First Synthesis: Sythesis

The final product...












Summer into Fall

First Synthesis: final developments

... I read or heard somewhere that there are some pleasant little surprises that often come with painting. The trick is to role with the new developments that come from little mistakes in the paint, a stray paintbrush hair, an odd brush stroke, an object in the painting taking on an odd shape. Little surprises such as these can add to a painting if the artist simply accepts the presence of these little slips and works with the changes. My surprise came with the realization that I did not have the time to paint hundreds of tiny little leaves, so I made the leaves larger. Next, I realized that I wasn't going to be able to paint every petal of the flower in leaves, because of my time restraint. Finally, I discovered that if I painted only a number of petals with leaves in a sequence the petals seemed to demonstrate the gradual change from summer to fall. Therefore, I began with simple, bright yellow petals.

Next, I painted in a pair of simple, bright yellow leaves.


Then, I added some overlapping leaves with a little shading within the next two petals.



Finally, I painted in overlapping leaves of three different shades, adding in some stray leaves escaping from the petal with the progression of autumn.
Thus is my portrayal of summer into fall in bright yellow leaves and petals... and... ::drum roll::

First Synthesis: third development

... SO, in order to finish this painting on time, I'm going to have to adapt it to the time that I have to paint it. This means that I need simpler leaves to paint. I found some simpler leaves by searching Creative Commons for "yellow leaves." Needless to say, this search gave me several options, but I settled on a familiar option, American Beech. The leaves are simple and somewhat oval shaped, so they would be easy to paint. As with all leaves in the fall, the color varies according to how early or late in the fall we see them. The color varies from yellow with tinges of green to gold to dulled bronze, so I have options...

First Synthesis: second development

... I was pondering this thought of what it is I could incorporate into my painting while walking around on the downtown campus at WVU a few weeks ago. I wondered and mused about complicated meanings, fantasy themed backgrounds, simplicity, and... bright yellow leaves. It just kind of hit me that way. Behind Colson Hall and just down the hill a few paces is a Sweetgum tree. It is on the other side of the road and behind the metal railing which is set into the sidewalk. I stopped on this sidewalk and peared up at the tree with its five-pointed, yellow leaves and spiky balls that carry its seeds. Bright yellow leaves would make a nice addition to my bright yellow painting. I could cleverly incorporate the leaves into the painting by making the petals out of these leaves. Thus, I would be incorporating something into the painting just as I had wanted, and I would be incorporating two seasons that would bring bright happy colors to an otherwise gray winter...


This is a poor quality image of Sweetgum leaves from my phone. They are much brighter yellow than they appear here. Also included in the mix are reds and browns as are usual with fall colors. As you can see, the only problem with putting together a painting using five-pointed leaves is painting several five-pointed leaves. That is, painting these sorts of leaves would be very time consuming, and I only have a limited amount of time for this English project...

First Synthesis: further development

... I can definitely use this image of the bright yellow flower close-up to beat the winter dullness. However, I don't want to simply paint a picture of a flower and hang it up. I want to make something more of the picture than simply adapting it to paint. I wasn't sure what to do, but these images gave me some ideas...

"River Birch Leaf Dragon" by Michael E. Waters
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"Green Leaf Dragon" by Michael E. Waters
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I want to incorporate something into the painting. You will notice that the dragons have been incorporated into the surroundings, sometimes making it difficult to tell where the dragons start and where the surroundings end. I'm just not sure what I want to incorporate into my painting...

First Synthesis: first influences

... something yellow. So, I started pulling up my photos from years ago as well as new photos. I looked through all of my yellow themed pictures, and finally decided on the one that I wanted to use...



I want to use this flower in some unique way...

First Synthesis

This first project is for my English 303, Multimedia Writing course at West Virginia University (WVU). I needed an idea for a project, and so I developed the idea of creating a blog to portray the creative process by which a work is created. The reasoning behind this is that a creative work is often the culmination of several outside influences and the synthesis of these influences into a single work. Here, I intend to illustrate this process by presenting not only final works, but also the creative process leading up to that final work through the use of several media on the presented on the web.

The initial idea for this project came from a want to have something bright to hang in my room during the dreary winter months of the spring college semester. It kills me to be stuck inside all the time, so I needed a hobby to keep me occupied. Then, I remembered my days of painting in the art room in high school. What better way to decorate a room via hobby than painting. So, I bought some acrylic paint, some brushes, and a classic-shaped, plastic palette (thumb hole and all). These I collected up and sat around my once empty easel, which now contained a small, blank canvas. All I needed after acquiring all of the necessary tools --- was an idea for a painting. My only idea at the moment was something bright, maybe something yellow...