MONDAY. Finally! The original painting was completed on Saturday morning. It was painted onto a 11X14 inch watercolor paper, the same paper I use to print the copies. I hit a snag in the process, though. It broke my heart, but I had to cut the paper way down in order to fit it onto my scanning bed. I was hoping I could use my smart phone to take photos but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get a good photo. The skies have been cloudy for days, where we live. All photos are looking a little dull.
But Saturday night, I had the painting cleaned up in Photoshop, background removed, all ready to send to Adobe Illustrator for layout. Then comes the tedious labor of test printing for color. I set up the design in 4 sizes, and use two kinds of paper for printing. I print-adjust, print-adjust, over and over to get the finished product to look like the original print. That's what I'm doing today. Monday. Next I'll be doing a photo shoot in all 4 sizes in order to set up the listing on Etsy.
FRIDAY. It's always a good feeling to finish a few more bells. I'm so ready to see all this hard work come to completion.
THURSDAY. It's starting to make sense and take some overall shape. I think I counted 23 more Lily bells left to paint. I am not working on this full time, in case you're wondering, but off and on between daily chores and appointments. So it really seems like it's taking forever.
TUESDAY. Weeell?! May's birth flower is having a slow start. I have postponed painting it in all levels of my consciousness! I had a sweet little pink Lily of the valley bloom this year, but that was way back in February. I have browsed the Internet for the little white bells but the only paintings or photos I found had a profusion of the little white Lillies. And I guess I knew I wouldn't be happy unless I painted each lilly one at a time. Now that it's mid June, that is exactly what I'm doing.
I can only show you a start, if you're interested. And this is just a corner of the total board I'm working on. All those little bells! One by one.
If you follow me on Instagram, I'll be showing my process there too.
And here are some of the stages that brought me to where it is now
I think what I'll do is keep posting my progress here as well as Instagram. Just in case there is an interest in this process. One bell at a time.