Touch Ups

Since I completed "The Poppy" it's bothered me. It just screamed "Come Back, I'm not done!"  I liked how the colors for the palm came out and I was happy with my rendering of the flower, but there was just something that felt unfinished.  I received many compliments, but when I put the color pencil Poppy next to the acrylic I felt that the color pencil piece had a greater presence and sense of completion.  So I thought and thought about what I should do, if anything, to the acrylic Poppy.

A few things had to happen for me to approach my painting again.  First, having completed some more ATCs (which I will post later) I felt more creative and accomplished.  This gave me more confidence that I could maybe achieve what I wanted to.  The next trick was to figure just what that was.  Due to the sad demise of our local Border's bookstore, every week there have been heavy discounts.  Surprisingly, the art books have actually gone quite quick.  So even though it was discounted as much as I wanted, I went ahead and bought some art books that I had kept my eye on.  "Botany for the Artist" by Sarah Simblet, "Colored Pencil Painting Bible: Techniques for Achieving Luminous Color and Ultra-realistic Effects" by Alyona Nickelsen, and lastly "Acrylic Landscapes in a Weekend" by Keith H Fenwick.  The last one about acrylic landscapes finally introduced me to the technique that I figured would be perfect for my Poppy Problem.  Sounds so silly not to have thought of this before, but what I learned to do was to use glazes.  The examples in the book really helped to spell it out and make it a very easy technique.  


After stewing on it for awhile and finding the time, I set out to apply some glazes.  I started on the palm first.  I layered a Permanent Green Light and Thalo Blue mix glaze to help define each leaf.  I went back and forth a few times.  Touching up here, adding there. The palm now has characteristics of  watercolor, which I really like.  I think there's more depth now, and I like how they stand out more.  The next area that I figured needed correcting was the poppy.  After I finished it and referred back to the original photo I realized it was WAY too orange. I decided to go with a straight Cadmium Red Medium glaze.  This definitely deepened and brightened the flower.  I think that I have now achieved a color that is closer to the original and is a lot less orange.  

Below are the before and after so you can determine if you can see the differences. Finished with my touch ups I think that I am now TOTALLY done....(I think...)

"The Poppy" -Before-
16x20 Acrylic on wrapped canvas

"The Poppy" -After-
16x20 Acrylic on wrapped canvas
8/19/11