Flowers for Still Life

One of the nice things about holiday flowers is that they all go on sale the day after. So the day after any holiday, but especially St. Valentine’s day, all the really pretty flowers are available for take home.

Makes getting subjects for artwork much easier and affordable. The bigger the holiday the wider the selection available.

Yes, many of them are damaged, and some faded. Don’t overlook the imperfections, however whe
n selecting interesting subjects. 

White Rose

Today is bright and sunny after weeks of dull, gray snowy skies.

I am working on color correcting my white rose drawing. How do you color correct white?  In nature or the real world, colors are seldom absolute. Even something that is actually made a single color seldom appears that way. It will have various tints and shade due to the lighting, the complexity of the object and natural contours. As artists we need to be sensitive to this. It is how we get our 2-dimensional drawings to represent a 3-dimensional world.

So today I color corrected my white rose.

Actually the white rose is not completely white. They seldom are. They are usually tinted a bit cream, blue or in this case, blush.

Looking at the heart of the rose I see the blush shading to a deeper pink to peach and coral. I even see a little green and violet in this rose. All of this must be brought out in the finished work.

But the light is fading--so I need to stop until I can see all the find shading/tints and details.

Working Petal by Petal

Erasing the grid lines from each petal as I work it--locating and isolating each in turn. I am trying to work building the gradual blending from light to dark, noting both the shadows and highlights. As with all real objects, I have both cast shadows and contour shadows. This is what gives work depth. As I work I must keep in mind the shape. These petals are not flat. The go up, around and out. They have dimension. And the challenge is to show this in each petal. Color and value gradates up and out of the petals. While there is a natural change from the blush to white, there are also qualities to these hues. As the petal goes away from me, even the white will become darker, tinted as the light shifts.

There are also the bright highlights where the light source hits the rose dead on. These must be the brightest, purest whites of the piece. But even where the “color” is darkest. There will be light and dark qualities to the shapes. Parts in deep shadow will be almost gray to almost deep blush.

So I work with layers of blush, pale pink, salmon white and a full array of grays, warm and cool, with hints of very pale blue to blue-gray. Even a hint of green and violet.