The challenge to render a a 'metallic' effect on leather is an integral part of my enjoyment with this painting. The back of a golden-brown shoe has already been attempted previously in the row of shoe backs, and now, the two shoes with a more silver effect. There is a blue metallic shoe awaiting my attention which will come later. After eye surgery about four years ago the surgeon fitted new lenses in both of my eyes. On discussion, he opted to fit lenses that do not require me to have reading glasses so that I would not need them for painting. Unfortunately over the last few weeks, one eye is deteriorating to a stage where it is never in focus, this means that I am essentially only using one eye when painting. One other reason for my slow work.

 Detail

There are quite a few black shoes in this painting this painting with different amounts of shine! The next step is to attempt a 'metalic' effect on the surface of a shoe. This is the beauty of ladies shoes, they have a vast number of colours and material effects.

Working from both sides of the composition, with the middle lower shelf, gives me a feeling of containment, it defines the boundaries. The left shoe, although black, is a patent leather, so underneath the black already painted, masking fluid lies on the top of the ridges in the leather where the light would reflect. There will be some paler black around them and, for those, I shall blot some paint off at the end stage of painting.

the shoe.

A day off from blogging but the painting continued. This row, showing the backs of shoes is now finished and I shall start to add the shoes on the shelf lower tomorrow.

I am really enjoying painting this.  It is so different from my usual subject of flora. I have added the shoe made of snake skin and the patent leather shoes. There is a great challenge to come as on of the shoes on the top shelf has that 'metallic' colour. I don't know if I can render this effect with normal watercolour paints, but I shall not give up trying! One other thing that I need to keep in mind is that, as I paint from right to left, the shoes will present a slightly different profile, that is, more of the left side of the shoe on the right and more of the right hand side of the shoe on the left.

I am enjoying the start of the colour that ladies shoes present as I progress with the painting. What I found interesting about this shelf is that, being on the other side of the display, only the backs of the shoes are on display to the viewer. This presents an interesting angle and is in contrast to the main shoes in the composition.

The thing that inspire and excite me about this topic for my watercolour painting are how I make the material look as close as possible 'life-like' in relation to the material they are made from. I want the clear perspex heel to look like clear perspex, leather to look like leather, canvas to look like canvas Chrome to look like chrome, aluminium to look like aluminium and I could go on. Only time will tell and viewers can be the judge!

 Detail

I have begun! The shelf support to the right is chrome and has many reflections of what is around it. There is so much in this painting that I am thinking that it would have been easier in a larger format. The straps of shoes are thick and have an edge, which is difficult to define on this scale but I shall do my upmost to indicate it.

 Detail

Preparation drawing is complete. I have changed the style of one of the shoes that I intended to use in the composition but I think that it is improved because of it. I shall now put paint to paper. I will think for a while which shoe to start with as I want to render the colour and the texture as some are very shiny and some are canvas-like.

I had spent a couple of hours drawing the lower shelf and decided that they did not look in proportion to the rest so had to redraw them. I shortened them a little but just brought the toes out of the frame a fraction. I have decided to let the shoes overlap the frame on the bottom and both sides which will create the effect of making the whole array feel closer to the viewer. The drawing is still a little difficult to see in this photograph but I do not like to put too much graphite on the paper before I start to paint. It can tend to dirty the paper and affect the colour.

Laces and straps are not easy! The challenge will be to render the lace to appear cylindrical when applying paint. I have put repeats of some shoes, as different sizes of the same shoe are often in a display. I have been surprised at the vast differences in style. Some ladies shoes have a definite masculine appearance but, then again, all tastes have to be catered for. It is all about sales and money when selling!

The lower shelf of shoes is on the other side of the stand. It is sparse and will allow a view into the shop where distant shoes on display stands could be seen.

Straps on ladies sandals have a mind of their own. I am moderately satisfies with them at the moment but may change the angles slightly as I paint them. There is a little more detail to go in the background of the top row, particularly on the left, but that can wait until just before I paint. When I use a soft pencil to outline the composition the paper can become a little 'grubby' but I erase this before I apply the paint. On this photograph there is a shadow from the studio window frame.

The top array of shoes is almost complete. The straps to the sandal needs to be added. It is important to get the straps right if the shoe is to look as it should. The angles need to be correct otherwise any ladies or shoe designers would be able to pass judgement on the accuracy of the designs that I am including. One of the challenges that I am looking forward to is making patent leather look shiny, silver shoes look silver, canvas shoes like canvas or, in other words make the variety of materials look real!

I am including a ladies sandal at this point, which I drew previously in preparation for the painting. There will be about eight shoes across the painting, but some will overlap or even be on the top of each other. There are parts of shoes in the background, which gives the shelf an openness that gives dimension to the work.

                                                                            Previously posted preparation sketch                      

Still difficult to see, but I have started to sketch in some shoes. They will all be different, which is more interesting than a line of the same style, though Andy Warhol would find that interesting I'm sure! Painting the different textures of the materials will be the challenge and I'm looking forward to it. I have allowed the shoe to 'peep' out of the painting frame in this drawing stage but I haven't decided yet if it will stay through the painting stage.

There is not much to see on todays picture so you will have to look closely! I have decided to do the shoe watercolour as a rectangle, but only just! 55cm x 57.5cm. I was going to make it square, but decided on the last minute to change it. In this stage, I have drawn in the ledges on which the shoes will rest. I didn't want them to be horizontal but slightly on a slant, as if the stand was not quite perfect. I don't want the shoes to appear as if they will slide off, but it will help to take away the 'technical' nature. I shall add shoes over the next week and hopefully put paint to paper after that. I did use a ruler to faintly draw in the shelf edge, but I shall paint free hand, as I also don't want it to appear like an advertisement! It is an idea from an observation that I had in New York when visiting Sachs department store, where I observed a pair of ladies shoes at $3800 American!!!! I also have in mind some work on shoes that were worn by everyday people in New York City. I was surprised that they were mostly generic everyday shoes and not at all like the ones on sale in the store but, non the less,

interesting.

The rose is now complete. It is the most intense colour I have used on a flower and not what I would call pretty, but perhaps I could say passionate! Not all the water drops are to the standard that I would like but watercolour is unforgiving of contrast once the paint is on the paper. I shall move onwards now to my next project which may take a while to plan out before I put paint to paper. I have decided to continue in a square format but a little larger at 55cm square.

This is a challenge for me. I normally don't have a problem with water drops, but the intensity of the red and having some drops in the shade, makes me a little dissatisfied with my efforts so far. I have only added a couple but I need to make sure that there is a little spot of light in the right place to give the appearance of glistening. The ones in the shade are more subtle., as the presence of the water changer the tone of the colour underneath. The shadow of the drop also needs to be in agreement with the light direction.

I have discovered that an intense red is the most difficult colour to get the contrast on without changing the colour of red. Luckily, there is some yellow on this rose which provides the contrast. Normally, if I want to darken a colour I add a little of its complementary - in this case green - but here I have also needed to add a touch of indigo. I have removed to masking fluid from the painted petals and will paint them in last. You will notice, by comparing yesterdays post and todays,  that I have lightened the background beside the extreme left petal to provide more contrast.

I have added some spots of masking fluid where I wand water or dew drops on the petals. They appear very yellow and flat but, once the mask has been removed, it will give me a white surface to paint in the tonal differences. Roses, and in particular with dew added, are a bit os a cliche, but this rose from our garden is such a rich and intense colour, it had to be painted. I observed actual dew on the petals as the shape depends on which part of the flower it lies. Artificially added water drops with a hose presents a less natural state and, usually has too many. I have started with the darkest petals in shadow and will work from dark to light in most cases here.

The rose that is the subject of this painting is in a pot on the patio not in the ground, but I wanted it to appear in a more natural surrounding. I originally wanted a sunlit background with silhouetted leaves but I felt that the yellow bias background would compete with the rich colour of the rose, so I have added some Alizarin crimson to darken it and tone it with the rich yellow/red of the rose. The rose is the hero and the background secondary. There is a little of the crimson tone on the actual leaf of the plant.
                                                                               

The completed painting of a hibiscus. There are some things that I feel needed more careful attention, but overall I am not unhappy with it. I enjoyed adding the shadows, as I always find it exciting to add green into the colour, even though there is no green on the flower itself. Because one of the dominant colours is red, our eyes register the complementary in the shadows. (You can experiment to prove this by looking at a light and then closing your eyes or looking away to a plain area then you should see the light shape in a greenish yellow. Please do not look for so long as to damage your eyes!) The long stamen casts a shadow across the petal but is foreshortened on the painting because of the viewpoint.

Though this painting seems to be moving quite quickly, it still has many subtle tonal details to be added to create the texture of the petals. I mix the colours that I am using for the painting to create the shadow colours; for example, a little red and green added together can be made to have a warm (red) or cool (yellowish green) shadow tone. The deep coloured throat of the flower provides great contrast to the sunlight on the petals. I cannot afford to take too much longer with the centre, as the masking fluid that I applied will be difficult to remove if left too long on the paper.

Not much painting today on my teaching day, but I managed to add some more detail and shadow. It is the contract of the shadows that gives the petals form. I have also started to block the dark areas into the background of a single rose bloom. I do not paint many roses and have only done them at the request of relatives in the past, but this rose had such intensity of colour that I couldn't resist it. My wife and I purchased two of them for the pots in our garden.

After putting the masking fluid in the central stamens, I blocked in the main yellows, using Winsor Yellow, Transparent yellow and Cadmium yellow. There are many tones and shadows to apply yet but I have made a start. I am using Winsor red, Alizarin Crimson and Scarlet Lake to make the red heart. Shadows are being created by using touches of Indigo and Hooker's Green in with the other main colours. It is possible that I will be unhappy with the result as the effects do not always turn out like the picture in my mind. The problem with doing flowers after a break, ( it is a few years since I last painted a hibiscus of such varying colour) is that you become less familiar with the way the colours represent themselves on the petal. It is not unknown for me to tear up a small painting if I do not think that it represents the best that I can do. We shall have to see when this is finished. I have not been unhappy with a painting that I have blogged before, but there is always a first time! The texture of the paper can be seen in this close-up.

 

The background is complete, though I could make adjustments to tone and shape as the flower begins to take shape. I have included some suggestions of soil and organic matter but the background should 'pale' in importance once the flower is painted. It is interesting to paint a smaller painting with just one bloom after the previous two larger paintings. My next task will be to mask out the central stamens so that I can keep them light in tone at the end as this particular hibiscus has a very deep red heart.

I have started to add leaf colours to the hibiscus. They are not definite shapes but suggest the 'embossed' nature of the leaf of this particular plant. One of the shapes will be a more complete leaf but, other than that, I want the background to be secondary to the flower head.