Perfect Poppy.. or not!!!

Some of my readers may remember that last year was a wipe out for the poppies in our garden and I ended up doing one or two plein air studies of some very sorry looking, bedraggled, water logged poppies... well this year we have a much better display and after going to Patchings and seeing Ann Blockley use the acrylic inks I knew I had to have a go at some of the huge blooms we have at the moment.

I  wanted to go big with this one and square as I feel the flower head lends itself to a square format and I have some Hahnemuhle 20"x25" 200lb paper which I cropped to give me the size I wanted (20"x20").....one of the biggest sizes I have done... am still working up to full size imperial but not quite there yet!!

I did start off with a variety of red and pink watercolours but quickly realised I was going to have to bring out the big guns and bit by bit started to try out the acrylic inks. I really like them and think they suit my sketchy way of painting. I mainly used the scarlet and sepia adding a touch of pink here and there for variety, then started spraying, splattering and tipping my board to within an inch of it's life.... the pipette you use to apply the ink is a very versatile tool.....you can draw, spot and move the ink around with it and I had a thoroughly fabulous time playing with my new toys.

This was the first stage where I have been looking and wondering and then more looking and more wondering where to go next.....

I knew I needed to add more darks at this stage both to define some petals, create a bit more bg and some more form to the centre but so easy at this stage to go too far and actually ruin what I thought was looking promising... hence my uncharacteristic patience.

I took this to Bolton Art Circle tonight where I worked on it bit by bit and one of the members thought it needed to rotate anti-clockwise by 90 degrees and I had to agree when we turned it and so that's how I continued working on it. Just shows how another eye can really help crystallise thoughts.... I may have come to the same conclusion but then again maybe not. The funny thing was, once I had turned it, what I had to do then became much more obvious... I could actually see the whole thing much more clearly and  was able to see where to put the finishing touches... thank you Ken!!!