Today we’re going to look at the evolution of an idea as it proceeds from being a vaguely abstract thought to being a painting hanging on a wall. While the idea didn’t end up being completed quite as I originally envisioned it, I think seeing how it progressed may give some ideas on painting workflow to others.

It all started off with an idea I had while driving home from a doctor’s appointment last week. I was thinking about my usual painting subjects (landscapes and flowers) and was wondering which I wanted to do next. My cherry blossom paintings are my most popular, but after doing a few more during the week, I was tired of the home decor style painting and wanted to do something different. Unfortunately, I also knew that my skills had not progressed yet to be able to do a more realistic painting of them.  Regardless, I knew I wanted to do something that evoked the light, gentle feeling of cherry blossoms. I also had this random thought of a young girl sitting on a swing, looking a little sad as the cherry blossoms danced around her, carried on the wind. The result was the sketch above.

In the sketch, I was trying to lay out the basic ideas that I had. By the time I got home and sat down to make the sketch, my idea had evolved into a landscape of Mt. Fuji in the spring with the cherry blossom trees blooming and the girl sitting on a bench by a Japanese shrine. Talk about ideas outreaching my current level of talent! Yes, I can say that and not be self-deprecating. I’m perfectly aware of my skill level today and know that someday I could pull this off! But I knew that I wasn’t ready to paint a person, and I knew that I don’t yet have enough experience and skill to draw the cherry blossoms on the wind the way that I want. But I still wanted to do a landscape of cherry blossoms, so the next thing I did was cobble together a reference photo.

The reference photo above was made by finding multiple images, one of which being Mt. Fuji, the other of foliage found in Japan, and making a collage to lay out the elements. This helps me to see the various layer depths, the colors and the placement of elements that I want to paint. After this, I begin the actual painting.

In this case, it started off well. My sky was very nice and I loved my clouds, but I just could not get Mt. Fuji to turn out the way I wanted. So I decided to layer in some more mountains. My willows didn’t satisfy me either as my trunks were too wide, so I abandoned those, covering all but the first. I enjoyed my cherry trees, but was worried about trying to represent too many cherry blossoms on the ground and so put in less pink along the ground foliage. In the end, this is the result:

It’s a nice painting, and the layering of the mountains is done well, as are the reflections in the water. I’m not very happy with the trees though, nor am I that thrilled with the ground coverage. Ultimately, I hit that wall where continuing to tinker with the painting would just make it worse and so I stopped. I’m going to see what the reaction is when I show it to my ‘critics’ and then decide if I want to try and sell it, or just keep it up on my wall. If nothing else, I do enjoy the various colors and am happy with that. What do YOU think? Let me know!