Bloom Series, Coreopsis

Bloom Series Coreopsis.

Bloom Series Coreopsis is one of six bloom paintings in the collection, each selected from the garden. The Coreopsis bloom features bright, daisy-like flowers typically 1 to 2 inches wide, with notched petal tips and slender, upright green stems. Vibrant yellow or golden tones are most common, though some varieties offer pink, red, or two-tone combinations. Masses of these blossoms swaying in the summer breeze bring a distinct charm to the garden. Included in the Bloom Series, this painting brings the garden’s beauty indoors to enjoy all year-round.

MEDIUM: Digital Painting | STYLE: Painterly Realism | SIZE: 8 x 10 | ORIENTATION: Landscape | TOOLS: Procreate, 13″ iPad Pro, Apple Pencil Pro, Giclée Fine Art Archival paper and ink | AVAILABILITY: Prints available | CONTACT SHADOWMYST ART FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

ARTIST’S PROCESS:

Bloom Series: Coreopsis was painted in Procreate on a 13” iPad Pro using the Apple Pencil Pro. The Coreopsis, like each painting in this set of 6 paintings, replicates the depth and texture of traditional paintings through layered digital brushwork. A meticulous structural drawing was created, detailing the shape, leaves, stems, and patterns for this particular piece. The background color is a neutral light grey with a watercolor texture pattern and a gentle sweep of small, irregular dots in a mix of medium grey and cream color, spread across the canvas behind the blooms to add movement to the piece. This background is uniform across all six pieces in the series, unifying the series.

The next step was color blocking for each petal and leaf group on separate layers to create depth through size, deepening colors, light and shadow, and clean edges. Above the leaf base color, multiple rounds of detail work and value refinement were applied to create the leaf details for each layer. Specific attention and Procreate tools were used to create the center pollen disk for this flower, as it is composed of tiny, tubular individual flowers packed tightly in the center that produce pollen and nectar. A final set of layers perfecting shadow and light was created using a Procreate soft, round watercolor brush to finalize the Coreopsis flower of the Bloom Series.

CHALLENGE:

The intricate center pollen disk of the Coreopsis flower, composed of numerous tiny, tubular individual flowers densely packed in the center, presented the primary challenge for this artwork. To commence this process, the canvas was configured to Procreate’s Drawing Guide, with parameters set to Symmetry, opacity 50%, and thickness 40%. The guide option was set to Radial. A layer was created above the pollen disk’s base layer, and a bright yellow-orange color was selected. Utilizing the Procreate Noise brush set to size 3% and full opacity, a pass was created to generate a grainy texture over the base. The subsequent layer required a deeper texture, which was achieved with a pass of slightly darker yellow-orange color using the Procreate Stipple brush at 90% size and 95% opacity. The outer ring of the pollen disk consists of tubules originating at the edge of the disk and extending outward in a clustered line around the entire disk. Similar to the main disk texture, two layers were employed to establish the rough base texture beneath, and the Procreate Stipple brush was utilized on the second layer to paint in a short, straight line outward from the disk edge, ensuring no spacing between each line. The Drawing guide, as previously described, proved instrumental in completing this look in a smooth, symmetrical shape and expediting the process. The guide replicates the strokes painted in one of the eight quadrants and duplicates them precisely in the other seven quadrants to complete each element of the pollen disk.

To complete the disk with shadow and light, two layers were created. The first layer was a pass of a watercolor wash with medium orange-brown using the Procreate soft round airbrush set to 25% opacity and laid over the areas of the disk that were shaded. The second layer set to blend mode “Add” was used for a pass of near white color on the outer edge of the disc for the highlights.

SUBJECTS AND THEMES:
Botanical — Coreopsis — Flowers — Garden — Nature — Bloom Series — CONTACT SHADOWMYST ART FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION