Bleeding Hearts

After working on collaboration paintings with her brother and sister, 14 to 15 year old (by the end of our meetings) "E" was back to create a painting for her bathroom that she could claim as her own.   She has bleeding hearts in her backyard, which she loves, so we decided on a close up image of those particular flowers for her painting.    Her bathroom is gray so this pop of color will be beautiful in it!

 A misty background would go beautifully against the detailed flower close up, so that is where I had her start.   She sponged in the greens first.

To play with light a bit, I recommended adding in a blue haze in some spots...here she begins to work on the blue and blending with the sponge.

Next "E" put in the stem and started the flowers as well!   For 14 (well, she turned 15 in the midst of this project so for 14 and olders), I give suggestions, demonstrate techniques, and do some sketching, but I really want them to have more autonomy than my younger painters as they are very capable!

Session 2:

Today "E" would be adding more color and details to her image.  The idea of the blue was not the outcome we had hoped, so "E" went over the blue with a light green instead.  Then, we started with highlighting the branch.

 Next "E" moved to the flowers.  There was a great variety of both color and shades in each one so this took lots of time!

 "E" posing half-face, then my forced full face pic!  :)  You're pretty and young!  I say own it!

 Where we stopped today:

Session 3:
Today "E" finished up the flowers, I gave her some guidance as to shades and colors to use and then let her go to it!

 The painting was coming together so beautifully!

 Some final details:

And painting complete!  "E"!  You have such a great smile!  I loved our afternoons painting and learning about New...oops, I mean ONE Direction!  ha!   Enjoy those bleeding hearts!