Not "heroice" as in Ripley versus the alien, or Batman versus the Joker, or Ellen Degeneres bringing love and laughter to the planet, but "heroic" as in a small thing painted way larger than life.
I chose this weed, which popped up in my garden last week, and which I was about to pull, but didn't, because I loved its amazing magenta and orange color. It seemed the perfect subject.
The flower itself was about the size of a U.S. quarter. I painted it on 18x 24 paper.
This was a challenge! My goodness, flower details are hard. I have always admired botanical art, though I've never wanted to do it, and now I know why.
I am very pleased with the shape modeling I got in the white petals. And, as weird as they look, the inner parts of the flower are pretty close!.
I had a great deal of fun letting the watercolor flow more loosely in the background. That flow was a nice contrast to the controlled work I did with the flower and the leaf. I used the natural flow and uncontrolled patterns in the watery background to pick out other elements of the composition, which I didn't have planned.
After I peeled the masking tape, I set the piece on my mantel for a few days to live with it.
What might I have done differently, I asked myself, to make it more pleasing?
I went back out to the garden and did snap a photo or two of the bloom, in case I want to try to paint it again later. That magenta center, those orange and green bits (I should learn my flower parts' scientific names again--I knew them in elementary school)... what a keen looking flower.
Glad I looked closely at that "weed" before I pulled it!
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