These two pages were facing each other in my Johanna Basford Enchanted Forest book, the top pic on the left-hand side page, and the bottom pic on the right side, so it was a garland of leaves tripping across a double-spread.
Fresh from my previous exercises in keeping to one color, I rendered these two pages in the colors of the rainbow, starting with blue to blue-green, then grading over to greens with progressively more yellow until the yellows took over.
Next, with the addition of increasing amounts of red, the yellows morphed into orange; then with the addition of more reds, the garland turned from orangey-red to blue-red, then over to purple, starting with a reddish purple (mahogany). With increasing amounts of blue added, the purple became a royal purple (my favourite color), and then back to blue to green to yellow.
The birds were colored grey so they wouldn't compete for attention with the garland.
I have to admit this idea isn't original. I saw a similar work like this online - also on a Basford drawing - so I just had to try it out myself, to do it my way, and this Basford picture, with a strung-out garland, seemed to lend itself to this attempt. This exercise made me think of color, and how to render the hues so that they "flow" smoothly, one into the next.
VIBGYOR was a mnemonic we learned in primary-school science, with the letters standing for the colors of a rainbow in the order they are stacked. Violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange and red. This garland follows that order.
Speaking of those days of long ago, I have set myself my next assignment - to draw (and color) something from my childhood - a carousel horse.
I follow the contemporary American artist David Palmer of David Palmer Studio on Instagram and he has been posting awesome pictures of his works (in acrylic) featuring carousel horses. Unlike me, his works sell for money!
I will make my own humble attempt at drawing such a horse next. I won't use his works as reference - somehow, the thought of copying a professional artist's works is loathsome to me - but will use an online photo of a carousel horse instead.
Watch this space for my horse. When I get (or make) the time. As always, work keeps getting in the way.
Speaking of carousels... Singapore's now-defunct Wonderland Amusement Park was in the news recently. A festival that trades on nostalgia for a long-gone Singapore lifestyle is coming, and an attempt will be made to recreate some of the features of that park, which sat on the site of today's Indoor Stadium.
I have fond memories of Wonderland. Dad used to bring me and Anne there on Sunday nights, after dinner. We had such a great time there that the usual Sunday-night pang of having to go to school the next morning would hit even harder than it would have if we had just sat at home to a blah evening by the TV.
The carousel horses in that park weren't anywhere as elaborate and beautiful as David Palmer's horses, but they brought us joy anyway. It didn't take much in those days, given that there was no Internet, TV wasn't in a golden age, and there weren't half as many other entertainment options.
I remember that when the time came for us to take leave of Wonderland's roller coaster, the spinning tea cups and the carousel, Dad would offer another one of his maxims when he saw our downcast faces: "All good things must come to an end."
At the time - I was 12 or even younger - I accepted that as a Truth of Life. I suppose now, with the benefit of age, I can see that it just might have been a tad cynical. Don't at least some good things last?
Anyway, Dad, you are seriously missed, and you have been gone 14 years. Fourteen! Wherever you are now, a Happy Fathers' Day (slightly belatedly), and a Happy Birthday in advance. You would have turned 88.
No comments:
Post a Comment