My heart painting

The introduction

It was my groupmate’s birthday the other day, on the 15-th of April, in particular. I want to mention, that on that  day Georgians celebrate love day, so that is a great day if you have a birthday on that day, I guess. She loves surprises, I guess, and she got a pretty cool surprise, which I knew about and was wondering how she would react on that and I was not wrong, because she really loved that surprise, and who wouldn’t? I mean, the surprise was just something she wanted so bad. She had mentioned that some time earlier and so our other friend knew about that and she wanted to make that surprise for her, then her other friends got into the business and the dream became reality and they got that thing she wanted and was very happy.

Now, you got pretty curious, right? So, I will tell you. Well, the surprise were those red roses and there were white ones, too. And you may think now, why would roses make her so happy and why would she dream so bad about getting roses on her birthday. But let me tell you something. Those were not just some ordinary roses, they were roses which everyone wanted and everyone wants, I guess in Tbilisi at least. They are especially made for people who want to buy them or give them to someone, so they are all unique and in a special box with that special look and they are very beautiful.

The idea

So, I was thinking about what I could give her as a gift and I couldn’t really decide what to present her. I wanted something special and, well, at first, I thought about some jewellery or some medical stuff or something like that. I did put some effort in thinking and deciding and it was all messed up in the end and I couldn’t decide anything. Then I thought, why don’t I paint a picture and give it to her?! And I shared my idea to our another friend and she told me that it was a great idea and, well, that was just the beginning, as I needed an idea of what I would paint her and what style it would be and all the necessary things that artists consider when painting and stuff like that, you know. Then we had this idea of painting a heart in a different way and we searched for some pictures just to get the idea right and some of them were pretty good and I made up my mind to paint an anatomical heart with some flowers on it, and I kind of had those images in my head and I figured out what colours I would use and stuff like that.

It was that day of her birthday, I guess, when I had time for painting. Usually I paint with oil, but as I wanted to give the painting to her as soon as possible, I used acrylic paints, because they get dry really fast in contrast to the oil paints and that was just what I needed. Although, it would be my first time using acrylics, but that didn’t scared me at all, because I’ve worked with gouache, watercolours, pencils, pastels, oils and acrylics wouldn’t really be a problem. And, also, I had done my research about acrylics and how to paint with them and all the other stuff and I was ready to start painting. So then, I started painting. Of course, the very first thing was to paint some background and the background was supposed to be dark blue with some vivid blue on it. Those were my first strokes in acrylics and then I just waited whether it would get dry in 30 minutes or not. During that time, I was thinking about the painting and deciding where the heart would be and the flowers and whether or not the painting needed anything else and stuff like that again and again. To be honest, I was kind of surprised, when after those 30 minutes I saw that the paint had been dried.

Painting process

Then it was time to paint the heart. Well, at first, I thought it would be pretty hard to paint this anatomical heart exactly how it is, but I did it really easily and I was glad about that, of course. And then the time came, when I didn’t want to paint anything and I just wanted to sleep or something like that, and so my intentions to finish the painting very soon were gone and that was the first step of the painting. And no one, not even me, could say when the next one would be! That’s the thing about my paintings, if they are not finished in a day or so, they can be set aside for so long, that someone would think, those paintings would be just like that and never can be finished. But then, some day, I can be in such mood, that I will want to finish what I’ve started, and just paint them and finish them all at once or something like that. So, that was the case now, too. And, despite the fact, that I wanted the painting to be finished very soon, I just couldn’t force myself to work on it. Especially, I was not taking orders or something like that and I wasn’t obliged to finish it in a defined time and stuff like that, so I would finish it when I had a willing to do so.

Well, then there was this other day, when I took the brushes and paints and this canvas and continued working on it. I just painted some green leaves of flowers on the canvas and that was it, and though I was not satisfied with my slow work, it was still something and that meant something, you know, so that it was not that bad, that this painting process became prolonged, but I couldn’t have done anything, as I was too lazy to finish it.

One thing that I want to mention is that I read about acrylic paints, of course, and they said, that acrylics get dry fast and when they dry, they get a darker colour, than they are while wet. So I didn’t really believe that, I mean, I thought, how darker could it get?! And I didn’t pay much attention to that. But, you know, when they say that, they mean it, and I saw that my vivid colours weren’t that vivid anymore when dried. In fact, that vivid red colour that I wanted my anatomical heart to have, was not that vivid anymore, when it dried and it was kind of sad. However, I still had it planned, that one layer of paint wouldn’t be enough and that it would need the second layer, too, and when I saw what happened on that first layer, I could just take a lighter red colour with wet paint and then it would dry a little bit darker and everything would be just fine and as planned. And, so I did that, and I just didn’t put the whole new layer to the heart, as it needed some highlights and shadows and darker and lighter places and I just put that lighter colour in particular places, where the heart needed to be lighter, just like the exposure to light and rays and the other parts would be darker because of the shadows that some parts of it would make. So that, everything was going great and I just needed to paint some flowers and that would be pretty much it. But, as you already know, it took me some time to find some willing to continue painting again and it was not until that weekend after neurology that I decided that I wanted to finish my painting.

Well, I decided to paint some roses on the heart and it would be kind of just red roses coming from the vesselsthat go in the heart and come out of it. And, you know, I had this picture where the anatomical heart was really beautiful and I decided to paint that, and then there were these roses somewhere, which I liked and decided to have those painted coming out from the heart vessels.

Finishing the painting

Well, some time later, I did finish the painting. I mean, I think, I finished it and had it dry, but then I thought that it was kind of dark and maybe just the heart and the roses would be lighter or something like that. And, what’s more, I had these rose leaves painted in a vivid green and it shone all the painting, so  it was kind of annoying and I decided to have some vivid red colour on my painting. You would’ve guessed by now, that it would have required another days or something like that to finally paint those things and finish the painting for good. And you are right! It was not until some time that I had this feeling that I should have painted these things on the painting and I just took out my brushes and stuff and prepared everything for the painting of the painting. Then I thought, why acrylics? Why not oil colours? Because with oil, I could just use the colour I wanted the heart and the roses to be and it would dry just the colour it was, so I took my oil colours, I mean, red and it was kind of a dark colour, so I just mixed it with white and yellow and it became lighter and just the way I wanted it to be. The only thing left was to decide how I would paint the heart, I mean, it has these vessels around and it’s not flat, obviously, so it needed some shadows and all the other things if it was to be like the real one, so I couldn’t really decide about that. Then I just choose to have some red colour gathered in particular places,  you know, so that it would have this shadow-look and it would be more realistic and stuff like that. I can say, that it came out pretty beautiful and it was really alright to do that. So I continued doing that until it was all done.

Then it was time for the roses. I really didn’t know how I wanted to paint the roses , I mean, sometimes I wanted them to be bloomed, sometimes I wanted them to be not very bloomed, well, I couldn’t really decide anything, and then I let myself go ahead with the painting and let the brush strokes decide how each of those roses would  be painted on the canvas. So, I can say, that the roses were not pretty bad and, although, they were just red things on the canvas, they still needed some shaping, they were still alright. Then they just needed some dark colour for the leaves to be outlined and stuff like that, nothing fancy, just some strokes on them. So, I did those strokes and that was it, the roses were finished. Now I just had to connect those leaves to the roses and the heart vessels, so that they would seem like they were linked to each other and it was pretty easy, I can say, I mean, there was nothing fancy to do there, I just had to fill some places with that vivid green colour that I had painted the leaves earlier. Now, it seemed like everything was on its place and I could just call the painting finished, although I almost always have this feeling of things are not finished or I just don’t want the paintings to be finished, I don’t know.

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