Painting 1

Abby Mess

"The Sunflower"

 11in x 14in

2020 

My idea was a sunflower with a sky blue background.  I got the idea from my grandma and grandpa’s house because they used to plant sunflowers in their front yard. Also, my grandpa’s favorite flowers were sunflowers. He also liked the color yellow. This painting evolved by adding shadows to create contrast. My process to make this painting was first, I painted the background yellow. Then, I printed out a picture of a sunflower than I used transfer paper. I then traced around the picture I printed out. Next, I painted the flower I traced. The colors I used were phthalo blue and light green for the stem. For the shadows I use yellow ochre and medium yellow mixed together. Then, for the petals I just used lemon yellow. Lastly, I painted the background blue which I mixed together Phthalo blue and white. My artwork is a remembrance of my grandpa for me. I want my audience to use this as a relaxing painting and make them feel relaxed. This is supposed to be a picture of one of my grandparents' sunflowers that were in his front yard. The most difficult for me was blending because the paint dries fast. I overcame this struggle because the color I outlined the flower was yellow ochre and medium yellow but it dried too quickly before I blended it with lemon yellow.  But I look at the darker yellow as a shadow from the other petals. If I could change anything I would have blended more and maybe blended in streaks of white in the background to represent clouds. This style of art is realistic or still life. This is unique to me because I like the bright colors and yellow is such a bright color. I love the shadow thing I did even though it was not meant to be there. I also like how the stem has different shades of green. 

Abby Mess

“The Lonely Mallard”

11in x 14in

2020

My idea was a duck in the grass. I got this idea because on my dad’s side of the family we go hunting every year. My Grandpa started this. He taught my dad and my uncle to shoot a shotgun and they always went hunting with my Grandpa. My painting evolved by making it just be solid colors. This is from life experiences because I have seen my dad shoot a mallard drake and my grandpa made decoys and my dad took up that and now he repaints them and stuff. My process to make this was first, I painted the background a light blue sky color. Then I added the water which was ¼ of the page and after that was dry I added a little bit lighter blue than what the water was and created the waves.  Then, I sketched out the mallard drake after that I painted it with acrylic paints and made the spain solid with no blending. Next, I sketched out the grass and painted that. Lastly in the sky I added some geese that are flying over to make the painting have more action. I want this to be a relaxing painting and I want them to picture themselves walking on a trail by a lake or river and seeing a duck swim through the grass. I would say the most difficult thing for me was the grass because when it came to the point it was really hard for me to paint that part. I overcame this struggle by telling myself that grass is not always perfect and has a point like I wanted. I would change the water and make it a little more wavy. This is a realistic painting because it is an animal. This is unique to me because I have a story behind it.  I love how the duck and how it turned out, also I like how the grass looks like it has texture. 

Abby Mess 

“Night in the mountains”

11in x 14in 

2020

My idea was to do a landscape painting. I got the idea from looking at different examples of landscape paintings on the internet and I scrolled past something similar to this.  Me and my family like to go hiking to different places and we have wanted to do the mountains so that’s how I decided to do this as my painting. This painting evolved when I was painting the trees and moon because as I just painted it normally I wanted the moon to look like a moon so I added texture to make it look realistic like it has craters. I did the same thing to the trees. To make the trees have texture I dabbed the paint on and added a mixture of light and dark green painting. My process to make this painting was I painted the background with a dark blue, darker teal, and made the teal lighter and lighter as it went down the page. Then, I sketched the mountains and then painted them. Next, I painted the trees and the grass. Lastly, I painted the moon behind the mountains. A technique I used was the dabbing of the paint. This artwork does not have a meaning, it is just a landscape painting of the mountains at night. When people look at this painting I want them to relax and wish they were there seeing that and how beautiful they think it is. There is no symbolic imagery in this painting. The most difficult thing for me was making the trees because I did not like them painted normally. I thought to myself they needed more so I used the dabbing of paint to make it look better and more realistic. If I could start over I would add more things to or maybe have water in front of the mountains to have more things to look at. This style of art is realistic. It is unique to me because sometimes I want to go hiking in the mountains. I love the moon and tree texture that I did. In my future paintings, I think I might use the dabbing paint technique again.