Daily painting practice - Work in progress - painting Peonies in Glass Vase

I need to finish one larger studio piece each week until the end of August in order to have enough paintings for my one man show. Here is this week's work in progress starting with a charcoal drawing.


This peony bloom sits in the background. I like to keep the shadows thin at this stage and then add some opaque color to develop the form.









I didn't like where this was heading. It had no zing, no punch, no drama. I felt like I lost my idea for the painting. So I stepped back to re-evaluate. I needed to cool down the underpainting to help make the pink pop out more.
I made a 7 step value range of black and white. This would help me control the values in the underpainting.
I painted over the entire drawing without blending the values. (much). Like paint by number without the numbers. I was paying more attention to how I wanted the light to hit the flowers.
Next I expanded the palette to include various tinted reds and violet. The original black to white was moved to the back.

Work in Progress
Peonies in a Glass Vase.
24"x24"
oil on canvas

I decided to make some of the peonies white to add more drama. I have only worked on the left hand side at this point. Lots more work to do in a short time. I will not post tomorrow because I will be finishing this painting. The final version can be viewed at the show Sept. 7.

...Well maybe I'll give a sneak preview if you promise not to tell.