Tag Archives: black hollyhock

New Project and Palette Book Update

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Two things cooking at the moment. The first is I met with Chris from Just Canvas this week to see his prototype for my canvas sketchbook/palette color book. He had a great start and it was very close to what I had in mind. He is going to retool it and have a new version ready to look at sometime next week. As soon as I get it, I will of course post some pictures. I think the idea will work for many other artists well beyond what my concept is for.

The second thing is I had an image pop into my head that I want to paint, but I suspect it may be more of a challenge than I can manage. One of the biggest challenges with Scyring is the inability thus far to produce purposeful detail. I can do accidental detail and vague detail, but when I want to do something on purpose, at least on a small canvas scale it is near impossible, so I am trying to envision images that can be done with what I know works so far.

I think this might work, but I also think it may end up looking nothing like I intend it. I did the following rudimentary sketch and have started to sketch an outline on the canvas for painting. It is a spectre of the stars gazing down at something, it might be the flower as depicted in the preliminary sketch, it may be a pool of waters containing stars or it maybe something else entirely.

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1,2,3,5 What?

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One might wonder if I am simply bad at math or if something sinister is afoot…I would have to say the latter.

Consider it more a lesson learned in what the sinister effects of leaving a window open with art on the table might be when the sprinkler is set on a timer and you are up on top of some mountain picking Huckleberries and well, here’s the lesson…

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I had been working on the above and the below, two separate pieces, one of 5 tiles and the other of 3. One was for Lisa the other for my mother. Essentially the same concept, letters on canvas squares to spell out Vixen, my nickname for Lisa and of course, Mom.

I was most of the way finished, with the one’s for Lisa, they were made up of Black Hollyhock and the yellow from the Black Lily anther, a coat or two of this makes the most vibrant yellow I have been able to find thus far, plus it’s dry powdery consistency makes it blend with other colors better than moist colors.

The first picture above shows what happened to most of the pieces. I had to essentially wash the canvas off and start over at that point and it was towards the end of the Black Lilies life, by the time I went to pluck their anthers to redo the yellow…well, I was too late, and thus, project #4 is unfinished until either next year or until I find something else to use in its place.

Here is a picture of the mostly reworked E as well as a spot that got hit by it being in the kitchen…

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The moral:

Most important, probably best not to store your artwork in the kitchen…but we live in a small house…so I’ll continue to live dangerously for now.

Second, don’t get an unfinished piece of Scrye work wet, not even a little. Water will instantly damage the integrity and in some cases completely wash away your work. It might add some interesting effects, but unless you are wanting to explore that as an option, keep your work safe until it is completed and you get a chance to coat it.

Project#5 Purple Sun, Purple Flowers w/Purple Pansies, Yellow Pansies & Black Hollyhocks

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This is the first piece I am considering completed of sorts. I again set out to accomplish the vision I had of mixing yellow’s and blue’s and seeing what I could do with it, only to put the Black Hollyhock into play and changing the scope of the piece.

Most of the painting is done with the purple and yellow Pansies to create the blue atmosphere, there is a strip of Black Lily along the bottom and then the sun and flowers were done with Black Hollyhock.

In the end I think there are some really cool aspects to it and I am starting to learn more of what certain flowers are going to do, plus I think it shows the potential of the medium to do more than abstract hues and tones.

However, my thumbs were thoroughly sore afterwards.

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The hazy butterfly shape is from a Yellow Marigold, I plucked from the parking lot of Best Buy in Coeur D’alene, my son shook his head when I stopped and opened the car door, reached out, grabbed it and drove away. I don’t have a problem…just a passion.

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Pictures of some of the flowers used

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I had a chance to take some pictures this morning.

The first two are the purple and yellow Pansies I have been using to make most of my blues. This first image is very purple and the color it gives when wet is purple like the leaves, but dries various shades of blue. A week ago there was much more yellow in the throaat then there is today when I took these.

When using any of the Pansies they tend to leave a fair amount of debris, but if you wait about ten seconds for things to dry you can brush it off, if you wait more than a couple of minutes the debris will dry in to your painting, if that is the look you are going for, great, if you want to minimize the plant matter in your finished product you will want to stay on top of keeping it off.
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This is a slightly different colored Pansy that gives similar results.

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These orange Marigolds give a brilliant orange on thick stock paper, but tend to leave a lot of runny debris on canvas. They are ok to use first, or if you clear a spot to add it in, but they do not work to add on top of other colors.

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And the last image for the moment is the Black Hollyhock which by far gives the brightest purple I have found yet. Challenges with it include that it is very sticky to work with, it can wipe out previous layers if not careful and it will leave a lot of debris that is hard, if not impossible to remove.

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I’ll probably do a few posts on Hollyhocks in general because in addition to the vibrant purple I have also discovered something magical with White one’s that I was not expecting.