Irises on a black bin

I decided to paint irises, this time - faithfully following the style of Donna Dewberry's one-stroke flowers. I needed tall flowers for this tall bin, and her irises were perfect for the role.

I always have paint left over, and this time, I attacked the cover of the Davidoff coffee bottle: and it could now be a pencil holder, or for a keeper of brushes, or whatever you like :)

When both projects were dry, I covered each with two coats of Mod Podge, sanding them down in-between coats. I love the way Mod Podge brings everything together nicely, and gives it all a lovely depth and glow.

Just finished, but not yet top-coated - on my untidy desk!

Not my best picture, eh - taken with the flash off, and in the room light.

The bin, all ready to be used: with a liner fitted, and sitting next to the girls water bowl :)

My flowers

So I watched her do it on You Tube, and I tried my hand at it, and it wasn't so bad, I thought:


















Then, I tried my hand at those shell-like stroke Dewbery talks about, and because it was white-edge on white, it was barely visible. Note to self: don't do this again! Please.

















And always, with leftover paint, I must fiddle with an iris - and I am making progress.
Note to self: See? I can actually do that petal-flip like I seem them do!

























And finally, with Luz Angela on stop/start on You Tube, I do a rose that actually looks like a rose to me! I thought it would be tragic, as usual, so I took out my ugliest paint - green - and thought, 'what the hell, let's give it a go'. Again. And, I was quite pleased with my result.

Had to meddle with the edges; had to add highlights; and it is messy - but, they look like roses. And they don't look like factory-processed ones, either. So, I am happy :)

Building flower petals

I'm down with a cold, and so am into 'classroom' mode for a bit.

Here's a new lesson on building a flower, starting with petals - the teacher is Gloria Moran, and excellent teacher, even though I understood very little of what she said! She works a six-petal flower, an iris, and leaves here:



A simple lavender project:



Building and orchid, step by step: