u/RoseMadderLake

Top Secret and all, this is my own secret sauce to several days of pure, Lilac love indoors:

1.

After cutting the branches, take a hammer - either the one you use for meat in the kitchen, or hitting nails... Give the thick ends a turn or two with it, on a cutting board. (Maybe put a plastic bag on it, if you use your hammer for meat, to avoid plant juices seeping in 😆)

The ends should look like there are cracks in them, but not totally frayed! Don't smash them to smithereens - just make a few cracks.

This allows the branches to soak up enough water to sustain themselves enough to not go limp indoors.

Put them in warm water. Not boiling warm, but warm to your hands, from the general rule about the harder the stamen, the warmer the water....

If possible, let them sleep outside during the nights. The lower temperature to keep them alive.

Of course,change the water as they soak it up.

5. Protect them from direct sun, but that's a good rule for flowers in general of course 😉

Congratulations on your lovely Lilacs 💜🙌🥳

Mine has been in a vase for 4 days now, and they have not wilted or died using this small trick. I also had some good help from the weather though. It hasn't been too warm during daytime.

See the space between the two fingers pressed together?

That's the occlusion shadow. This point is where two or more objects touch each other. I have enclosed a second drawing to show the theory in a practical application on a simple form.

My coloring/drawings went from "boring" to "interesting" faster than anything else I have tried the past 2-3 years while drawing and painting.

James Gurney describe this concept in his book "Color & Light". Color is Light theory on speed. But I will spare you the technical explaination why. It has a lot to do with physics and chemistry, as we may know from the groundbreaking work of Isaac Newton on theory of light.

Old and dusty scientists aside:

The touchikg pount between two or more objects is the darkest part of any shadow. Think: flower petals, fingers, shadows from eyelashes, urban scenes, landscapes, tree trunks... try to look closer on the objects you draw or color and spot these points.

If you can map these areas, you have the first starting point to build and expand any shadows on an object, going front he darkest shadows to the lightest.

This ONE trick has dramatically improved my drawing and coloring. And it's so simple I don't know why they don't teach this in school either.

Have you tried this yourself? How did it go?

Seriously, Lisa - you have awakened a love for colored paper I didn't know I had 🤩

So glad I began following this community and YT channel and whatnot 🙏🤩

Delphiniums on pink paper. So quirky !☀️😄

Can't wait to finish this 🥰 I have no idea how it will turn out 😆

What do you think?

I have been painting since 2023, and my journey took me down a lot of different subjects until I found my favorite (flowers and plants).

These days I like precise painting as in "botanical painting" (mostly, but not confined to). I don't use a lot of granulating colors, even though I have several in my stash from my painting journey.

I sport 70 colors in the pic. I wanted to test if it worked in a setup. As I tested it, I found myself missing a few of my other colors I usually use. Other colors have not been in use at all. But you never know until you try, right?

I find myself mixing less colors, of course, which sometimes makes the results less vibrant and "flat", so the mixing is definitely a benefit for the final result.

There are pros and cons to having a lot of colors in your palette. What are your thoughts or experiences? 😃🤓😄

We all experience it. Almost finished and then, THE ACCIDENT happens 🫨😵‍💫🤯😬

Horror of horrors!

I spilled paint on my almost finished and PERFECT painting. Indigo even! Indigo is notorious for not being easy to remove again, if EVER! 😭

So, I had to turn this around.

Roses have holes in their petals in nature right?

We still love them.

My rose had a hole punched into its petal. In the golden ratio point even 🤷‍♀️🤦‍♀️😂

The viewer is SURE to not miss it 😂

After finishing the string of swear words, I sat down and tried to make the mistake look less mistake-ey.

What do you think? Did I succeed?

I bought this tiny book to decrease my expectations to myself some time ago. And I have: this book WORKS!

Time and time again we think "it has to be good, it has to be great, I want it to be the Picasso worthy piece"... And we stop ourselves right when all it took was lower out expectations.

Enter "642 tiny things to draw".

They take that literally in these promtps. Everything from "0.00001%" to "a pine needle" to a "fairy bath".... The book is tiny, the blank space is tiny, the subjects are tiny... If you feel drawing is too complicated, or you will never be able to... This book is for YOU!

Some time ago I had gotten myself into such a drawing block/ slump, stuck in perfectionist paralysis mode (too much Instagram I guess 🤷‍♀️), I never attempted to draw.

So, I bought myself this one, with absolutely no idea of the fun process it would be to draw a pickup needle, a pimple, a steak or something completely different and tiny. It's also great for just 5 minutes sketching practise.

Seriously, this book saved my drawing ass, so if it saves yours, my spelling and grammar mistakes in this post is so effing worth it 😄