Jot It Down

It's Pink Saturday!  I thought I would share a book cover design I have created to help me collect my thoughts and ideas for color schemes, painting designs, etc.  It is pink, of course.

I dream in color.  I often work out paintings, color schemes and even patterns in my sleep.  I find that if I stick to the color I 'see' in my dream, the color of the design works out perfectly.  This booklet helps me to remember to jot it down.

I also keep sticky notes in the booklet too.  Though sticky notes are handy, they have become a plague in my office.  I have them everywhere.  After a short time, I can't remember what they are about, and I am afraid to throw them away.  So I tape them in my booklet.  There, a pretty office organizer too!

Something pink and pretty to write in!  I have these available on my website.  I also design unique, one-of-a-kind covers for others.  Interested?

Thank you to Beverly for hosting another grand Pink Saturday!

A White Hot July Day

A white hot July day presents the perfect opportunity to paint something cool.  My thoughts immediately drift to delicate cool, soft pink and lavendar English roses.  Of course!  The background selection is easy.......white.  Now it is time to find the right design to paint.....something loose and flowing.  There it is.  Just the right surface, a "peek-a-boo", stand-alone frame.  Roses and ribbon.

On my palette, I squeeze out Burnt Carmine, Radiant Violet, Raw Sienna, Naples Yellow Light, and Titanium White.

With a crystal glass of ice cold violet and rose tea, I am ready to paint the roses.  Warm and cool whites create the delicate pinks and lavendars as I pull the rounded petals through the undercolor placed in the flower form.  Layering on petal by petal with more white or naples yellow light.  A touch of burnt carmine.  A speck of raw sienna.  An accent of radiant violet.  Add some depth.  Accentuate a light.  Value creates form.  Warm up a petal, cool one down.  Play with  the temperature of the color.  Temperature creates depth.  It's hot outside.  My brush is "smoking", but I am lost in a my pink zone creating cool, soft, delicate beauty.

Now the leaves.  They should be cool greens with a warm tone here and there.  I'll use chromium oxide green, a little cadmium yellow pale, black and some white.  Add an accent of burnt carmine to relate them to the roses.  Maybe a touch of radiat violet.  Oh, and some raw sienna, but not too much.  I don't want the leaves to look too much like autumn.  Vary the values of the leaves.  Create interest among the leaves with warm and cool tempertures within the leaf colors.  There, just right.

The ribbon is next.  Maybe I will make it a littler warmer than the roses.  I will use the same color as I used in the roses, just more radiant violet and naples yellow light.  Maybe more burnt carmine to blend with the radiant violet.  That makes a pretty, cool pink.  Twists and folds, flips and turns.  Play darks against lights to get the ribbon to flow through the design.  Again, work with the temperature of the colors.  That looks good.

Finally, assess the design again, as a whole unit.  Add some intense color here and there.  Burnt carmine.  Some white, maybe.  Now it "pops"!  Oh, tone down a rose petal with a light green used in the leaves.  Ok, that is better.  Maybe one of the pinks on my pallete would look good on a leaf.  Yes, that works.  I am loving it!

The final touch.  Add stems and tendrils.  Fleck with a soft, cool green.  Sign my name.  Done!

I can truly say that this painting was inspired by the heat.  A white hot July day.