When I mention the word POPPY, what image does it comes to your mind ?
I guess those large lands with soft grass and the beautiful red touches where everyone loves get a picture for an instagram or their fav social media.
But if you mention Poppies to an older person, they would probably feel more related to those large paintings used to decor their white walls at the living room, halls or bedrooms.
I don't know about other countries but in Spain, those paintings became very, very famous in the previous decades.
Now that you know what is this project about, let me explain how did i get on board. Illustrating this sort of scenery is not a thrilling idea for me. But, when one of my closest aunts asked me if i could paint it for her, I could not say "NO". This is a very close person for me, someone that was there to support me in difficult times of my life, so I decided my actitude had to change. What if I try to make a poppies landscape but in an unusual style to present it.
PRE-PRODUCTION = PLANNING
One of my basic steps for each new project is to find real-life references. Despite internet is reaaally good and offers you a bunch of images you can use, the fact is that it is a very restricted reference. Having the real-life ref, you can look and analyse from different angles, under different conditions, understand the nature, etc.
Starting this work, is 1st of December so I could not go to a real place in order to take references from poppies.
But hey! If things would be easy all the time, life would be boring, wouldn't be?
Next step I took was to build my moodboards with online references:
Less references but to study them deeper in orden to understand what I do like about them (how can they support the idea I have in mind; why do I feel they connect with my idea?;which brush strokes and how would the artist apply it to the canvas?) ;has become a more nourish procedure for my art skill sets and my understanding.
Despite i mentioned I could not get real references of poppies landscapes, I still needed real refereneces of the lighting scenario for the painting. Therefore, a morning I just took my camera, phone and earphones to listen my fav podcast and walked towards the riverside, "el Guadalquivir" , which is just 10 mins walking from my appartment and took what would be my dawn light picture references:
From these pics i needed 2 elements: 1, how would water would behave with a dawn light and the colours of nature according to how close they would be from the sun.
PRODUCTION STAGE
Time to get the art supplies out and to get dirty.
For this painting I decided to choose the brushes on the go. I started using some of the shittiy cheap ones, and I stayed with them till the end of the painting. I felt confortable and I loved the result I was obtaining. As it was ages since last time I painted with acrylics, I did not want to damage my professional brushes, and I surprised myself liking the result when using the not professional ones.
After days and days painting, I thought I was just mechanically moving forward and not getting anywhere.
BREAK TIME!
At this point I lost my track with this painting, and because Christmas was getting closer, i decided to switch to a different project based on the Christmas Theme. Check it out here.
During those weeks, i wonder, what am I stuck with? What in the painting does not feel like magical? I knew for sure that I was not connecting with the idea and with the process, and in consecuence the painting was showing the mindset stage I was at.
To find how to get back on the track I made a bucket list of things, habits and actitude I would have to change when I would resume this project:
Re-plan the stage to get an Eye-direction line using the lights, colours, and the painting composition.
Set up some time to paint without listening podcast or music that will distract you from connecting your process.
Paint - Stop - Look - understand - resume painting.
RESUMING THE PAINTING
These two quick sketches stablished the direcction that the composition of the painting will take.
I was modifying the mountains layout, the position of the poppies and the lake extension.
After years developing my creativity and artistic skills, i have learned that if I am not satisfied with the result of an art work, it is not because the idea may not be good, but because I need to reframe it. Keep the strogest point that characterise your paintings, and play with the rest of the elements to highlight them
Following the previous Composition guide, and the bucketlist I created, here I will show the final "Making of" videos of this painting and the Final Result.
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