Still Life with bust and Hydrangeas (the sequel)

This is coming along quite nicely, using a very restricted palette. From a distance it looks monochromatic almost but Elaine thinks that is ok. Compared to every one else's paintings in the class, mine looks dull and colourless. The mask is fine but I need to beef up the blues.

This looks better.

More work needed on the silver frame and the leaves and shadows.

Background

This is my watercolour of opium poppies painted in my sketchbook on a Painting Day with Reading Guild of Artists. I have used it as the background for my blog. It was painted with Jackson's w/c paints in transparent pigments.

On checking, I have discovered that this is NOT my background painting but another one painted on the same day out.

What happened there, then?

Well, we had Christmas and New Year and a looooong transfer of data to an external hard disk.

This is the hydrangea painting in its fairly recent state. I didn't like the green I mixed when I added Lemon Yellow to the palette and have since altered that. The foreground is better and I will leave that now. The petals are more defined and the silver frame more subtly outlined than you see here.

This is the latest Still Life minus the plastic shopping bag from top right. The task is to take a jumble of not particularly beautiful objects and to make a beautiful painting.