Today’s prompt from the Ultimate Blogging Challenge is all about conversations with blog readers on my porch. Once again, I’ve decided to interpret this… loosely. First of all, we need beverages, so we will have coffee or tea or apple cider. Then, we need refreshments. I’m going to order cookies from Lia’s Sunshine Bakery, as well as cookies from Heather, who operates My Gluten-Free Haven from her kitchen.
And then, we are going to do a fun art activity together!
Everyone will get paper with an image lightly drawn on it. You’ll also get a book to rest your paper on, if you don’t have a table.
There will also be pens available for adding color to your pictures. Yes, we are going to create with pens today. Pens can be a little bit unforgiving, so don’t worry if your pictures look a bit… abstract. It’s all about using your imagination and having fun on the art journey.
You might find some random lines, but that’s okay. In the process of adding ink, the random lines will no longer be visible.
We’re going to start with the center of the flower and use a shade of brown to make tight curls all the way from the outside to the inside.
We’re going to start on the petals. We begin with the lightest colors and then add dark colors, which is the same technique you would use if you were painting with watercolors. LIght first and then add dark. If you were painting with acrylic paint, you would reverse it. Dark first and then add the light colors and the highlights.
It’s time to start layering the colors. First orange.
Now we can add a darker shade of orange. The goal is to add depth to the picture. If you just add a single color, it will make your picture look flat. In reality, the picture is two dimensional. Hence, it will be flat. But art is about illusion, so you want to give the illusion of three dimensions to your drawing and one way to do that is with layering colors.
Adding two shades of red gives darkness to the image, which will help with the illusion of the flower being three dimensional. Oddly enough, that pen which looks like it should be pink is actually a darker shade of red.
You can cover up most of the yellow here. Your flower is more orange than yellow. Just let a little yellow peek out to serve as highlights for your drawing.
Making your picture dramatic is always fun. It’s autumn, so it’s okay if you draw a flower that is past its prime. Just make sure to leave those yellow highlights!
I hope that you’ve had fun at our get together on the porch! Enjoy the cookies and please come back for another visit!
