Spider Lily-Finally Done

© Ellen Blonder

I've made the background tone brighter, added the center details to the flowers, and can finally say I'm done. This painting took way longer than I anticipated because of other things going on.

Spider Lily-Back to Work

© Ellen Blonder

 After a long break, I'm finally getting back to painting. It's hard to get back the feeling for this, but it does feel good to be painting again. Changes are subtle, but I've been refining the leaves and flowers.

Spider Lily-Day 13

© Ellen Blonder

The background has been darkened. Now I can get back to working on details in the flowers and do a bit more to the leaves.

Spider Lily-Day 12

© Ellen Blonder

After weeks of dark skies and stormy weather, daylight is finally good enough to work at shading more of the whites in the flowers and untangle some of the petals. Now I wonder if the background will need to go darker again.

Spider Lily-Day 11

© Ellen Blonder

I've slowly been working on the white flowers catch as catch can. Busy week, hard to focus. I'll probably have to go darker to make the whitest whites pop. This still looks way too flat.

Spider Lily-Days 9 and 10

© Ellen Blonder

I'm toning down the whites to create some depth in the flowers. The leaves need more details, but I want to hold off until the flowers are more finished.

Spider Lily-Day 8

© Ellen Blonder

The leaves just weren't right, so I studied the spider lily's growth patterns on the plant downstairs and also looked at some photos I took last year. It isn't often that I have to paint out and rearrange things this far into the painting, but I do feel better about this. I shouldn't have been so hasty, beginning painting before this was worked out.

Spider Lily-Day 7

© Ellen Blonder

The background color was too much in the middle range; I spent most of the day darkening it. Now the white flowers stand out more and the leaves feel more grounded. There's still much work to do.

Spider Lily-Days 5 and 6

© Ellen Blonder

It's harder to paint large areas than small ones with graduated shades. This doesn't look like much for two day's effort.

Spider Lily-Day 4

© Ellen Blonder

You won't see much difference after a day's work, unless you look at the very center of the painting, where all the flower stems come together.

Spider Lily-Day 2

© Ellen Blonder

I just laid in the greens roughly so I could see the composition better. The challenge in this will be painting white flowers that look white, not muddy, but not flat, either.

Spider Lily-Day 1

© Ellen Blonder

I'm finally starting a new acrylic painting, after a long break. This is a white spider lily, on a 20 x 24-inch canvas board.

Goat-Final

© Ellen Blonder

With some cleaning up and added lights and darks, this goat painting is done. 

Goat-Day 12

© Ellen Blonder

Just about finished. I'll touch up the sky and add a little detail to the foliage, but this feels pretty done.

Goat-Day 11

© Ellen Blonder

Shading in the spider lily leaves, then adding background foliage took up most of the day today. It ended up more stylized than realistic, but I like the flow of it.

Goat-Day 10

© Ellen Blonder

I've wanted to put Brazilian cardinals into a painting for a long time. I always love seeing and hearing them in Kauai. I also worked on the seed pods of the spider lily on the lower left of the painting.

Another Rooster-Final

© Ellen Blonder

Done!

Another Rooster-Day 10

© Ellen Blonder
Working on grasses in the foreground; they'll need work to bring out highlights and shadows. I also added some red-leaved plants to break up all that green.

Another Rooster-Days 8 and 9

© Ellen Blonder

I've been painting catch-as-catch-can lately, slowly filling in the upper left area. One of my reference photos shows a tree trunk blotchy with lichen and criscrossed with wiry vines, and figuring out how to paint the texture was a fun challenge. I still need to add details to the hanging leaves and the left foreground.

Another Rooster-Day 7 Detail

© Ellen Blonder

Over the holiday weekend I finished the rooster's feathers after painting in some background behind his tail.