Our Farmer’s Market is starting to sell zinnias in many colors. I began to paint these from the standard side view of the tops of the flowers, the stems and the vase. But that didn’t show much of the flowers so I switched to an aerial view. Isn’t it amazing how intricate and almost mathematical the petals are?
Look out your window right now. How many greens do you see? It’s a challenge for painters to portray the many greens of nature: new leaves, mature leaves, evergreen trees, deciduous trees, all sorts of plants, fields, lawns, the effects of light and shade, and more.
Here’s a landscape of patchwork greens followed by a green color chart.
This started with three shades of red acrylic paint (magenta, alizarin crimson and cadmium red) on paper. I made different rectangles, combining reds and diluting some with white. At the end I added some green and white colored pencil. No plan, just following what looked appealing at the moment.
