Gettin' Artsy

I continue to have a great deal of fun with exploring my artistic side in paint.  My first solo effort, which I enjoyed sharing with friends on Facebook, I think of as "rainbow tree".  Though I was asked if there was any particular symbolism to it, there really wasn't.  I enjoy right colors against black, and I enjoyed painting trees in my first class, so the notion was born to do a colorful tree silhouette.  I plot out the shape I wanted and plan the color transitions, I sketched some lines with ordinary colored chalk (a very handy tool, it turns out) and then broke out the paintbrushes.  

Just starting out with the chalk lines visible.  

The finished product!

Folks seemed to like "rainbow tree," which was very encouraging.  My next "project" was actually going to be doing some exercises to practice shadows and shading, but I started drawing a peculiar sort of doodle that took on a life of its own and it became something I had to paint.  The "rule" of the doodle was to draw a small, four-lobed shape, and follow the symmetry working outward with added embellishments as the design grew.  I used my handy-dandy home photocopier to make several copies of the original sketch, and then busted out the colored pencils to try out some different color schemes in mock-up.  My first inclination was to keep going with the rainbow theme:

Fun to color, but a little..."too much".

That didn't "work" for me, so I thought of leaving some of the inside space neutral and trying rainbow-with-black.  

Better, but still not working.

That just didn't do it, either.  Then I hit on a very different approach going very minimalist with the colors and focusing more on the geometry I'd created.  I chalked the lines onto a fresh canvas and got out my trusty tube of black paint.

Blacking in from the center out.

Starting to look like something!

Next came the secret weapon: red!  Of all the possible colors, bright, primary red seemed like the one that would really make things "pop".

Now in color!

After that, it was time for some touch up, and then some *really* filddly border-work around the central medallion.  I admit, it did not turn out with exact perfection, and if I let myself I could touch little bits of this work up ad-infinitum.  I like the overall effect, though, so I am going to make myself step away from the paintbrush and accept it for what it was.  

Et voila!  The finished product!

I do wish the lighting was a bit better in that final photo, but still, there we go!  I have a couple more of these "medallion" designs on my idea wall and I'll probably do those next.  I'm sure the kittens will be delighted to help, too!