daily painting practice - still life study

Here are my prizes I purchased from the thrift store last week. Everything but the sugar bowl for $10.00. Even the roses came with the vase. When I grow up I want to paint like (Paul Raymond Seaton). His website is a treasure for those wanna be still life painters like myself. He recommends starting with artificial flowers because they don't wilt and droop. So I thought I would give it a try.



I must have tried 50 different arrangements. The sugar bowl was a sweet addition, don't you think? Another new exercise for me is starting to actually put some thought into my composition. This is a new challenge, most of the time I am much too impatient and jump into painting before I have thought out the reason for the painting.


I tried mixing real plants with the fake ones.
I tried to raise the cuteness scale but I think I may have gone a little too far. I do like the triangle composition though.















Here is the arrangement I chose and the start of the weekly painting. My still life designer/consultant/prop master suggested the silk scarf. I will have a fatwah issued against me if I get any paint on it though.
Starting with a very warm underpainting and hoping the warm color will keep the shadows transparent.
I am using a lot of Liquin again and the paint is staying transparent but the darks got a little too muddy because I mixed in Viridian green. Have you ever noticed that sometimes just adding the wrong color can really kill the other colors already on the canvas?

click on picture to enlarge the image

Roses in a Vase - Study 8"x10"
oil on masonite

Here is the first study for the new weekly painting. The roses are a hard color to paint. In real life the red/orange is brilliant and the shadow colors deep. I did not capture that in the study. I don't like the lighting in this one either. I think more dramatic shadows add interest and would improve the sketch. However, I like something about the fresh feel of the painting. Study number one complete... move on to the real thing.