Details, plus dark rhythm blossom update

First, the update. I got lazy and didn't make much effort to square up the picture for the photo. Sorry. This picture is sort of out of control now. I'm really flying on it, but it's going to be the first blossom picture where I've ever gone back in and adjusted stuff. Some of the lighter cells are going to have to be toned down. Right now, there are more than 1,800 cells in this. I would say the final number will be between 2,700 and 3,000. Ridiculous. The most I've ever done in one picture is about 2,500.  Anyway, here's where it stood as of this morning:

It's not that orange in reality. When I get closer to finishing this (fingers crossed: about a week from now...) I'll make greater efforts to get accurate photos with proper color balance. This picture will be one of the least aesthetic blossoms I've ever done, but it's one that I simply had to get out of my system. It's a great reminder of why I make pictures that serve my personal needs without having to worry about anyone else's opinion. Yes, once again I make it clear that when I make pictures it's about 95% selfish. I guess I can live with that a lot more easily than I could live with making pictures that are meant to be bought by someone. (By the way, if you're not aware of this I'll mention here that if you click on any of the pictures they'll open in a new window, usually showing them larger than in one of the posts.)

Added, 12/27/14: Here's where it stands, as of this morning. Now over 2,000 cells. This picture really changes as the light in the room changes. It's going to be difficult to decide what to adjust when I fine tune it. There's a lot more going on in this picture than I envisioned back when I started it. It might turn out to be one where I don't fully grasp it for a long time after it's finished.

It's almost exactly 16 X 13 inches at this point. It will end up  about 19 X 15 inches.

Added, 12/29/14: I won't post any more photos of this picture until it's done. I'm still on track to finish it this week. It's now up to about 2,400 cells. It looks like it will end up with 3,000. I'm  really ambivalent about this picture, but when the natural light comes through in the late afternoon this thing seems to spring to life and suddenly I'm almost enthralled by it.

 
I thought I'd mention something here to put the number of cells in perspective: When I want to paint one cell, which will be about 1/3 inch (or about 0.8 cm), I have to get the amount of water in the tip of the brush just right. Then I load paint from two, three, and sometimes four different colors. Then I have to check to see if the water content in the brush tip is still right. It can take anywhere from one to two minutes just to get the brush ready to paint something that will only be about one-ninth of a square inch. It's sad - I admit it - that this is the only way I know to make these sorts of pictures. Perhaps you can understand better why I consider other pictures I make a kind of treat.... trust me, you can't imagine how often I wish I had never made a single blossom picture... and then I'll sit for ten or fifteen minutes, just looking at one of them, and I'll forgive myself for that.

But, now, here are some detail shots from other pictures. I'm putting these here because I think they illustrate something: These help me recall why the picture above, which isn't "pretty," still gives me a degree of satisfaction. In lots of my pictures there are the little things that I will look for and be happy when I re-discover them. I used to look at my smaller pictures with a magnifying glass to search out those details... as soon as I can find my magnifying glass I'm going to start doing that once again.

I thought I should mention that most of the following photos are showing fairly small portions of pictures. In most cases, what's shown in the photo is, in the actual painting, an area only a few inches wide. I don't know what size the photos appear on your monitor (or your phone's display). Some of the images in the photos will show up much larger than they are in the painted pictures.

Blossom detail

The "blossom point" of a blossom picture. The cells in this picture are some of the most graceful ones I've ever made. I have another picture that's not even half done, but that one has cells that are almost as nice as these. I don't know if I'll ever finish the other one.... but then, I say that about most of the blossom pictures, along with vowing never to start another each time I actually finish one.

Dimensional aspects at the blossom point. Really wonderful texture in this, with soft colors.

This sort of shows what I call a "shade shift" in a blossom picture. The "dark rhythm" blossom at the top of this post will be one of the only ones (maybe the only one) that has no shade shift.

Cascade detail. There's a sort of perspectival shift in this area of this picture. Really confusing when you're working on it, believe me.

Modified dimensional/cascade picture detail. I made another one similar to this and gave it to someone as a gift. You can't imagine how hard it was to give that one away. Other than this one, that was the only one where I could get these kinds of forms.

These last three are detail shots I've previously posted. They're from the Pinwheel Cascade picture. The last photo below shows a group of forms that still bewilder me. Out of the entire picture, I home in on that little portion as if drawn by some sort of gravity. So happy to have made that one.

This upright form had a major influence on cascade stuff I've done since finishing this picture. In the "canted cascade" picture posted previously, there are a number of forms that exist only because I wanted to see more things like this one. The environment for this particular form makes the form itself seem to emerge more solidly, and some of the shading is wonderful in helping suggest something akin to either an eruption/emergence of the form or, contrastingly, a collapse of the surrounding forms. It only took about five years of messing around with cascades to get this form. You can see that I don't develop very rapidly, but something like this makes the wait worthwhile.