Still Life: Flower in Vase

Now that my weekly class (with Karen Winslow) has started up again, time to get rid of some bad habits that I was falling back into.

Last night's session was awesome. It's good to get back to painting with friends again. So, last night, I decided to try my hand again at painting flowers. Lately, I've been falling back into my old habits of not observing the light/shadow area, working too much detail into one section before going onto the next, not controlling my edges. Last night, I tried to make sure that I paid particular attention to those bad habits.

This flower painting came out well. Not near complete, but not bad. I love how the vase came out. I was able to successfully lay out the basic drawing using the back of my brush handle on a toned canvas. When I laid down the masses of colors for the flowers, it worked out well. I started working more on the flowers, until Karen reminded me that I had to mass out the vase first. That way I can establish my overall value patterns and see how each object relates to another.

Next time, I'll remember to bring my camera with me. This would have been a fun painting to finish, but the flowers will be drooping by the time that I get back to them. Next time, I'll just take some pictures so that I can finish up the painting later.

Good night of painting.