How to paint Hyacinth

A couple of days ago, I painted my new Le Crueset Pitcher. Today, I decided to use it again for some Hyacinth. I often don't know what I'm going to paint when I go into my studio. And, although, I hate to say this, at times it feels just like a "day job", a dirty word in the world of art. So I have to dig a little for inspiration. This is more common than you think. Most hobbyists claim that they just aren't inspired every day and that's why they choose to only work a couple of days a week in the studio. A professional or serious artist doesn't have that luxury. We have to show up regardless of how we feel about it on any given day. That's discipline. Besides, magic often happens - but not if you don't show up. So, I show up. But sometimes, I have to look for my muse who's more often than not, hiding under the dust bunnies in the corners of the studio.

Sometimes it's just a case of asking myself what would make a good concept to fulfill on canvas. Sometimes, I pour through old sketches or photos I have on disc. But for this and my other blog, I usually go to the market to see what flowers or fruit I can find. Today, I just looked at that yellow pitcher and asked myself what colors would set it off. Well, violet or purple of course. So the course was set. Hyacinth filled the ticket.

I didn't have a canvas that was already toned, so I had to work from one without. No problem. I did a basic layin of the overall shape of the set up using raw umber. Note the close attention to detail. Just kidding.

Once I had the basic shape with a few suggested blooms for inspiration, I began with the background.

Using some raw umber and a bit of Naples Yellow, I started to work in the background tone. I used the Naples Yellow to cool the area surrounding the blooms.

I worked quickly here taking only about 3 minutes or so to lay in this tone.

For some reason, my camera didn't capture all the steps for the vase here so I'll need to talk about them. In the picture to the left, I laid in the table. I didn't have a highly polished table top so I had to invent one. I used burnt umber, cad orange and burn sienna to lay in the table. Then I put in a suggestion of reflection for the yellow pitcher. I also grounded out the pitcher and it's corresponding shadow. The shadows were laid in just before I worked in the table top.

You can also see that I smoothed out the background using a large soft sable brush. Most of the initial layin work is done with large bristle brushes but I like sables for smoothing. You can also note that the light haze around the blooms has changed temperature. I used a bit of raw sienna to change it.

The pitcher is done with a combination of Naples Yellow, Burn Sienna, Cad Orange and a bit of the background color (raw umber) to influence the shadows on the vase. The pitcher remains simplified at this point. I'll come back to it later.

Using a mixture of alazarin crimson (yeah, I know it's fugitive but there's no substitute for this beautiful color), ultramarine blue, umber, and white I made three mixtures for the basic color of the blooms. The ultramarine blue + umber + alizarin crimson mixture was used in the background of the blooms. I laid this color in rather lightly (scrubbing) in the background where I wanted a haze of color without detail. These were to become the blooms in the background out of the light. Then I used my brush to make some small blooms and petals. I tried to vary my strokes here. Everything is still pretty loose. I've included a snapshot of my mixing palette here. This is not my full palette which rests to the side of this one. This is made of glass and I use it for only the colors I'm working with. The other palette with all my colors is open and to the side. This allows me to have the luxury of a large mixing space.

You can just see the three mixtures here that I made for the Hyacinth. The duller one to the bottom then the purer blue/violet above it and the lighter version with white above that.

OK. Moving right along. I mixed some greens for the leaves from a bit of sap green, cobalt blue and white. For the background leaves, I used a bit of the background color to make it fade. I changed this later and I'll point that out and the decision that prompted the change.

You can also see that I've laid in some of the other mixtures here for the flowers. Hyacinth have a lot of little petals which can drive you crazy if you try to paint each one. The best paintings leave something to the imagination so I put in a few petals every few inches and leave the rest for the imaginaton. By using a 1/4" filbert and loading it well, I squish the paint down and twist the handle as I lift the brush. this gives the petal some definition and also some variation in the shading of each petal. I try to break up the shapes by punching in some holes with the background color. Most of the petals to the right are in shadow so no lights yet. The vase remains unfinished.

Here, in the final phase, I darkened the leaves in the background to make them sand out against the lighter haze behind the flowers. On top of the darker blooms, I added the lighter highlighted flowers that were catching the light. For some of these, I mixed in a bit of Naples Yellow to make them stand out against the violets. To help the blooms a bit, I put some quinacradone violet into the blooms and punched up the color a bit in a few places.

The color for the stems was just a bit of cad yellow and some of my green mixture from the leaves with a bit of white. When I put the stems in, I paid careful attention to the character of the stems - how they connected with the blooms and where and how they drooped. Often the character of a thing can be best described with nothing more than an edge or a turn of a corner.

The vase was finished up with some highlights. The shadows were enhanced a bit more with some umber. I took some of the violets and purples from the flowers and brushed them into the table to create the illusion of reflection and did the same for the blooms on the table.

Viola! Finished. Elapsed time: 1hr. 45 minutes (and a quick lunch break).