Lest We Forget - The Afghan Years II

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Poppies 11524, 30 inches by 30 inches, acrylic on canvas

For the second post to continue the story of how this series has been developed, here are photos of the very beginning of the second painting.  Worked on matching the paint colors for the camo background.  As you can see I painted over the camo to recapture the flowers that would later be the foreground.  I would end up regretting the type of acrylic paint pen I used to compose the drawing.  It bled in spots and was too dark, will choose a more subtle color next time and a different brand as well. Used several layers of clear gesso and paint to finally overpaint the sketch.  For my seascapes, treescapes and wildflowers there is no drawing beforehand, lesson learned!

These pics are mostly about developing the foliage once the base colors of the poppies were painted.  I had used a light yellow as a base but later painted over that with a vivid almost fluorescent color so that it would remain bright enough once I painted the duller color of green in the shadow areas.  I really wanted that foliage to look back lit on a bright day.   

Next steps developed the poppies.  My method is lots of layers while allowing the base layers to shine thru in spots.  Repainting back to white, then yellow and finally three variations of red (a cool, a neutral and a warm red) to bring out the flower details. The final effect makes the poppies really pop against the dull background of the flag and camo.