"Petalburn" step-by-step process

"Petalburn" is a triptych acrylic artwork; this tutorial explains my painting process in detail. I used professional paints, acid-free matboard, and sable/ synthetic mix brushes in sizes ranging from 000 to 10. Colours used include ("Matisse" brand acrylics) napthol scarlet (red light), yellow mid (azo), Payne's grey, skin tone deep (brown), titanium white; and ("Atelier" brand acrylics) Pacific blue.

Step 1:
I knew I wanted a red-blue contrast over this work, so I washed in the main colours with some diluted paint. I tried to balance this across the work, with the main areas of red behind the gryphon and in the lower left-hand corner, and blue elsewhere. I mixed a small amount of blue into my red, and vice versa, to ensure colour unity.
It is absolutely crucial with triptychs that you work on all three panels simultaneously. This can't be stressed enough; it sounds self-evident, but it can be very easy to become engrossed in a small area of your work and ignore colour and tonal unity over the entire piece.

Step 2:
Using thicker (more opaque) paint, I added white and some yellow to my palette, mixing these with red and blue to paint the orange-pink area behind the gryphon. White, red and blue were used to paint the blue in the sky. At this stage, I am still mostly concerned with colour unity across the entire work, so I kept switching to different areas of the artwork, strengthening colour washes and establishing some shadows with diluted Payne's Grey.

Step 3:
The orange-pink area in the sky was too isolated, so I extended this across to the left. There are several issues cropping up at this point- for instance, the bright blue area in the sky sticks out too much, and creates a very strong diagonal that doesn't really lead the eye to anything of interest. Continuing the blue behind the gryphon will hopefully create a nice smooth curve of colour that attracts the viewer's eye to the main subject. Photographing your work and looking at it on a smaller scale, as well as looking at the work upside down, or in a mirror, helps to reveal elements requiring correction.
Now that I've begun to block in the mountains a little more, you may notice that the blue-grey I've used (a mix of grey, blue, red and white) is rather warm- this harmonises nicely with the somewhat cool pink in the sky (so much for red-blue contrast! I think this is becoming pink-blue).

Step 4:
I've uploaded this image as a mirror of the actual artwork, just to show a different perspective. As noted above, viewing your art in a different way makes mistakes pop out almost immediately. Mirroring your image is a particularly useful way to check composition and anatomy. In "Petalburn", the composition and colour scheme appear to work well (in my opinion!). Making the blue behind the gryphon even stronger will help draw attention to it.
There are a few issues, which become more noticeable in this image- firstly, the crystal-flower immediately below the gryphon "stabs" at its belly a little too much. However, making the crystal a little smaller should solve this, if it becomes necessary. Additionally, one of the crystal-flowers is at a different angle to most of the others (the one nearest the middle of the image). Though I drew it intentionally at this angle, it seems a little jarring to me now. I'll leave it for the time being though, and reassess later. Thirdly, the curve of the line of mountains isn't smooth enough, and bends too sharply in the middle.

Step 5:
I switched to pastels at this point, to fill in the sky and blend the colours a little better. There is more pastel needed in the sky, but I'll come back to it later.
Some mountains were painted in the background, which gives the overall horizon line a more pleasing curve. Unfortunately, my attempt at painting some less distant mountains has been disastrous! These will have to be redone, for the sake of my sanity.

Step 6:
The aforementioned mountains have been repainted, and I made them much closer to the viewer than before. They look much nicer the second time around, though they're still not quite to my satisfaction.

Step 7:
I tweaked the mountains, with two main changes. Firstly, I reduced the number of colours by removing the snowdrifts. This simplifies the background and makes it less distracting. Secondly, I have desaturated the mountains with washes of white mixed with blue and/or red, to help them to harmonise better with the sky. The reference photo I used for the mountains was very bright, with vivid orange highlights. I've deliberately rendered my brightest tones as pinks instead, as this pushes the mountains further into the background. If I was to copy the reference photo, as opposed to merely getting rough ideas from it, then the background would have been too domineering.
Additionally, some green was added to indicate where the foothills were to be placed.

Step 8:
Another mirrored image, to check how the colours are looking. Everything seems ok thus far; the possible problem crystals identified in step 4 aren't an issue now. I mixed up some green and, along with grey, painted the low hills in front of the mountains, keeping them very loose. A darker mix of grey and green was used to dot in a few trees. Then it was time to break out the pastels again, which were applied over the foreground (and a little bit more on the sky). A wash of grey and brown was used to paint some of the gryphon's feathers.

Step 9:
I continued working on the gryphon's wings. I have not added any new colours to my palette, and am still using the same five colours plus white that I've been using so far. Additionally, I thought the flowers were too orange, and decided a pink-red hue suited the image much better.

Step 10:
I've almost finished the gryphon at this stage. I made a couple of alterations to fix anatomical errors- the gryphon's right horn has been adjusted, and its tail has been thinned at the base. (Of course, its head is also on fire now.)

Step 11:
I continued tweaking the gryphon, fixing little errors (like the over-simplified footpads) and defining some areas better, such as the belly, which tended to merge into the background before. Some red and orange have been added to the nearest wing, to indicate light shining through the feathers.
I also began working on the flowers in earnest. The highlights are brighter and warmer, and the shadows darker, on the closest flowers. Colours become more bluish as the flowers recede from the viewer.

Note that there is no blue backlighting on the bottom flower in the image below. This is because there is no blue in the background behind the flower, so though blue backlighting suits some of the other flowers, it would have looked odd on this one. See for example the middle flower, which has far too much blue to look natural. This will have to be corrected!

Step 12:
After being dissatisfied with the sky for a while, I decided to bite the bullet and repainted it with acrylics. It's now much more pinkish in colour, there are less colours, more prominent clouds, and the clouds deliberately create focus on the gryphon by directing the eye to it. I also painted out the ribbon that was meandering about the sky, as it added nothing to the composition.
At this stage, I used a cheap brush to paint some parts of the sky, and I had to pick a few loose hairs off my painting. Always purchase the best materials you can afford; cheaper brushes tend to shed hairs more readily than high-quality brushes, and this can mar your work.

Step 13:
I've desaturated the yellow tones in the flowers, making them more pinkish to harmonise better with the background. However, some yellow highlighting will have to be added to the flowers/ crystals, to balance the yellow on the gryphon. Some of the flowers are merging with the background too much, so more highlights will address this.
I've also reworked a lot of the foreground, completely obliterating the pastel laid down earlier. Despite not being completely happy with it, I may have to leave it because I don't know what to do with it. The moral of the story is to plan your work carefully so it does work! Of course, that's not to suggest that spontaneity cannot produce great results, because it can.

Step 14:
I finished the work off by painting the crystals. Yellow highlights were added selectively to the flowers, with more added to the closest blooms. The highlights on the crystals are more bright than those on the gryphon, because their glassy surface reflects more light than the gryphon's hide would.
(The reason the picture below looks more pinky-purple than the others is that it is a scan rather than a digital photo.) Click on the image below to view it at a larger size.

All content copyright Donna Quinn.