When you're working on a painting, sometimes you lose the whole because you're staring at the parts. Other times you lose the parts because you're staring at the whole. That's why it's good to take a picture. With a picture you are brought out of whatever you are doing and you can notice that serious dark shape in the center of the piece that draws ALL THE EYES.
This painting isn't finished...but as arbitrary rule number 1 states, "Painting doesn’t have to be finished, but it has to be close." This is close. And it's close in a way where I'm excited to let it sit for a few hours (while I go back to work) so that I can think about what comes next.
I've created some problems for myself (namely that must-look-here flower in the middle), but that also opens up some design possibilities I wouldn't have considered before, namely darkening the flower immediately to its left. Maybe something with a bit of dark orange? I could then darken the vase and make the ground a bit browner as well. I have to be careful to not darken everything too much because then the big flower and the white flower will suddenly burst from the page.
Mar 2, 2014, 6:12pm