We have the most amazing poppies that bloom each May in our backyard that I bought from Shreiner's Iris Garden several years ago. They're a gorgeous red that's almost impossible to capture with photography. I try every year to do just that, knowing they're only going to bloom for a couple of weeks, but the best way to catch that red is by painting it. I still take tons of reference photos of poppies to draw from (ha, pun intended) but I love painting them from life, especially on a lovely sunny afternoon. The rain has returned, and they're looking sad out back, with their ragged and bruised petals, but I'm hoping they'll produce a few more buds for me to paint when it dries out again. Here are two of the four paintings I created - they're pastel on canvas with a watercolor painted background that was dry and finished before I applied the pastel.
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| This shows the watercolored background with my pastel pencil drawing. |
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| Day two - finishing the first poppy pastel. |
The canvas has been primed with a water based primer that helps fill in the rough texture of the canvas so that it won't eat up my pastels too quickly. I seal the pastel as I progress on the painting as needed with diluted PVA size.
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| Here's the canvas with just the watercolor, dry and ready for pastel. |
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| Drawing the flower with a charcoal pencil. |
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| First layer of pastel after it's been sprayed with the diluted PVA. |
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| Probably finished! |
