Poppy

Hello everyone…

How y’all doing? I live in Texas and am getting used to their accent. Yee haw!

We experienced all seasons in one week for the last few days. It was summer, spring, fall and winter and today we are back to summer again. Weather is changing so quickly that no surprise everyone is getting sick.

Today I will share one of my old paintings I completed in 2011 I believe. It is a red poppy.

Poppy_Water color_Tulay Yilmaz

They are one of my favorite flowers. They don’t smell that great, flies love them and their leaves fall off really easily but they have a delicate look, and their center is so nicely structured. I especially love running in the poppy fields.

Mom picked this one for me on her way back home from work, but it was pretty much dead when she gave it to me. I did a quick sketch and painted it the other day. I love how deep the colors of the leaves turned out.

I want to paint new poppies.

Sometime.

Later.

Yup, I am bad.

Have a great weekend guys!

Red Onion

Hi everyone…

Today is another day of sharing an old painting of mine. I don’t know how long I will be able to do this, because there is not much left. I better create some time to do some new paintings. I started a new job almost a month ago. I am pretty busy with experiments, trainings and meeting new people. When I get home, I am mainly pretty exhausted. Hopefully I will get used to the routine soon enough to have some time for water color paintings.

Red Onion_Water color_Tulay Yilmaz_2010

I painted this onion in 2010. This was my last painting at the course. I was taking the course after school, so I was going home pretty late and when I get home I wasn’t working on them. When the course ended, I stopped working on it. Otherwise, it could definitely have a couple more layers to make it darker.

The original painting is in Turkey at my parents’ home on the kitchen wall. Maybe I should paint another onion. Hmm… I will think about it.

Hazelnut

Hello everyone…

Today I am sharing a painting of mine that I love eating and missing a lot in US. Yes, it is hazelnut! Since I came here, I found it in a few store which are imported from Turkey. However, they never sell them in their shells. They are cracked and roasted. While it is better than nothing, I still miss cracking them myself and eating tons of them. Especially the fresh ones… Yumm!

Fresh nuts were always my best treats. Although I love chocolates or chips, I wouldn’t trade fresh nuts to any of them. My awesome mom knew that, and she would make sure to buy me a full bag of fresh hazelnuts when the season came.

I love you mom! I love you hazelnuts!

Anyways… Here are the hazelnuts that I am nuts about!

Hazelnut, Watercolor, 2011

This was a pretty quick painting. I remember, we were in botanical illustration class, and I finished my project earlier than others. Our instructor gave me these nuts to paint while I was waiting for others.

This painting can be taken as an example to small projects. You know, sometimes we just don’t want to work on big paintings, but at the same time we feel guilty that we are not painting. Maybe finding some nuts around, or small leaves, little flowers and working on them can help to stop the uncomfortable feeling of delaying painting to another day.

I hope this is a useful tip and will help you to look around to find a small object to paint.

Have a great weekend guys!

Bearded Reedling

Bearded reedling,
Panurus biarmicus, male
Watercolor, 2010
Tulay Yilmaz

Hello everyone,

Say hello to my birdie. It is bearded reedling (Panurus biarmicus), adult male. I truly don’t remember what was the exact date that I painted this but what I know for sure is, this was my first bird painting. I assume I did it in 2010 and on those days I had an idea that I can paint for bird guides (yeah, a biologist in dreams). It never happened though!

What I learned from this painting was painting fur is not easy, especially where the fur is white. There should be some techniques to make it easier but I am not aware of it. Second thing I learned was it is important to date your work, then you can see your progress. Third thing is don’t leave your artwork in the mess of your table or you end up having dust and stains on them. They don’t need to be a masterpiece to deserve the respect. File them properly!

My bearded reedling has some funny wings, shading is not that great but still I like it. It looks promising, isn’t it?