painting flowers practice no.2

charcoal
sketch






This is the first time I have drawn in the composition usig charcoal first. Ususally I would just jump right into drawing and painting with the brush.
The benefit of course is the composition is worked out ahead of time and is easy to correct. But once I started painting into the charcoal the turpentine wash blended everything together and all that careful drawing was gone. There must be a clever way to avoid this. That is why they call it practice!


gray
goop








I read that many painters save all of the old paint they clean off of the palette. It all goes into one big bucket. It makes a beautiful gray that can be used for blocking in the composition. I started saving all of my scrapings and this is the first time I have tried it. I really like it and I love how I am not wasting all that paint.




blocking
in the
darks






The values are close. The glass needs some help though. I didn't get the darks and halftones in there.


Oh no,
wilting
already!







The petals and leaves started to droop after a while. I have read that it is better to complete the flowers then move on to the other objects that don't droop and die on you. Of course, I didn't remember that until just now.


Zinnias
6x8 oil
on canvas board















I'm not pleased with the final result. I don't like the way the large pink zinnia came out. I can see I need practice on the details. I love zinnias though. They are so individual, a great summer flower. I save my seeds from each year's bloom and replant. So I am sure I will be painting many more of them in the future