Black and White
A Sunflower Sweetness is happening as a honey bee hovers in the face of the sunflower blossom. I see so many bees in love with the sunflowers in the garden. I don’t know what attracts them so much. Is it their large size or the many pollen-loaded seeds of the flowers attracting them? I don’t know. If you go sit in a patch of sunflowers you would be amazed at the sound of buzzing that accompanies you. These bright flowers always promote happiness to me. I have been transforming my finished work into black and white (above) to see if the values are right.
Large Area Wash
This painting comes from the good luck of being able to get a picture of the honey bee hovering right in front of me. You can see that I drew the shapes from a reference photograph and chose to paint the area behind in brown reserving where the petal areas will be. Knowing their boundaries makes it easier for me to work on painting each petal later.
You can see the yellow petals painted carefully with lemon yellow and reserved light areas. While still wet, I drop in a mixture of orange, alizarin crimson, and cerulean blue if needed for shadow. It is a fun way to get the paint to do the work. I can always use a dried brush tip to lift off any excess paint in the wet area. The leaves in the background on the left are painted the same way.
The final steps are mostly darkening with layer after layer of glazes. This painting required patience and many careful strokes. The details of the honey bee were some of the last details. It was challenging to figure out a way to have him show because his dark colors are similar to the blossom center darks. I finally tried a touch of medium cadmium in his face and body which helped to get that division needed.