Artist: Dianne Bertold
Location: Grande Prairie, Alberta CANADA
Title: Morning Sentry
Medium: Soft Pastels
Dimensions: 15.5″ x 22″
Support: Fabriano Pastel Paper
Comments from the Artist: This Wood Lily stood amongst tall grass but the strong lighting through the leaves and on the stem made me want to simplify the background so I used a blue-grey (complementary to the orange) to help it stand alone. It needed no “supporting actors”. The flower itself is done in multiple layers (fixatif between layers) to achieve the shape through shadow and light.
FREE ebook, "Inside The Artist's Studio" - includes step by step art demonstrations by professional artists! To receive this FREE ebook right away delivered to your email, simply fill in the form below. By filling in your name and email below, you will also be subscribed to our free monthly newsletter.
carolyn Bishop on Mon, 29th Dec 2008 5:12 pm
It is beautiful, Dianne! Good job!
June Smith on Mon, 29th Dec 2008 5:43 pm
beautiful — very well done
June
Lucan Ontario
Angeline on Mon, 29th Dec 2008 8:07 pm
Dianne,
I love the light coming through the petals! A beautiful painting!
Angeline
Ingrid on Mon, 29th Dec 2008 10:27 pm
Hi Dianne,
This is a beautiful job of division of space! By positioning the Wood Lily as you have on the paper, your negative shapes are as important as your positive shapes, and this makes for an attractive design!
If I were to do this painting, I would darken the background a bit more, although I like your choice of grey to POP the Wood Lily. At the same time, I would punch up the orange color a notch or two,especially where the light contrasts are. I would also exaggerate these light contrasts to give the flower a it more POP! I also would lose some of those edges into the background.
As I stated before, this is what I WOULD DO, but it is not MY PAINTING!
You did a lovely job and it is very well designed. Good for you!
Thank you for sharing your work with us! Keep practicing and keep painting!
Ingrid
Lynn Marlowe on Mon, 29th Dec 2008 10:53 pm
Very distinctive. I like.
Mike Nelson on Tue, 30th Dec 2008 1:29 am
Very nice composition. It really works well and keeps your interest and a good use of positive and negative spaces. Kicking the highlights up a little would have given it more interest and depth. I love the color combinations you chose, they really work together well. One good way to get depth is to soften the edges of the objects that are the farthest from the viewer and defining the edges on the objects closes to the viewer and kicking up or reducing the values between the two.
I’ve tried pastels and failed miserably so I can appreciate your talent with that medium. You definantly have artistic talent, keep working at it and you’ll only improve. The day you stop improving or wanting to improve is the day you should hang up the brushes.
Good luck.
Mike
Susan on Tue, 30th Dec 2008 3:54 am
I think you are very passionate about your work. I think a little more variation in your background might make it stand out a little better. It seems almost to soft for my tastes. Just my opinion.
D.Brumley on Tue, 30th Dec 2008 4:32 am
I was wow!!!! I think you did a fantastic job. To me it is difficult to get such delicate work from pastels. I think it is perfect just the way it is.
Dorothy on Tue, 30th Dec 2008 7:23 am
you have given thought to your painting,welldone,the only thing i would have done would to have strenthend the back ground around the flowerhead a touch.must admit i have never worked with soft pastil only oil pastel.
War Roya on Fri, 2nd Jan 2009 2:44 pm
I love your flower Daniel I have always admired those who can use pastels without making it look like a child’s coloring work. It is truly a lovely delicate looking peace.
War Roya’s last blog post..Go Back and Pick Up Your Keys