Getting old, Blogging and Painting!!!

I had my 76th birthday a week ago! No problem but I am ready to start a new painting now... and there IS a problem. Here is what I want to paint-

Colchicum, with Lady's Mantle , Dying Hosta and fallen Magnolia leaf background. BTW, the big black triangle on the left about half way down is a SCREAMING , still VERY GREEN Hosta leaf I did not want so, out it goes!!

This is a Colchicum (Autumn Crocus) at our front door  when it was in bloom- Late October- early November. They are soo pretty. Such delicate looking blooms for the time of year and the gorgeous mottled fuchsia pink is to die for. I have some closeups of the stamens for my detail work. You cannot believe how beautiful they are. I SHALL post them eventually but let's get over these little hurdles first.

As I am getting old, my EYES are giving me grief- so it is VERY hard to see the details I love to draw and to paint. If you look closely at this photo, you will see that I have OUTLINED all the parts I have trouble distinguishing , using a fine Microperm pen. (I LOVE those pens!!)

Then, in preparation for DRAWING my bloom and sketching in leaves, stems, interesting bits from my background, I have drawn a 1" grid on an 8.5"x11" paper. This crop of the painting is 7.25" X 10.25" so, enlarged, it will nicely fit my half sheet of watercolour paper- 15" x22".

Now, here's the trick!! I can draw anything I really want to draw. Lucky me! BUT, as I cannot SEE the details well, I put a sheet of clear acetate over my photo, and trace over the nice clear little black lines I drew over the photo. . Then, I tape my original photo to a piece of heavy card for colour reference and the acetate tracing to the gridded paper... like THIS...

Gridded paper with the acetate  tracing taped onto it so I can see clearly to draw onto the WC paper

See how clear this is now!! I do not TRACE the drawing onto the enlarged grid on my WC paper. I will DRAW it myself, just as I would draw from the photo... if I could SEE the darned thing clearly! So, ya see- you Can work around developing cataracts if you are determined enough. I have not started my drawing yet but HAVE gridded my WC paper, 2" squares ... like THIS

A half sheet of Winsor and Newton 140 lb NOT paper with a TWO INCH grid drawn onto it.

I am excited to get at this painting. I have had a BIT of a hiatus, having finished the Kale a couple of weeks ago. It took me a while to decide which of my MANY photos to work from. The Colchicum won out!! NB, I am using a HALF sheet this time. It was fun working on a FULL sheet, but my back got pretty tired ( see the reference to my advanced age!)

I'll post steps as I continue working on this painting and will also post sone details of the stamens! They are GORGEOUS!! I am going to TRY to post this to Facebook too! Cheerio for now:-)