find it is better to cut back into
the circle, here and there.
It creates a more interesting shape.