Flame azalea - 5

More of the same today, finishing the tonal drawing of the azalea composition.  Here's how it turned out:



One tricky thing I encountered was the lighting.  As you may recall, this subject is a composite of several actual blossoming stems that I put together on one imaginary branch.  It is botanically accurate and if I hunted around in my azalea bushes, I just might have found a branch just like this.  One thing I have to be sure to do to make it real and convincing is to make the light source consistent across all parts of the branch.  We have only one sun, after all.  In botanical work, by convention we paint the light source from above and over the left shoulder of the artist.  My source photos aren't this way at all, since these blossoms were on three different sides of the shrub, and therefore the shaddows are cast in different directions.  So as I drew them, I had to alter the shaddows to make it read the right way.  You can't really tell from this poor quality scan, but you might be able to notice that there is a lighter side and a darker side to the blossom clusters.  In the end, I hope it will look like I set up my easel and painted this branch at about 10:00 in the morning on a sunny day.  When you see this painting, I want you to be able to imagine the blue sky above, a gentle breeze setting the graceful flower stamens in motion, birds chirping all around.  Spring.

Flame azalea - 4

The next step is to do a tonal drawing to help me see the composition on paper.  What is petal, leaf and stem and what is negative space.  How all the petals turn and fold in the blossoms.  Can you imagine six or seven or eight girls with twirly tango skirts all twirling together and their skirts all overlapping, what that might look like?  That is basically what we are dealing with.  Azalea blossoms doing the flamenco.  So it helps a little to make a drawing that shows what is flower and what is not.  It isn't that pretty because it is all shades of gray; but that isn't the point.  The point is, this will help me make a convincing, accurate, beautiful painting!

So here is the tonal drawing so far:

The scan is lousy because it is a pencil drawing.  But maybe you can get the gist.  Enjoy!

Back to the Drawing Board

I know this expression says a lot.  Something doesn't work the way you thought it would?  Something doesn't go the way you planned?  Something unexpected happens?  It's back to the drawing board to try again.  For me and my art, I take this expression literally.  I have two places to work in my studio:  at my desk and at my drawing board table.  When I am at the beginning of a complex project, I spend time at my desk doing research and studying photos on my computer, and I doodle at the drawing board.  I bounce back and forth from table to desk as an idea is tested, tweaked, and discarded when a better idea emerges.  It is an essential stage because this is when I start to fully understand the nature of the thing I'm working on. How it grows. What is its character.  I go back to the drawing board again and again until eventually something clicks.  I've got a drawing in my mind that starts to work on paper.  I don't mind getting to a dead end and having to start over, because I am learning all the while.  And I know my end result will be better for all the trials it took to get there.  Sometimes I wish I could be this persevering in other aspects of my life, helping me overcome other barriers, real or imagined.  Ah well, at least in this arena I know what works.  I have to go back to go forward. 

Flame Azalea composition

OK so life got in the way of my Plan to Paint.  A strange wind storm two weeks ago left us without power for a week!  Then it took me a week to get things put back together (including myself).  For some reason that whole episode wiped me out and I had zero energy or inspiration to do anything creative.  Until today!

I know this doesn't look like much, but it represents two hours of work.  I'm trying to construct an interesting composition of the beautiful flame azalea just coming into bloom.  Of course, now in July, the flame azalea is just another bland green shrub, blending in with everything else.  But when it first comes in to flower, it is a real show stopper.  I've got lots of pictures and some sketches from back in May and June.  So today I am sketching branches and understanding how the shrub grows.  This way, I can create a branch from my photos and sketches that will be botanically accurate, even though it doesn't actually exist.  It sounds sort of sneaky, but it isn't.  It is art! As I've said before, it is in the composition that the botanical artist finds a channel for creative expression. 

I think now I've worked out in my head how I'd like to portray this specimen.  Let's see if I can get it to work on paper! 

Flame Azalea

Time to begin a new painting!  Today I am starting to work on a flame azalea, a shrub which grows out by the road in front of my house.  I've sketched the blossoms before (see posts April 25 - May 10, 2011).  And now my friend, Daniel, has commissioned me to paint them! 

First, an introduction:

Isn't this beautiful?  Even with my finicky camera it looks great.  You should see some of Daniel's shots.  He's a terrific photographer and his photos are even more gorgeous.  Actually, I am not entirely sure why he wants a painting when he's got such lovely photos.  But a painting can reveal more of the soul of the thing, can't it?  And he has a sentimental fondness for flame azaleas, going back to his childhood home in South Carolina where his dad cultivated them.  So the challenge is set!

The flame azalea, also known as Rhododendron calendulaceum, is one of only15 native species which grow in the Eastern U.S.  (By comparison, plant enthusiasts have selectively bred azaleas for hundreds of years, yielding more than 10,000 hybrids!) It is one of the most spectacular native shrubs of the Appalachian Mountains and can be found from southern New York and Ohio south through the Appalachan Mountains to northern Georgia.  It has a wide range of color from clear yellow to oranges to brilliant red.  My shrubs are mostly yellow-orange to solid orange.  R. calendulaceum was first collected in 1795 from the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina by Andre Michaux, the French botanist and explorer, but it has been around much longer.  This native species has been growing relatively undisturbed in the Appalachians for millions of years!

As for the plant's habit, this is what I've learned:  Like all native azaleas, it is a well-branched deciduous shrub.  This means it drops its leaves in the winter.  It is upright with spreading branches, about 5 to 10 feet high.  (My shrubs, which get absolutely no attention from me, are going on 50 years old and are about 6 - 8 feet tall.)  It is a naturally occuring tetraploid, having twice the number of chromasomes in comparision to other native species.  Because of this fact, it does not hybridize easily with most of the other natives.

The terminal inflorescense (the bunch of blossoms at the end of the stem) can contain  5 - 8 flowers, with the individual corolla (one blossom) varying from 2.5 - 4 cm. long to 3 - 5 cm. accross.  The corolla is openly funnel shaped, and the tube is the same length as the width of the petals, or slightly shorter.  The flowers have a prominant blotch (this is a horticultural term meaning a darker blotch of color at the center of the bloom) but are not fragrant.  The undersides of the leaves are pubescent (fuzzy), but not waxy white. The flowers open along with the leaves, or shortly thereafter.   

I could go on to describe more excruciating details about the morphology of this plant, but I will spare you.  It is stuff I need to know as I set out to draw it, but it really is pretty dry stuff!  Let's just agree that it is a wonderful subject to paint and worthy of its distinction in 2000 as Virginia's "Wildflower of the Year".    Onward!

(p.s. for your amusement, I have also posted some more musings "around the house" and "on other stuff".  Check out the links to the right.)

Post #101!

I just discovered that I have published 100 posts on this blog!  Sounds like a milestone, doesn't it?  For a project that I wasn't at all sure I'd stick with, I'd say it has been a success.  Thanks to all of you who have followed me thus far!  No telling where this thing is going . . . I'm open to suggestions!

So it seems appropriate to post a dog theme on day 101.  It isn't dalmations, but it is cute, nonetheless.  This is the finished portrait of Ginger, biscuits and all.  Enjoy!

Dog biscuits galore!

If you were a dog, wouldn't you love to have your portrait surrounded by a pile of crunchy treats?  Ginger is the sort of dog who is completely and totally motivated by food, even at her advanced age.  She's always been easy to train, as long as there's a biscuit waiting at the end of the task to be performed.  Every time we look at this drawing, we're going to say to ourselves, "Good girl, Ginger!"