20131030 - Thistle with Bee (Painting)

Yesterday, I decided to pick up the challenge of not just drawing, but painting the Thistle with Bee. You may remember that I had done a pen & ink only drawing of the Thistle with Bee. This time, I decided to make it a bit larger (11x14 inches) and paint it.

I am fairly pleased with the painting. My rule of thumb on this is that if I would not mind giving it as a gift, then it passes muster.

Of course, there are always things I would like to improve. The thistle color did not come out quite right. It should have been a bit brighter pink purple. I suspect I should have used Ultramarine Pink. I tried to use a rose and a violet to get some of the same effect.

Things that did work right include the bee. It's not perfect, but I'm pretty pleased with it. I also intentionally color shifted the stems and leaves. I did that to have it show "weedy" growth. For the background I used a similar green, then used a bluer green exploding outward from the thistle. This carries the "motion" of the thistle outward.

All things considered, I am fairly pleased with this painting. Especially since I have also been dealing with a really huge floater that floats into the center of my vision. Yuck. I spent most of the day on this past Sunday at the Duke University emergency room. Appears I developed a partial vitreous detachment in my left (good) eye. Being unaware of the symptoms for that and problems with the retina, I decided I needed to have it checked immediately. The ophthalmologist on duty and the senior ophthalmologist on call both reassured me that since I have usable vision only in that one eye, I did the right thing to have it checked. Fortunately, there's no retina damage. But I do have a "honking big" floater that's right in the middle of my center of focus. And yes, it appears ophthalmologists use technical terms just like computer engineers do! .. ;-) ... So, all things considered, I am really pleased that I can still enjoy painting.

And I hope you enjoy this.