Symposium

Hello hello! So, for symposium, I decided to paint two things: the mushroom and the feathers. I've told you about the scientific portions of both of these things, so I guess the best thing for me to do is to walk you through my artistic process.

Before starting any major work, the best thing to do is to leave at least a one inch border all around. From there, you can get to sketching.

The next thing I like to do is look for the lightest pigmented color in my specimen and go over the entire piece with that. I like to go from light to dark and build up my colors.
*See post 02/01/19 for an example of this

This can become a bit tedious, but I think I brings the piece more dimension and life. I also tend to favor not doing color swatches. Taboo, yes, but hear me out.

I've done enough pieces where I have kept color swatches and the results don't come out the same and I start to freak out because I've followed what I did to a tee. By removing color swatches, I take away that sense of panic within myself. Also, I may view a piece a certain way one day, and it changes the next. I believe my paintings and renderings should resemble that, so I don't leave myself a clear road map.

Hence, this,

becoming this.

And, this, 

Becoming that.

I was advised to add small sketches of the birds the feathers came from leading to the final result of the feather piece to be...

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