Hello everyone! Happy new year! My greeting is kinda late, but yeah, better late than never. I really am hoping from the bottom of my lungs and the innermost chamber of my being that 2021 would be a year full of blessings to everyone. It sucks that a new strain of coronavirus has been discovered, but I am positive that bright minds would come together as one to make up sustainable solutions.
Better start the year with beautiful and productive mornings
I woke up at the right side of the bed because I had been so productive the moment I woke up. I woke up around like 4 in the morning to wake up my boyfriend so he would not be late for work. I got to see him then an hour after. We then spent like an hour listening to the gospel. I also handed him the love letter I wrote last night. I promise to myself and to him that everyday of my life in 2021, I would be writing him a love letter. I love him so much that I want to remind him everyday of his life how much I adore and appreciate him.
When he left for work, I decided to transfer the clothes I hand-washed last night so that it would dry easily. After that, I washed the dirty dishes. Now, I am typing to share one of the artworks I made. The photos of the artworks and art process I made had been piling up already. My bad!
One of the works I made that I will share to you is a recreation of one of Van Gogh's works. To those who know me so well in person and here on my blog, Van Gogh has been my inspiration. His works and his life has moved me to pursue my passion in art despite the fact that I am working on another field. During rough times in my life, I remind of myself to check his works to make me smile and make me feel better.
I made two copies off Van Gogh's work. The first one is a 12 x 24 inches (I guess?) gouache painting on a watercolor paper. The other one is a 6 x 6 inches using the same medium.
Instead on starting with the base, I decided to paint the cloud first. I really did it faster than that usual including the mixing because gouache paint easily dries up. I also want to blend colors better in regard with the composition of the media being used. As you can see, I used different type of blues and light purple. I used white gouache painting as well to create gradation. You will observe that later during the process.
As you can see, I already painted the field with yellow. As with gouache, since it is as opaque as some brands of acrylic painting, you can put darker colors without being scared that it would make your painting look bad when you wish to put outline or accents with lighter colors.
I also decided to start painting the tree and was sketching the objects that can be seen on Van Gogh's painting.
Van Gogh is very famous with his strokes which I was trying to achieve in this work of mine. As you can see, at the bottom portion of the clouds, I added some hues of green while putting some white strokes on some areas of the clouds which are a bit darker. This would create an interesting accent/ contrast.
I got so carried away that I was not able to document the little progress that I was able to make. But as you can observe, I had been working on the skies and the clouds at the same time I was working on the fields and on the trees.
I did the same technique with the trees and the grass on the field and on the mountains at the back. As much as possible, when I was trying to put objects on the painting, I made sure that colors at some point would be contrasting and that other hues of colors be put in my work.
And as you can see on top, I was trying my best that I would be able to imitate Van Gogh's strokes, but I guess that would be very futile since we have different hands. And that he is really very special.
Instead of a flat brush, I began to add little details using a line brush. As you can see, I made different strokes on the field with different tones of yellow such as yellow ochre, yellow green, and a lot more.
This is how the final product looks like. After working on this one for two hours, I realized one important thing and that is to enjoy the moment you are making an artwork so that you would not end up miserable and contented. Although it is given that one must keep on trying to be better with art, one must not forget that art is a also a gift that we must also treasure and not be frustrated about.
Part two!
I decided to create another copy for this artwork because I want to exercise my painting skills better. Another thing is that I want to see if I could work better with a smaller medium for the same subject.
I did the same steps. I started off by painting the sky with light blue and the fields with a lighter yellow.
If you could observe, the colors are a bit off and less vibrant but that is okay. We are still working on this one. We are just trying to create the composition, the same way I did with the artwork on top.
The colors are starting to get more vibrant as I was aiming to add more saturated paints on this little sheet of paper. As you could also see, I wanted to make the clouds more vibrant so I chose different hues of blues (those with warm and cool tones).
As I was working with the trees and shrubs, I tried mixing the available greens with yellows, a little bit of black, and at some point, some brown tones to create a variety of colors.
And as you can see, I was working hard with the strokes.
Next time, I would use a better camera or try to study harder in mobile photography so that I could show better photos or photos that are closer to reality.
Thank you for reading and supporting guys. I hope you enjoyed today's blog. Your support did not just help me in my blogging venture but also in inspiring me to do better in terms of art making. See you in few days!
Lots of love,
Johanna Gail
