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Ideas and suggestions, clean ones please
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Message
Posted
I have a lot of foxgloves growing in the garden and sone have reached the top of the seven foot fence panels . Over the last couple of weeks I have done some sketches and a couple of paintings , one I have have posted . I’m very intrigued with the bees flying in and out of the flower heads and have painted a close up that’s now in the gallery. My current dilemma is that I have started a painting showing a large section of a flower spike, I want it to be quite detailed and have a bee entering a flower . My problem I’d the actual background is a wooden fence
and I want a soft background that doesn’t overshadowed the bee and flower spike.
All ideas are welcome, I even thought of no background but I’m dithering on what to do . The painting is 48x20 cm on watercolour paper, here is the basic sketch and base colours so far . Help please .
Posted
Good start Dixie, I know what your saying, that you don’t want the background to take away from the star of the show. On something like this I would have put a background wash on first, by wetting the paper and the dropping a complementary colour on, leaving the flower area quite pale, then when completely dry start building your tones up on the flowers.
Posted
Well this is what I have done so far , a friend suggested flicks of paint in the background, I painted it a very watery pale blue and added a bit of pink and green to suggest out of focus flowers. When dry I add purple and green quite thick paint by dipping in a toothbrush and using my thumb to make it splatter. I was not over impressed with the result at first a£ it looks odd close up, it looks ok when standing back ad it hints at a flower spike just in focus further back.. Need to finish the flower head detailing. 
