Tulips

I decided on a change of subject matter today, there were flowers in the house and nothing at the moment is safe from a trip to my cramped working space for the purposes of being painted.

Interesting though I found the exercise, I'm a little bit disappointed by the final result and all down to some poor choices that I made early on. My biggest mistake was one of compositional arrangement, the gap in the middle of the picture being the main culprit. On reflection I'd have been better including more blooms and foliage to fill more of the space as well as establishing more interconnections between the elements.

Never mind lots to think about and build upon.

Tulips - Oil on gesso board 7" x 5"

Just to keep in touch

Very little to report on the painting front, life getting in the way and frustration building. A quick few washes with the watercolours to stave off the resulting irritation. Apologies to those who are sick of the same old subject matter.

Tulips - watercolour on Not paper 12" x 12"

More Kitchen Table

I had hoped to get outside with the oils with the recent easing of the weather but the old back hasn't been up to it. Consequently the best chance to get some painting done is the kitchen and some of the flowers that are around the house.

The greens are still a bit of a struggle, nowhere near as convincing as some I was producing just a couple of months ago. I need to take a leaf from other colleagues and spend a bit of time just working on colour swatches to sharpen up my colour mixing.

With this one I should have got in the tones on the table before making a delicate shadow shape, at the moment there is an inconsistency with the current rendition. I got another drawing done so when we get some light tomorrow I've got another to go at hopefully with some better greens. That's the agenda for the morning.

Tulips - watercolour on rough paper 12" x 9"