- Stages 1-4
 walks us through “Daisy, Daisy” in this four stage process. …){kind=link}
Daisy, Daisy
Inspired by color and high contrast in her paintings, Joan Crawford Barnes (www.joanbarnes-wc.com) walks us through “Daisy, Daisy” in this four stage process.
“This painting has a limited amount of color, but high contrast which caught my eye,” said Joan. Artist Barnes is grateful to Alice Schneider, a friend and a photographer, who captures subjects with high contrast for her to paint. Although this is Joan’s first attempt, at black and white and shades of gray painting, the artist said “it was a fun project, and I plan to do many more.
STAGE ONE: A pencil sketch of the subject is my first step when beginning a painting. I use the tonal values as a guide for composition. I love to draw and actually take a lot of time with my pencil sketch.
STAGE TWO: A larger sketch is drawn on my watercolor paper. I usually use a long pencil and stand up to do a looser drawing on the watercolor paper.
STAGE THREE: After the sketch is in place, I put paint on the paper. I usually start with the background. Because I am using a lot of the white of the paper for the daisies, it is easier if I put in the colored background first. Since I am using a dark background in this painting, it really doesn’t matter what colors I use as long as it is a light wash, in approximately the same hue as the final shade. On this painting I used Fr. Ultramarine, Winsor Violet and a little Indigo and lots of water. As you can see the drawing of the daisies stand out, and I make any further changes in the drawing at this time. 
STAGE FOUR: I begin putting in values in my flowers using light and dark grays, and leaving a lot of white in the paper. My mixture is cerulean blue and vermillion hue to make this beautiful gray. I can make it lighter or darker by using more or less water. In order to determine my mid tones, I first put in my darks, in this case the dark background. My mixture of paint for my dark is French Ultramarine, Burnt Umber and a little Indigo. The consistency of the paint is like light cream. I put the first coat of dark onto the background, and it was at this point, that I determined to leave some of the background lighter gray.
STAGE FIVE: I went back to the subject flowers and put in mid tones and darker tones. After the paint completely dried, I put another coat of dark on the background (same mixture as in step four), and a light wash of the gray mixture over the lighter tone in the background, using the cerulean blue and vermillion hue mixture. At this point I considered the painting “Daisy, Daisy” completed.