Fearless Friday, Recipe for a Painting

Similar to cooking, a painting requires a series of preparation steps
When you begin to make a recipe,
you first gather your ingredients,
then you do the primary preparations such as chopping, cooking pasta,
browning meat, grating cheese, etc.
Then you proceed to assemble and cook your dish
When I do a painting, I have a similar process
This painting is a commission from a friend
She knew she wanted a field of wild flowers
and had already started a Pinterest Board, and invited me to join it
Pinterest is such a great tool to use to gather ideas and share information
I added some pins too, with paintings I wanted to use for my own reference
for style and technique
Next comes the space, being able to see the space, even by photo,
and having a few measurements for reference
is invaluable for deciding size and color palette
I created a graphic with PicMonkey
to help her decide the size and shape canvas she wanted
We agreed on a square 36″ x 36″
Time to gather ingredients, I mean supplies!
Next, a thumbnail sketch in ink
This helps me determine the composition
and the darkest and lightest areas and details
Now a quick color sketch with markers
She requested the flowers in the foreground to be quite definite
and then the whole scene to fade into shapes and color
as it recedes back to the sky
This rough color sketch helps plan the composition and color placement
She requested yellow, gold, blues, and a touch of red
Her pale gray and white room will easily be complimented by these colors
She has an accent chair and pillow in a deep teal
that I will use in much of the background
Since this is a landscape painting with a lot of greens and blues,
I chose to do the underpainting in a red-orange
Red is the compliment of green and will add warmth
Orange will compliment the blues
It will also peek through in spots, giving her pops of red
Time to paint!
Click here for a printable Recipe of a Painting
Have fun and Be Fearless!
🎨 🎨 🎨
I will be joining these fabulous parties and blogs:
Meal Plan Monday Love Your Creativity What’s for Dinner?
Between Naps on the Porch, Make it Pretty Monday
Turn About Tuesday Celebrate Your Story,
All About Home/ Common Ground Follow the Yellow Brick Home
Tasty Tuesday Oh My Heartsie Girl Full Plate Thursday
Thursday Favorite Things Creatively Crafty Home Matters
Weekend Potluck Sweet Inspirations Happiness is Homemade
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Looking forward to the completed painting!
thanks Ann, I hope to finish it this week 🙂
Jenna, wow, love how you compare preparation for painting to cooking. It does make sense in that you have to organize before you begin. Enjoying the progress of your work and the last photo perfectly describes this process without a word. Love that! Have a great weekend…….
thank you Emily, I had really never thought about the similarities before, it just came to me as I started writing this post…
That’s fantastic! Be sure to show the end result!
Will do, hopefully next week 🙂
I love everything about this but what I love the most are your creative photos — the palette, the paints in your table setting dishes and bowls. Really fun and clever.
Thank you Jeanie, the photos are from a tablescape I did several years ago and thought they made a fun addition…
I just find this process fascinating! Thank you so much for sharing it.
thank you Dorothy, I never had thought about the resemblance between cooking and painting before, but the process is so similar!
Inspirational!
Jenna, this is a perfect description of the process! Looking forward to the reveal!
thank you Robin, hopefully next Friday!
I look forward to seeing the finished painting. Recipes for food and painting…organize and prep! Have a wonderful weekend Jenna!
thanks Pam, you too!
This was extremely helpful to me Jenna, thank you! ❤️ I have been wanting to start a watercolor for my bedroom but didn’t know how to begin. I like how you created your thumbnail sketch. I also like how you created a Pinterest board! I can’t wait to see your finished painting!! 🎨💕
thank you Jill, unsplash is a great photo source too, and I have actually done a lot of paintings from my gardener friends blogs
I love your process and planning, Jenna! Great post and so many great tips. 💚 Looking forward to seeing your painting. 😊
thanks Patty Anne, it always makes me a little nervous when I am painting for a friend 🙂
I’m very excited about this painting, Jenna! I love it so far! Can’t wait to see the finished piece.
Thank you Sally, I hope it’s hanging in your room soon 🙂
Wow, this sure brought me back to my teaching days. Out of college I managed to find a job(they were rare in 1971) at the local vocational school teaching night classes for GED’s and enrichment courses. And, this was pretty much what I used for teaching Painting 101…! We used a multi-media approach as art supplies were hard to get in N.Wisconsin, so I let everyone work in the media they wanted to, which was interesting. Love your print-out and I’m going to use it for some fun group projects in the future!
Interesting side-note, Northern Denmark painters —faced with such dark skies and seas, would underpin their paintings with metallic golds or silvers. Even landscapes were over gold to give a warmth to an area that was always a bit chilly! I found your red…looking pretty scary—but I know that it works.
Interesting! Yes the red is pretty off putting, but once painted over, it does lend warmth and glow…My go to underpainting is black, I love the drama it adds…I will have to try metallic gold!
I am so unartistic, and I always am in awe of your Friday morning tutorials, and how they come to fruition. I absolutely can’t wait to see your final product! Thank you for the artistic journey every week.
Rosie
thank you so much Rosie, much appreciated!
How lucky your friend is to have you lend you artistic expertise and paintbrush for a custom work of art Jenna! I think the red underpainting is so intriguing!
ha, everyone freaks when they see the red 🙂 but it will be mostly gone when the painting is finished…
What a great analogy! I do have to admit that I don’t often put as much prep into my artwork as I do in my cooking. Perhaps that needs to change. Hmmm…
Thanks Hope, I will say when I did the painting it just about painted itself because I had made so many decisions ahead of time…I really breezed through it 🙂