Purple Dragonfly - Freehand Painting (without instruction!)

Today I want to attempt a painting by just looking at the original and using what skills I've learned from that particular artist to try and freehand the painting without any instruction. It is available for purchase with step by step instruction, which if I fail I will probably purchase. First, however, I want to see where my own skills can take me.

Purple Dragonfly by Jesse Robertson

Above is the original painting. The instructional video is available on the artist's website here. Of course I will share my attempt later on this post once my new paints from Simon Says Stamp arrive. I've been using basic primary colors like black, white, yellow, red, and blue to mix the colors I need, but I haven't quite had the right blue to get the pinks and purples I want. I decided to order some of Dyan Reaveley's paints in blues, pinks, purples, and greens (secondary colors for the most part) so I could have some base colors that I like in case I can't mix the color that I'm hoping to have for painting. Especially for this painting, I want the colors pretty spot on.

I did the painting and surprisingly seemed to accomplish it! At first, I was skeptical about ruining it by adding the dragonfly but after a push from a few people, I put in the dragonfly and it turned out so much better!

I also decided to mix my colors rather than use all the new exact colors that I had purchased so I only used red, blue, white, black and little bit of green paint (although not a primary color). I mainly used my round brushes but thinking about it now, I could have succeeded more using my flat brushes on the water. I found I did not need a blending brush for the sky. I used detail brushes for the dragonfly and a fan brush for the trees. I'm in love with this painting and see no purpose in trying it again when the free tutorial comes out :) I shall definitely continue to challenge myself creating painting just using techniques that I have learned to mimic another painting. Maybe one day, I'll even design my own ;)

Thanks for stopping by! Happy crafting :)