Poppies - C&CC welcome :)

[JayJay365UK]

Here's my collage on the poppies. Almost finished. I spent yesterday putting in the dark shading in the poppies themselves with a dark blue inktense pencil and a touch of water. I'm not really sure I got it right!

On boxed canvas, 12 x 16 x 1.5 inches, tissue paper, bronze metallic spray, brusho and inktense pencil - plus a sprinkling of bronze mica powder over the flowers, couldn't resist it!

Any suggestions?

I've also got a slight problem with the way you view the painting - as I used a photo as a base, then built up the petals and leaves on top of that, I found that the bit in the middle is shining and looking funny from certain angles - you can see it on the top flower just about. What to do?

Below I've added a photo taken from a slightly different angle so you can see what I see when viewing from an angle - do you think this matters? I can't think of any way to change it apart from to paint over the inners.

[dougmccallum]

I like the 3D quality of the flowers and seeing things differently from different angles will draw the viewer in. I see what you are worried about in the centers of the poppies. They do go very light. What did you use for the centers? The mica powder? Which type of mica powder?

Some things to try on separate test sheet:
- use some dark Inktense to match the darker color and tone down the color shift.
- Add some darker mica on top to reduce the shift to light colored.

The color shift make interesting viewing.

Doug

[JayJay365UK]

Hi Doug, thanks for your help. The centres of the flowers are the only bit remaining of the photo (printed out on typing paper) that I haven't covered over with tissue paper. They are covered with pva glue (which makes them shine I guess), but I think its the difference between what remains of the printer ink and the rest of the materials that makes it happen.

There's only a smattering of bronze metallic mica sprinkled over the flowers. I tried some inktense on the troublesome bits, but it still shines out! It's the way the light hits it just from a certain direction.

I was thinking of using a fine brush and some more brusho or acrylic to see if I could reduce this a little. The mica powders I bought are all Earth coloured metallics, so maybe I'll just try an experiment with them, like you suggest, and choose a darker one.

[aszurblue]

JayJay, I too really like this..Love the first photo! Centers are a bit light in the second one, but maybe try as Doug suggest? Love Love your colors

[JayJay365UK]

Thanks Azure! The first photo is what you see when head on to the painting (I took that with a flash, so it's a bit brighter than in reality!) and the second is exactly the same pic, taken from a different angle, without the flash. The natural light is bouncing around inside the middle of the flowers when you look at it from this angle! So you get the reflection off the top of the photo, rather than the photo itself.

[Brenda Y]

JayJay,
I think this is stunning and do see what is bothering you, but as I have never tried the process, can offer no suggestions. What Doug said makes sense and I'd love to see an "after."

[dougmccallum]

JayJay,

Some other thoughts:
- A bit of acrylic, thinned down might work. Since it is the original photo glaring a bit, just something to mute the reflection.
- Alternative to acrylic would be watercolor or perhaps a bit of the white Inktense.
- I don't know about with acrylic, but mica powders mix well with watercolor or just some gum arabic in water.

A note about glittery stuff. Stay with the mica powders. The powdered metals can go acidic and damage the paper in the long term. Earth tones are nice (I have some). To make them less glittery, mix with watercolor or thinned down gouache. Too glittery might make the flower centers stand out too much as well.

Can't wait to see the final piece.

Doug

[KreativeK]

JayJay, such fine poppies here with or without their light centers. Good advice given, too, and if it were mine would probably use diluted acrylic and then if it did not hold, use stronger application.

[JayJay365UK]

Thanks for everyone's help on this! I tried mica, but it looked peculiar - and still shone. Watercolour wasn't working, brusho might have, but I didn't try it, it's too watery for small detailing work really.

In the end, I went for my acrylics and filled in the middles with that. Took a few attempts before I got it right. Now it just shines from the side, rather than looking like holes where the insides should be. Of course, it doesn't look like a photo anymore in the middle - and I can't reproduce what was there before with a paintbrush!

However, after all, I'm happy with the end result and can call this finished, I hope!! LOL!

Here's the front and side view taken as above, this time with the centres retouched with acrylic. I have to go out soon, and just noticed I cut off the bottom of the photo, so I'll be back later with a 'final' final photo!

[JayJay365UK]

Here's the final finished version! Not too sure about the 'spiders' and the 'triffids' but I'm quite happy with it now!