Ode to fleeting flowers | an art vlog

One of the main reasons I wanted to learn to paint was to capture flowers. We are all so naturally drawn to them. It's their color, their delicate nature and their endless variety. But it's always sad when they wilt and they die. That's part of the natural cycle, but I love the idea of preserving their beauty, being able to enjoy a flower long after it has faded and dried. And that's why I think painting them is like a quiet attempt to pause that moment just for a little longer. And it's not always about painting something pretty, it's about learning to appreciate things while they're still here. This was a gorgeous rose that I picked and I really wanted to try to paint it. I improvised a bit and I took some reference pictures of it. Ideally, this would have been great to paint from light, but I'm still learning and slowly building the skills together. One that works for me is starting a painting with the wipeout method, which is basically painting the whole canvas in one color and then slowly wiping out the light shapes. I feel like this is a very forgiving and stress-free way to start a painting. And also this method leaves a lot of room to play around, for example to learn and exercise your brush pressure and what type of marks you can do with a specific brush. And this was the final result, which I really liked and I decided to leave it at this stage and wait for it to dry. I completely ignored the stems and leaves for now as my main focus is the flower itself. Once everything has dried I was able to continue with this painting. Another great thing about this method is that the value relationships are almost dealt with and it's like having a map and a more clear direction on what's due to be done next. One thing about flowers that's a bit tricky is the variety of colors in just one single petal. There are a lot of things happening in such a small space and it's a bit overwhelming to try and translate that in a painting. So yeah, I was trying my best to simplify even if most of the times I'm so excited to paint in small details. So this study is now done, I think it turned out quite nice but most importantly I feel like I really learned a lot of new things. It was a beautiful rainy afternoon and I really wanted to keep the momentum going and give it another try with some different flowers. This time I wanted to try a a la prima approach rather than painting in layers. I'm constantly trying new things to see what works for me and what makes the process more enjoyable. So the way I approach flower paintings is trying firstly to get the values right and then I try to observe a pattern. Usually the insides of a flower and the shadow parts are the highest in chroma so I played around with this one, I wanted to pay attention more to the colors and how I mix them. I also played around a bit with the composition but at this moment I feel that the main focus is value, colors and form. Composition in a painting is a whole other chapter that I will give more attention to once those elements I mentioned earlier will feel more familiar to me. And with this beautiful rose I follow the same steps as the one I painted before making a wipeout and letting them dry and then following up with the colors. I've been doing these color matching exercises, they're great not only because they're fun but I also think they help develop a deeper understanding of color and a sensitivity to subtle shifts in hue. It took me several mixes to get to these colors and in this process I kept asking myself what color would best help me, do I need to make it lighter or darker, is it more chromatic or less. In this case the same pattern that I mentioned earlier applied, the shadows part being the most chromatic and then the petals, the ones that catches the most light have a cooler color. In the end I think I might have overdone the shadow parts, I feel that those could have been done a little bit better. I really love this rose, it was so beautiful and even if the study wasn't the most successful I still learned a lot. And so with every flower and every painting I'm becoming more observant and more appreciative and learning to honor the beauty of the beauty. Thank you for watching and being here for my journey, see you soon!