With a Starry Sky

I was giving a lot of freedom with my next art project. I could paint whatever I wanted and just have it done by the due date. It was wonderful to just be able to make something that didn’t have to follow a guideline for have something incorporated into it. I could paint ideas I want to and get a grade for it.

Thoughts and Ideas

With ideas for this piece, I could have painted anything that I want, as long as it was appropriate. Anything was game for this project. Because of all the freedom, it was hard to start thing of ideas and putting down sketch for this, but once the first idea was on paper, it was easier to think of others.

For sketching, it was all over the place. Some of the ideas went together or there was no correlation with each other. The first sketch ( top left corner) was somewhat inspired by the song Moonchild by RM. There nothing much to it, just a person standing in front of the a full moon.

The sketch next to was of butterflies with galaxy wings in the sky, but I didn't like that idea. Under those sketches are a pair of just some round birds for fun, I never intend to paint them and just sketch them for fun.

For the bottom three sketches, I took inspiration for flowers that bloom in the moonlight or night time. Leading me to use moon-flowers, night sky petunias, and red flare water lilies. For the moon-flowers and red flare lilies, they have night sky backgrounds.

But the night sky petunias would have a blue sky to contrast with its petals.

Behind the Sense of the Paintings

Compare to my last painting, theses three pieces was a much small scale. Each canvas was a 5 inches by 5 inches, a nice little square. So beings the journey of painting flowers for the first time.

To start off each painting, I decided to paint the background first so that when it comes to painting the actual flowers, all I have to do is leave the space white or paint over it the shape of the flower. For the background, the left and top piece have the base of a night sky, mixing a navy blue with purple and some black to get a nice dark sky. While the middle piece as a day time sky with no clouds, with a soft blue.

If I could, I would change the background color of the middle piece because the blue more the dull side of what I would have liked. I was going for of a sky blue in the summer but I added to much green and white.

Painting in between the petals of the red flare water lilies was not fun. The paint brushes that I own were just a bit too big to fit in the area without painting over the sketch lines. But I made it work by using just the very tip of the paintbrush.

In all honesty, the red flare lilies were the most difficult for me to paint. Having to paint around the individual petals, then three different layers of petals. The darkest layer of petals mixed with a small bit for purple in the mixing process so it wasn't the pure dark red that I want. But it still looked good next to the red just straight for the paint tube.

The moon-flowers petals were white so no need to paint them, other then to clean up the edges, and need the stem to be painted a pale lime green to have some contrast with the night sky. As for the blooming moon-flowers, they were painted with a very little blue and blue to make it look like it was glowing.

The night sky petunia is just like what its called after. Instead of the background being a night sky, the petals were like that. With a blue sky background to make it look like the flower was flouting in the sky.

The Masterpiece

After all the flowers were painted, the paints were done and just need some shadows/highlight. Separately, the paintings look nice and can stand alone but with all three of them together, it creates a calm three piece painting to look at. With them being arranged anyway.

This was the first time I've ever painted flowers, let alone with a three piece painting. Despite that, the paintings came out beautiful and came out how I envisioned it. But still, there are a few things that can be improved on.

Next time, I'll be sure to paint the full background and then paint the shape of the flower in white to get as vibrant of a color as possible.