More fun on my deck

Coleus Sketch No. 1

I have a new facination. My wife planted these wonderful things called Coleus in the flower box on our deck. I discovered that at around 4:30 in the afternoon on a sunny day, the most wonderful light is created around these little gems. I have a very heavily wooded back yard, which tends to make the background very dark, almost like night time. But then the sunlight breaks through at very interesting angles and makes the tiny purple pedals on the bud seem luminescent.

I want to explore a series of these in oil. Before I do that, however, I wanted to slow down and do some studies before I commit to canvas. I discovered in this sketch that the plant was much more complicated than I thought. And it was harder to convey the range of values than I thought. Perhaps that is do to the use of a pen, but I wanted to do this as quickly as possible, and not get bogged down in trying to do 'finished' art. So the good thing is I learned a lot about the structure of the plant better.

Next, I'll do some color studies. Small ones like 4 x 6 inches. This will force me to really boil the composition and color down to their most important parts. I will do these in either water color (NOT in my moleskine) or in oil. I bought some little 4 x 6 canvas boards this morning so I think think I am leaning that way. Then I will do some full size oils.

I do feel as I made my way to the lower right portion of the drawing, I was starting to loose my concentration and started making stuff up instead of drawing what was there.

Let me know what you think.