032416 24x36 Summer Flowers Next to the Creek

The support for this painting is a 24" x 36" hardboard panel that I have already prepped and tinted with napthol crimson acrylic paint.  The rule is "fat over lean" meaning oil can go over acrylic but not vice versa.  Same rule applies to food, too!  Ha!  Fruit (lean) first followed by fats!  Fruit digests so quickly, that if you eat it after the fat, it will start to ferment in your digestive system and cause problems.

Anyway, back to the painting.  I draw out the initial sketch using a brush dipped in cold pressed linseed oil and magenta and cerulean blue. 

I mix a dark green using Ultramarine Blue, Cadmium Yellow Light, and a bit of Magenta Red or Cadmium Red Medium and start blocking in the background trees.  A dark earth color is mixed with the Ultra Blue and Cadmium Red Medium and used to flesh out the creek bed.

I mix blue greens to recede into the background and mix greens with more yellow and warmer colors to move forward.

I mix a violet with the Magenta and Cerulean or Magenta and Ultra Blue and pick up a little mixed green to dull it down a bit.

I mix a turquoise for the creek as well as some of the Cadmium Red Medium mixed with Cerulean Blue.

I mix a very light sky blue with Cerulean and Titanium White and pop it in along the horizon line where the sky is lightest. 

 The sky is filled in with a mix of Cerulean Blue and Titanium White.

Once I have the "muscles" of the painting in place, I start adding the flowers. 
I use the pure Cadmium Red Medium and Light for the poppies.  A mix of the magenta with a touch of yellow and lot of white are used for the initial hollyhocks.  As the painting progresses, I mix up various hues and values for the hollyhocks.  Some with magenta and white and other mixes have some cerulean or ultra blue added. 

I add the little waterfall to the creek and the ripples on the water.  All the while continuing to add all kinds of flowers to the painting.  

Wildflowers, poppies, lilies, sunflowers, and Queen Anne's Lace are added and worked over the surface. 

And the finished painting, "Summer Flowers Next to the Creek", oil on panel, 24" x 36", #032416 24x36, by Charlene Marsh.

Thanks for following along!

Happy Trails!

Charlene 

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