The Rose of Sharon painting, aka Althea, a Painting Demonstration of a most meaningful flower.

The Rose of Sharon Painting Demonstration!  This is of an older work, that I retained some of the photo's that show how the painting was created.

The initial dead and gray layer combined, and then the final layers which include a large number of closeup to allow you to see the texture and detail that can be accomplished with oil paints.

Below is the umber or brown layer completed and the gray layers coming along nicely on the top half of the painting. Notice too that the ink drawing is plainly visible as it continues to guide us in our painting.

The main point of this demonstration is to show you the importance of the gray under painting.  You can click on any image to get the full sized gallery slide show of what is on this page. 

A close up of the right blossom in gray.  Note some of the umber under layer showing through.

Then to the right side of the painting.

And a close up of the right blossom.  You can see here some of the brown under painting still showing through.  The main thing I want you to note are the half tones.  The areas between a well lit area, and a shadow are.  The smooth gradation or shift from light to dark is best captured in this, the gray layer. 

A close up of the stem work below the right blossom.  Notice that some details are creeping in, but no texture is being painted.  There is quite a bit going on here, but the thing I want you to notice are these details.  Things like stems, flower centers (stamin) etc. 

Then the rest of the blossom are put in.

Each blossom has a few touch ups to bring out the character of each.

And once this is dry, we will oil out the painting and begin the color layers in the next lesson.  Below is the completed under painting with a few more closeups. 

Again, to point out the importance of this layer.  When we look at older works, either with an unfinished piece, or a damaged work, or even with modern technology and x-rays, this layer was usually present in work of old.  I believe it's the most important layer that you produce, because when you take your time here, your painting will sing!

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Here are some closeups of the finishing layer of this beautiful Rose of Sharon painting. It did well at a local art club sale and captured a nice price. Click on the image to get the larger slide show. It will show the texture of each leaf, the veins within the leaf and petals, dew drops, etc..

For more details on this process check out my e-book on the subject.

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