Painting II

Ana Henningsen "Flowers"

9x12, Canvas and acrylic, 2023

I wanted to paint something that I liked, which is flowers. My favorite flowers are daisies so I decided to go with that. I have this golden and tan vase at home so I recreated that on canvas. 

First I started out by painting the background navy blue since it is my favorite color and it would make the vase and flowers pop more. Then I went in lightly with a pencil to sketch out the flowers and vase. Once I got the sketching done I started to paint just the base color of the vase. I then mixed a bunch of green shades to get the right stem color and then started to paint the flowers. It was hard to paint the white flowers because I had to do multiple coats. Once I was done painting the flowers I did the design on the vase with a lighter color.

This artwork is my story painting. The flowers are a sign that it's springtime since that is when flowers start to bloom more.

The most difficult thing for me was to try and paint the flowers with white paint. Since the white that I used needed more than one coat and since the background was also a lot darker than the flower itself it needed about 2 coats of paint to really stick out. I just had to wait for the first coat to dry and then go in again with the second coat. If I could start over I would make it look more realistic.

I think that this artwork is realistic. What makes it unique to my own personal style is the design of the vase which would be my favorite part of it.

Ana Henningsen "Sunset Island"

16x20, Canvas and Acrylic, 2023

I wanted to recreate a picture I took when I was in the Lake of the Ozarks. We were on a boat when this picture was taken so I wanted to paint the water along with the sunrise.  

This was a recycled canvas so first I had to cover up what was left over which was easy and then started to paint the sky. I then started to paint the land. After I got the land done I went on to paint the ocean which was hard for me since I didn't quite know how to do that. There was a lot of blending that I had to do.

The artwork is supposed to be calming but also pretty. It symbolizes the vacation that my family and I took to the Lake of the Ozarks last summer.

The hardest thing for me to do was make the ocean look realistic. In the picture that I used for reference the water was the same color as the sky but trying to make it look like the water and the sky were not the same thing was hard for me to do since they were the same colors. If I could start over I would make the ocean look more real.

This is a realistic painting. It makes it my own because I took a picture of a sunset while on vacation and recreated it. My favorite part would have to be the sky.

Ana Henningsen "Astronaut on Hill"

8x10, acrylic, 2023

My idea was to make something simple and something to resemble the movie me and my dad would always watch which is "The Martin"

First I started with sketching out the painting and then with the mixing the paint to the perfect shade for the mountain. I then did the darker side and moved on to the lighter side. I then did the shadow of the astronaut then painted the sky a deep blue color then worked on the tiny astronaut. 

The symbolism is the movie that me and my dad used to watch "The Martin" and I wanted to paint something that resembled our favorite movie. 

The most difficult thing for me was to get the sand color right. It took me many different try's to get it right. I had to paint over it twice so get the right color. If I could change anything I would add a lot more detail to make it look more realistic. 

This is surreal. What makes it unique is that is something from my life and is a memory. I love how the sand is two different colors.