This is my newest painting named “Cool Leaves.” I’m still “feeling blue” in a good way with my newest painting.
Here is the nectarine leaf that inspired my painting. I was glad I could get a serrated edge on it. The spots on the blue leaf were also beautiful to me.
I clearly remember a crisp autumn day when my eyes were drawn to the spectacular nectarine leaves dangling from a tree in my friend’s backyard. I debated. If I picked even a few, it meant I was on a full-scale hunt for more leaves to paint. I found this to be funny, because Los Angeles was certainly not considered an autumn leaf destination.
I don’t think I’ve ever worked on a painting with so many colors.
These are my prior autumn leaf paintings from 2021 and 2022.
That week, I passed on picking leaves off my friend’s tree. I already had two autumn leaf paintings – why do another? And then a thought came to me. What if I did a unique autumn leaf painting every year? I could create a series of them!
I returned to my friend’s backyard the following week with a scissor and bag. The nectarine leaves were scarcer, but still vivid. After that, I drove around the neighborhood and made a dozen stops until my bag was stuffed. I had plenty of reference for my painting now.
I photographed the leaves over two days. With each session, I gingerly arranged my composition. I put the larger leaves underneath and carefully intertwined the other leaves on top. I saved the prettiest ones for last. I didn’t mind if any were mottled; it made them more interesting to paint.
There were some tiny brown seedpods clinging to a stem and I decided their delicacy could add to my painting. Another leaf sprig had tiny berries attached. I added them in, too.
These two photos carried most of the leaves I wanted to depict.
I took around 120 photos. There were so many stunning images that it was difficult to choose. But I was really intrigued by the abundance of coolness scattered throughout the composition. My other two leaf paintings did not have the variety of colors these leaves had. I narrowed my photos down to two favorites and then I took a break that lasted several months.
It was well past autumn when I finally decided to start my painting. Up until I began, I was still waffling on the composition. With Photoshop, I combined several photos and it wasn’t easy or convincing. I shared my A-D layouts with friends to see which one was their favorite. Everyone chose a different idea. I ultimately made the final decision because I was so tired of moving leaves around!
I began my painting by placing frisket film over the entire paper. With a #2 pencil, I outlined all the leaves I would paint (I could lightly see their contours under the frisket). It took me a day to delicately cut out each area with an exacto knife #11. I used my sharp set of tweezers to peel off the areas I chose to work on. I usually painted the darkest areas first.
When I began painting the next day, right away there were problems. The paper fibers easily dissolved and rubbed away. The frisket didn’t hold – in some areas the paint had leaked underneath. Darn! I had a defective sheet of paper.
I fixed every problem I encountered; I am expert at that. But it sure wasn’t fun. Finally, after four days of work (fixing as I went along) I decided to quit. It would be better to start over.
I ordered some sheets of brand new watercolor paper and switched from Fabriano to TH Saunders. I discarded all of my older paper.
Although I was pretty bummed, I’d learned my lesson. I tested an area on the new paper first. I didn’t spend time cutting frisket for the entire painting. Instead, I would do a few leaves at a time as I went along.
Once I was painting again, I felt better. I started on the opposite side and worked over to the area that I had painted earlier. Once that was done, I was sailing. What a difference it made to have paper that cooperated! I had made the right decision.
My abandoned painting looked okay, but it was so much harder and slow to work on. I was glad I started over.
Making progress on my painting…
When I started, there was so much to fill in. But as I progressed, it became easier and easier – like a jigsaw puzzle!
I really enjoyed my painting sessions because there were so many interesting colors for me to mix. I have about 3 dozen bottles of Dr. PH Martin’s dyes and for the very first time I used almost every one. I continually ran out of room on my palette because I was mixing so many colors.
I was intrigued by the interplay of warm and cool colors. The dark solid purple leaf was actually ornamental, and not related to autumn. Hence, I didn’t describe my painting with the word autumn.
While I was working on my “Cool Leaves,” I shared a painting named “Lemon Tree” with a Facebook watercolor group. My photorealism usually drew a strong response.
Initially, I almost didn’t create my painting named “Lemon Tree,” because the reference photos seemed so dull. But when I culled the best areas from many photos into one layout – it began to have a lot more potential. I loved the branch texture. Just like “Cool Leaves,” spending time creating an interesting composition made all the difference to me.
I rely on my painting layout to solve the compositional issues. To me, there’s a huge difference between the original photo and my final painting. I even added blossoms in there. But many people tell me they cannot see the difference.
And then came a comment about my photorealism that was actually a bit snarky.
No way. That’s a photo. Even then, why make an artwork that looks so much like a photo. What’s the point?
I responded:
For me, there is a point. I was hired to create realistic paintings for decades, because there was a purpose to having food that looked appealing.
I believe the point of art is that we create what we find beautiful. I enjoy painting in this style and it is not pointless to me.
Things got even more interesting when some other people in the group chimed in.
If one is a true artist, especially, one should not sit in judgment of another’s accomplishment or art style. We all have personal likes and dislikes, however, that doesn’t call for an opinionated public judgement. We should all be here in this group to be supportive.
This response was a gut puncher!
Just because she can and you don’t have the ability….every human on this planet was born with different skill levels. We are all different which makes us unique. What do you think the world would be like if we only painted what you approved of ????
And then along came my hero! His name was Jason. Jason understood exactly what I was doing!
This is a great example of improving reality. One thing people often miss when painting a still life is the opportunity to employ artistic license to make the subject look more interesting.
As we see, the reference photo is just that – context for the artwork. She is not attempting to duplicate the photo, but to interpret the photo into an interesting painting.
The more you understand your subject, the better this can be done. Look at the lemon in the painting, versus the one in the photograph. It is clear that Judy has studied the form of the lemon, how light behaves upon its rind, how water collects and reflects on its surface, and what makes an “ideal” shape for presentation.
She has angled it, shaped it, lit it, etc, all with presentation over replication in mind. Note as well that she has made sure that the only “ripe” lemon is the “subject” lemon, whereas in the reference there is a second yellow lemon.
This is such a good example for anyone seeking to understand the ideal way to utilize reference imagery. Always as a foundation, but never let your references take the place of your artistic eye.
I let Jason know that he was my hero, and that this was one of the nicest comments I’d ever received.
These tiny berries were wonderful to paint!
This tiny seedpod was adorable! I loved putting blue into it.
The finished seedpod. The color from scanning, versus my iPhone shot above in progress, is apparent.
It has been a joy to share my cool leaves with you!
Because so many people have been asking me whether I have tutorials, I shot a brief video while working on a leaf. I demonstrated scratching tiny veins with a crow-quill pen. Sorry it’s a bit blurry!
This is the finished area from the video above.
Crow quills have been very useful to me. In addition to scratching the darker veins in the video, I also use them to add lighter veins. One way is to use liquid frisket with the quill before putting down color. But I have found that to be imprecise. I prefer to use the Badger Air Opaque acrylic with a crowquill first. It also acts as a mask. I can erase it later using an Admarker blender marker. If more delineation is needed, I can always draw over them again with white acrylic later on.
I recently added more items to my post #16 A MATERIAL LIST.
ILLUSTRATING MY LIFE 