Monday, July 21, 2008

Tigers Do Best in Full Sun (6"x6")

These amazing lilies are just a small selection from a huge clump of Tiger lilies in McLellan’s garden. There were 38 buds and 10 open lilies the day I took this photo. Wow! These lilies remind me of one Christ’s great lessons – one I can certainly put into practice this week. Could the biblical “lilies of the field” have been tigers? Jesus taught us that the Father clothed the lilies of the field more luxuriously than King Solomon. We are not to worry about material things because He cares more for us than lilies that are here today and gone tomorrow. If you’d like to read the complete passage click here.

I traced this onto my watercolor paper about 5 hours ago and I’ve been puttering off and on since. 30 minutes here, 20 minutes there, etc. - probably around 2 hours total. I used standard watercolor technique in this painting. I began by loosely painting gamboge (warm yellow) on the two larger lilies and dropping scarlet lake, quin red and touches of blue and green into the yellow. Gradually I worked the lilies shape with LOTS of almost white highlights because these lilies were in full sun and their shiny surface reflects light so well. I loosely painted in a darkish blue green for the leaves at the bottom before painting a few darker green leaves positively.

I painted the background at the top a light, dull purple. I lifted white lines with my scrub brush after it dried to indicate the fence boards. After the whole thing dried I realized I needed more of the spiky, light leaves... they were reflecting the sun too! So, I taped around those shapes with masking tape and lifted out the leaves – just one more way to paint “negatively”. Some of the highlights needed a glaze of my cool yellow (Aurelian) to indicate the warm sunny reflections.

Have a great day tomorrow! Don't worry - be happy!
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