Belcanto Tulip, page 3

Beginning the glazing process

Here comes my favorite part! Now that I have an "accurate" rendering of the tulips, the next step is pretty fast and easy; I simply glaze a layer or two of bright reds and yellows over the underpainting of the tulips. Then I glaze yellows, greens and blues onto the stems and leaves. I keep the paint transparent so the shadow structure will show through, and apply it quickly, in a "wet-into-wet" fashion, so it will keep its "fresh" look. (Nothing kills bright color like too much brush work.) Notice how I bleed the flower and leaf color out into the background area in several places; this is deliberate. It helps keep the brushwork loose, but primarily I do it to help wed the subject to its background.

Colors used in this stage: cadmium red light (for the really warm, bright reds); quinacridone red (for the cooler red areas); and gamboge (a warm, transparent yellow.) I probably also used a touch of cadmium yellow light in the really bright areas. On the leaves, I used mostly gamboge, with a little sap green.

I continue adding color until I'm satisfied with the results. By now I've added cool greens (viridian) and blues (ultramarine and pthalo) to the leaves, to give them more depth. I'm also careful to leave a few slivers of white lying around, which will represent light striking off the edges of the flowers and the leaves.

Finishing the glazing process		Some of the shadow areas look too weak after I finish glazing, so as a final touch before adding the background, I drop in a few more darks all around where I think they're needed. * * * Why do I paint outside the margins of my painting? Basically, because it gives me more options when framing the picture; once I have the matte on it, I may decide the image will look better moved half an inch to the right, or rotated slightly; etc. Yeah, it's a cheap trick, but I'll do almost anything to make my framing jobs easier!
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