Roses, Just in Time for Valentine's Day

My second attempt at a rose cane, not perfect yet, I still need to get the blend just right. My first attempt was from a tutorial, my colors were too dark and I didn't like the technique. So, I nosed around at other people's rose canes, I particularly liked the ones by TooAquarius over at Artfire, looked at some pictures of roses and got it into my head what I wanted to achieve and had a go. I think for me I need to browse tutorials then look at real images of the thing I want to do and figure the technique out for myself. I did go back to a tutorial for the skinner blend....not trusting myself, again. This ended up looking like a white tipped red rose and not just the highlights I was going for.....but I'm the only one who knows that....er...well, me and anyone who reads my blog, but you can all keep a secret, right?

I do love making canes and I can't wait till I feel confident enough to start doing some pictorial ones. Many years ago when my occupation was 'graphic illustrator', before computers, I was quite known for my pointillist technique, said to be as good as anyone out there at the time. Pointillism is a technique where you create a picture from tiny dots, most famous for the technique is artist Georges Seurat, one of my heroes and the subject of my thesis. One of his most famous paintings is "Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte"

I remember seeing a couple of his works in London....I was mesmerized. He was a blend of scientist and artist. A fact I like....Seurat was born exactly 101 years and one day before me, a fellow Saggitarian. He died young, just 31, and it's amazing to think how much he achieved in such a short time......totally makes me feel like an under achiever!

Anyhoo....the point (pun intended) of this....the technique of pointillism being just dots I'm thinking little rolls of clay should work. I have an idea of what I want to do for my first piece and I'm going to start with simple black and white. Portraits in clay beads....hmmmmm.