Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Choices - Sigrid Frensen

I love Autumn. But then again, I suppose all botanical artists love autumn. So much going on, so many beautiful colours, not to mention all the fruits and seeds...
In my previous post you could read I'm working a bit more with watercolours now. Also trying out some things to combine the coloured pencils and watercolours. Valerie Oxley told us that it shouldn't matter how we come to a good result, as long as we get a good result. I got to experiment with that when I made a watercolour of the rose hips of one of my roses, Rosa moyesii 'Geranium'.

Rosa moyesii 'Geranium'

I started to make a watercolour of it. But in the end I wasn't totally happy with the way it looked. I worked a bit too much in the red and it got a bit grainy and muddy. I remembered what Valerie told us and thought 'why not'.
I got some coloured pencils out and saved the painting. It looks much better now and I'm glad I did what I did.

Rosa glauca

Next I tried to make a painting of a rose hip I picked from my Rosa glauca. That didn't work. AT ALL. It was hopeless, even my pencils couldn't make that one better. So this time I made the rose hip again, now using only coloured pencils. Sometimes things just don't go as you plan it I guess. But it doesn't matter... as long as you get a nice result in the end.

Now I need to think about what to make next... it's autumn and there's so much choice...

7 comments:

  1. Well, if this is your failure, I should be so lucky. Fall is my favorite time of the year. I think a lot of it is the light. It softens so at this time.

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  2. The last image is the rose hip that was ok. I made this one with coloured pencils. I won't show you the failure :P

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  3. What a fabulous painting!!! Love everything about it.

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  4. Hi Sigrid,
    I have been admiring at your art for a long time
    I finally succumbed and brought myself a set of prismacolors. they are quite fun - i haven't used pencil since junior school!
    Slowly I hope to learn more about them.
    can you suggest your best tip for botanicals in pencil if you have time?
    Warm regards
    Janice-Marie in australia

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