Daffodils by William Wordsworth

Time for some culture here…

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils

---William Wordsworth

OK, guys you weren’t a lot of help on choosing my next art project .  Although I agree with the one person who suggested the daffodils in front of the window, I ended up using the single daffodil. This was for a very practical reason. I already had a printed copy of this picture, and my printer ran out of ink when I tried to print the other. It’s kind of hard for me to paint when I don’t have a reference photo in front of me. I spent my art class today working on a black and white reference drawing. I made a number of mistakes, but definitely learned a lot about the picture. The black and white drawing took a long time, much longer than I had anticipated, so I wasn’t able to do much with the color painting. In fact I was only able to determine the colors I will use, as well as put down my first layer of color.

As I always tell people, while a graphite drawing actually looks pretty good at any stage, as does a pastel drawing, watercolors have very ugly stages. They stay that way a while while you apply the various “glazes” (light transparent coatings of colors).  This particular painting is a wonderful example of working with negative space. That is to say, I didn’t paint in the stem and leaves, but did the dark background, and the actual picture emerged out of the background. The same happened with the center of the flower. I painted in the blue and yellow and there is the center stem. It’s a fascinating process.

It’s been interesting to watch my fellow students, some of whom are just beginning watercolors and I see how much they are struggling and I realize how far I’ve come and how much I’ve learned. Every drawing and painting I do is giving me more confidence. It’s nice to feel like I am really beginning to get the hang of it. I mostly use my teacher as a resource person, to help me choose colors and add details and see where I have made mistakes. But in essence I choose what I want to do and how to go about doing it. I work better that way. I am very much an independent learner.

So what have you been learning lately? I hope something fun and interesting. I am seriously thinking about what I will work on learning next.