Early Bloom

It’s the last day of February, and Spring is soon to come! Well, it seems as if it came a bit earlier than expected. After a week of snow a couple of weeks ago, temperatures suddenly soared to about 15℃ feeling like Spring. Not only that, the sun has been shining. And when I was going for my morning jog the other day, I spotted a few flowers springing up from the grass! They were yellow and purple ones. Can’t wait to see more and more flowers blooming and getting some vivid colors around us! We could all do with some energy after a rather sedate winter especially after being cooped up at home amid the pandemic. So how about we boost this energy further by painting with some floral themes! I decided to create some digital painting here with an abstract twist. Great practice!

The Start

I made the background a bright blue, and as first layer, painted in the flowers. Starting with one pink flower, I then copied and pasted twice to create three of them. Using the Clipping Mask, I then scribbled in some glimmer on them. I’m really getting the hang of masking now, yay! The two layers from the flower and clipping mask were eventually merged together as Pink Flowers. So far so good.

More Flowers

Another layer, and I painted some green leaves. Then using the same Clipping Mask method, I put in some Hessian Grass patterns on top, then merged the layers together as Leaves. Another layer was then added, moved to the bottom and a big red flower was drawn so it would be behind the pink flowers and green leaves. With this red flower, I also used the clipping mask and scribbled in some floral patterns. I felt, however, that the pink and red were too close in terms of colors and decided that changing the red flower to a yellow one would be a good idea. And it was! Then I played around with the layering further by painting a small red flower and duplicating it, thereby moving the latter one the layer below the leaves.

Background Change

I was not totally satisfied with the entire painting though. The colours of the flowers were very pretty, and I was indeed happy with the layout and details but it still looked a bit dull. Then it dawned on me. How about changing the colour of the background? I went through a few different shades. Darker blue was an option but it didn’t look any more special. Perhaps some black then? I think these vibrant colors will really pop out. And sure enough they do! So black it is, and now I am done!

I think the black works really well here. It is as if this background represents the last remnants of the dark dreary winter during which the flowers are impatiently waiting to bloom. Suddenly they burst out with their bright and vibrant colors radiating such energy. We love the positive vibes, too, which we could do with during these difficult times. Now I am very much looking forward to creating more floral-themed artwork and working more with colors, not to mention more digital painting!