Amazing, how long tulips can last! I bought these 10 days ago and they still look good. Flopping wonderfully. This is how things start out. My favorite stage, believe it or not. I always use a view-finder in the beginning to help figure out an interesting composition. Before I knew about view-finders, I’d spend hours drawing in a composition and then realize half of it was falling off the canvas. I use a pale, grayish color mixed with a bit of Liquin to draw things in. Never pencil. I found out if I used pencil, when I went to painting, the oil paint mixed with the pencil lead and turned it into an ugly mess. And if I keep the paint very thin at this stage it’s a lot easier to wipe out mistakes. Of which there are many!
Once things are more-or-less drawn in, I start with the darkest darks. And the thing about reds — if you paint a lot of red things, you’d better buy every shade of red paint they make. Some colors just can’t be mixed.
Mr. Wonderful, supervising. We had a nice afternoon, painting and listening to classical music.
I kept working from darkest darks to medium tones and finally the lightest lights on the tulips. It’s best to try to paint in tulips as quickly as possible, as they seem to move and open right before your eyes. Just for the heck of it, I also started painting the leaves and a few dark reflections. By then, it was about 4 PM and getting a bit too dark to see anymore. The snow was blowing and the cats were telling me it was time to quit.
Margie Guyot Art 