Painting and watching Andre Rieu on the telly.

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Today I did some painting while watching Andre Rieu on the telly, like I said I was going to. The Andre Rieu things were full length concerts, not just the Welcome to my World documentaries. They were:- Andre Rieu: 70 Years Young, a concert made up of performances from many of Andre's concerts over the years, handpicked by him, which also included interviews with Andre and his son Pierre at Andre's birthday party held at his castle in Maastricht! The other one was a concert called Love In Venice, even though the concert itself was another one on the Vrijthof Square in Maastricht! But they dressed the square up to look like one in Venice with water feature and everything! They were both wonderful. They were also both repeats, but you know what I'm like, I can watch them over and over again and not get bored of them! So, while I was watching Andre Rieu on my telly, I was also painting. I told someone I was going to try a poppy picture and so I did. This is what you can see in the picture above. I used the wet in wet technique. I wet the paper in several places, then put the red paint on and made the shape of a poppy flower, then while it's still wet add a darker shade of red down one side, and still while it's wet, blob a bit of payne's grey in the middle of each flower for the stamen. Then I flicked some of the red paint over to make a mottled effect. After that had dried I got on to the stems and leaves. The lesson in my pamphlet told me to hold the brush right near the tip, so that the strokes would be more free flowing. I put down a light shade of green first, then used the wet in wet technique again to add a darker shade to one side. When that was dry I put in more darker green, but more detailed, because now I was not doing it wet in wet any more. Then I flicked some of the green paint on the bottom half of the painting to give a mottled effect. Then I wet the flowers again and put in more payne's grey to the centres to give a more prominent stamen. Lastly I wet a spot down the bottom right to put a bit of even lighter green to act as out of focus leaves at the bottom. While I was waiting for parts of this painting to dry I did some others too. I did a landscape which was supposed to be bushes reflecting in water with a grassy bank in the foreground, and I did some elephants which were copied from a 2020 calendar. I drew the elephants in pencil first. It is of a mother elephant with her baby elephant. There is a sort of sunset behind them and grasses in front. I also started on another smaller one which is of roses in bud. It's not finished yet, though, as the paint was taking a long time to dry so I couldn't start on the stems and leaves, but I hope to finish that one next week. I hope you've all had a good day too. Have a nice night.