Turning Over A New Leaf....

Color Theories.....

I Find it hard to believe, Dear Readers, that it has been a half a year since I began to make the Lilac Blossoms in earnest! I don't know where the Time has gone, but my one blossom a week program has yielded a cluster of Twenty-five completed blossoms, and the partial one I finished assembling over the weekend. For this blossom I needed to change the assembly strategy a little bit... because it needed to be assembled onto the "tail end" of one of the other blossoms. This is because frequently the lilac blossoms are in pairs at the tip of their branch, and in order for them to attach to the branch correctly, they needed to be on the same stem which will wrap around the branch... I know it sounds confusing, but you will see what I mean. Above you can see my high-tech working "clamp" system, allowing me to glue the florets onto the other end of an already finished blossom! And while I was at this change of process with the lilac blossoms, I realized it would be a good idea to test the plan for how the leaves will be attached to the stems... just to see if that was going to work as I imagined. And also, to spur me to making those leafy branches which will be needed in abundance when the blossoms are done!

So I started a bunch of stems.... 

with the twigs ready for the leaves... 

to see how the production line would work....

I took measurements so I know how long to make the pieces...

And started gluing on the punched heart leaves

 while I was also starting to build the blossom... 

a floret at a time!

And when I was about to start to paint the tiny leaves,

 I realized that Now, before the leaves turn color and fall,

 would be the time to investigate the color of the RL Lilac leaves

 and make sure I was making a good color match!

So I went out to my shrubs and picked a few leaves...

You can see that the size and the color vary a bit... 

one leaf has a much darker blackish pigment in it...

(probably a result of weather conditions....)

And when I put the branch of leaves I had made last spring

 next to the real leaves you can see that

 the color is quite a bit off on my mini ones!

They have too much white mixed into the paint.

So I pulled out my paint and discovered that

 using the chromium oxide green full strength,

 not mixed at all, gave a much better color match!

 That makes things much easier!

 

And then I needed to see how they would look with the blossoms.....!

Ooohh... I am liking this!

 

And then I painted the undersides of the leaves in a paler version, 

using the same green with more white added

 (trying for the simple solution)....

Here you can sort of see the comparison with the RL leaf... 

except that the lighting glare is really interfering...

 such is the nature of color... the lighting is so important!

But I wanted the simple version to be good enough, Dear Readers,

 telling myself that  nobody was going to

 ever see the under-sides of these leaves!

So I made myself a sample paint "chip" card,

 so that I would be able to match the colors on future batches of leaves....

 

 

The top of the leaf matches beautifully, 

 

 

 

but the underside really needs a whole lot of yellow mixed in....

 

 

There was no escaping it.....

That is so much better!

(And really not difficult!)

And has the added bonus of making the "stripe"

 on the top of the leaves for the vein

 look much more subtle and natural than the first version!

So I re-painted them all....

And kept working on the blossom number twenty-six...

Because I really wanted to see how the parts

 would look all assembled together......

Here is the new plan.... 

blossoms will get added to the already made ones.....

And new leafy branches will get made too....

(one stem-worth per week.....)

Sort of like this....

(temporarily twisted around the branch but not glued....)

Because I really need to be able to see how they are adding up... 

in order to know how many are needed....!

And then we really need to test the Springtime shrub

 in place on The Folly Garden.....

to see how it will look.... 

can you imagine...?

One branch per week.....

 times twenty-five ..... 

or Thirty......

Before we even know it 

the lilacs will be in full bloom!!!

Well, Dear Readers, 

I have turned over a New Leaf...

 the New Plan is underway....

In theory I know the colors....

But only Time will tell 

how well it Turns out!