PAINTING CREATED IN PHOTOSHOP FROM PEACH ROSES IMAGE

Here is the digital oil I created from my image of peach roses in the previous post.  This image will be demonstrated in my workshop: PAINTING WITH PHOTOSHOP to be released this January:

CREATING FLORAL IMAGE VARIATIONS WITH LIGHTROOM-Workshop Prep!

I've continued photographing floral still lives and decided on one image I really liked:

By the way, the fronds that reach up to the top are not real-they're silk!  The real flowers are the ones that are wilting.  I always let them go too long….

Then I discovered that just by playing around with the image in Lightroom I could create SO many different variations-all begging to be painted.  The following is a slideshow I prepared with the variations  I obtained from this one image:

(P.S. These have NOT been edited in Photoshop.  They're straight out of the box from Lightroom.  I'm using Lightroom 3 for those of you who are interested.)

http://paintedtextures.com/section721787.html

WORKSHOP PREPARATION: Creating a Body of Floral Images to Paint

Hi Everyone,

Today I'd like to discuss creating a body of photographic work from which to paint, in preparation for the upcoming workshop: PAINTING WITH PHOTOSHOP. I suggest beginning with florals and landscapes as they are easier subjects than people to portray.

Let's begin with photographing a simple but lovely floral setup. If you looked at my previous post you will have seen some gorgeous examples of florals gleaned from Pinterest.  The board I've collected on FLORAL DESIGN has been providing me with a wealth of inspiration as well as information. 

For example, I have found by examining my favorite images there, that I am most drawn to floral arrangements where the background AND foreground ARE OF THE SAME VALUE -not necessarily of the same color but of the same tonal value of light or dark. If the background and foreground are both light the floral display will shine.  If they are both dark in value, the floral display will likewise take center stage. But if they are of different values they will usually (not always) compete with the florals that you are trying to showcase. (One exception to this rule is the image I actually chose to represent my last post on floral design.  If you notice it has a light background and a darker foreground.)

However, in general, it's a good rule to stick with the same value for both background and foreground:

EXAMPLE OF SAME DARK VALUE FOR BACKGROUND AND FOREGROUND

EXAMPLE OF SAME LIGHT VALUE FOR BACKGROUND AND FOREGROUND

EXAMPLE OF VARYING VALUES FOR BACKGROUND AND FOREGROUND

(not recommended!)

Now that we've got that concept under our belt the next thing that I learned is that, while starting out, it's best to stick with a limited color scheme.  I chose for my first floral arrangement a limited palette of pale violets and fuchsia flowers, and than added a touch of red and white as well.

Next, choose a flower that will stand out and become the FOCAL POINT of your whole painting. Focal Point is everything in art, music, literature, building construction, cooking, etc.  We're going to learn all about that in the workshop.  For now let's understand that focal point is the part of the painting that captures the viewer's eye the most.  It is usually DIFFERENT from any other area of the painting, and has the brightest color or most amount of contrast.  You as the artist, through the techniques you imploy, lead the viewer to that spot.

First, you must decide FOR YOURSELF what that focal point will be! In floral arranging it is usually a large flower that is fairly different from the rest. 

With that in mind, I chose white, pink and violet carnations, a few small red roses for good measure and one gorgeous pale pink lily to be my focal point.  Oh yes, and I threw in some sprigs of sage from my garden! (My flowers were all chosen at Publix, a supermarket in Florida, where you can buy cheap mini bouquets for $3 each.  I bought 4 of these for a whopping total of $12.)

Now I was ready to set up my floral display.  I have a blue wall in my studio which I decided to use as my background and used some blue foam core from Michaels as my base or foreground.

Here is the result:

IMAGE PREPARED FOR PAINTING

I used a 3.5 F-stop (rather than a 2.8 or lower F-stop) when shooting because I did NOT want to blur out some flowers while keeping others in focus.  This time I wanted every flower to be in focus so I could make the decision as to what to blur while painting.  I did what I would call a very light edit on this image-a touch of sharpening and contrast, plus a gentle lightening of the overall image.  That's it!  No color correction at all. All of the Photoshop actions for making theses corrections and more will be in my new PREP, PAINT AND PUNCH-UP ACTION SET included in the workshop.

Notice the LILY in the center.  That's my focal point.

I still had some flowers left over so I created a second floral arrangement:

Limited editing here as well….

I even cheated and added some fake silk flowers!  Can you tell which ones they are?  

Then I took the same arrangement and put it up against the turquoise wall in my living room:

Again..very light editing, except that this time I decided to blur out the demarcation line where the counter meets the background, and some areas around the outside edges of the flowers in preparation for painting…

And that's it!   Keep things simple-and cheap-when creating your first floral arrangements.

REMEMBER:

1. choose a background and foreground with the same VALUE

2. LIMITED color scheme when choosing your flowers

3. Select one big, beautiful flower as your FOCAL POINT!

And…HAVE FUN!

IMPROVE YOUR FLORAL DESIGN!

That is MY goal for this year as well!  I've started collecting a whole bunch of beautiful floral images on Pinterest (thank goodness for Pinterest) that are inspiring me to no end!  How we arrange our florals and still lives in general will have a tremendous impact on the outcome of our paintings-digital or otherwise.

Here's the link to the board:

FLORAL DESIGN
http://www.pinterest.com/melissapaints1/floral-design/

I've also started reading 2 amazing books on floral design.  One is THE FLOWER RECIPE BOOK which will astound you beyond measure for the artful way in which the 2 authors, Alethea Harampolis and Jill Rizzo, design their floral arrangements!  I am in love with this book…..The second one is actually more basic, leading you from A to Z in floral design, but equally as beautiful.  It's called FLOWER ARRANGING by Judith Blacklock.