Moving right along

If you want a treat some time, look up Elizabeth Tyler's paintings. She works in Acrylic and Watercolour and she has become one of my muses. She's an amazing woman, just a tad younger than I, widowed fairly recently and sailing SOLO for six months a year in the waters around Greece!! I will NOT be doing THAT but her painting, particularly watercolour and her methods, graciously shared on You Tube, and also an eBook($19.95 USD) that I have purchased are teaching me a LOT!!!

Elizabeth REALLY inspired me with a watercolour of a big Red Cabbage- google it! ( some day, someone needs to teach me to make links!!!) As I had recently bought a little Ornamental Kale for my front door urn, I have decided to try to paint it. Here is my reference photo...

I just love this little Kale plant. There are soo many glorious colours in it. I HOPE I can manage to do it! I am VERY motivated!

I have gridded the photo in one inch squares and transcribed the drawing to a full sheet (22"x30") of Arches cold pressed 140 lb paper. Hope I do not regret not using the Winsor and Newton paper!!!

So, now I have my drawing all done except for tidying up and making a few spots clearer. This is hard to see but here's a quick pic from my phone...

Sorry it is so wispy but I NEED the drawing and don't want the pencil lines TOO obvious. I could NOT do this one without pencil guidelines!

The next job will be to paint then mask the veins and some of the leaf edges. I have not had great success with masking to this point but in this case, A- I am VERY motivated and B- I have pens, nibs, a ruling pen, GOOD masking fluid (W&N), and a number of different brushes I can use. Wish me luck and remember me in your prayers, please. I THINK, that if I can get the veins and edges painted and nicely masked, the rest should be easier and actually FUN! I LOVE colours and look how many there are in the ref pic! GLORIOUS!!!

I have also started working on choosing a palette. The vein colours and that VERY deep shadow colour are my biggest concerns at the moment. Very exciting experimenting though. Did I mention at all how much I am enjoying this???

A really wretched pic but Elizabeth Tyler's palette is down the left side and my auditioned colours and mixes are starting along the top

A bit clearer view- I AM liking some of the very darks!

And ET's palette. I will play with these colours and try some mixes although Elizabeth's final outcome is quite different colours than my little plant and my reference pic so I may be on my own!

I plan on visiting Fibre Content on Tuesday coming with my Aunty. From the catalogue, it seems like a nice show. If you are in the vicinity, do drop in! It is at the Art Gallery of Burlington, runs every day until 16 September. See you there perhaps!