Not really crazy about how this turned out. It's alot harder to keep all the tone and value stuff straight when you throw color into the mix. I feel like the tonal values just aren't right, but it's really hard to just fix it.
The background was initially plain, but it needed something, so I tried adding a window. Not the best window, in my opinion, but it needed something.
The vase is a little crooked too, but I'll get better at keeping things straight the more I paint.
I do like how the water in the vase turned out. I decided to be adventurous, challenge myself a little bit, and make the vase clear with water in it - and I think it was worth the risk. I liked having the freedom to try different colors and brush strokes in an effort to paint the stems and leaf and rocks and such through the distortion of glass and liquid. It was the funnest part of the painting, and it's the part that turned out the best, I think.
Overall I guess it's not too shabby for my first color painting, but I'm a big fan of this one right now. However, I did learn some important things while painting this:
1. Try to mix my own colors more. I caught myself just using paint straight out of the tube a few times during this painting, and that's a no-no. If you use colors straight out of the tube, then all the greens in your painting will look like variations of the same shade, or all your blues, or whatever. It takes life out of your painting if you use it straight out of the tube, so I need to try to mix different colors for different objects - because honestly, nothing is exactly the same color as anything else in real life, unless it's manufactured to be the same color.
2. I need more practice at tone and value. The colors throw everything off for me. I think it might not be a bad idea to do another monochrome painting, just for more practice. So my next painting may be another black and white. Or maybe I'll go for sepia this time, just for some variety. I guess you'll see soon!
3. I do not like painting flowers. Or fruit. Which is what the books seem to want me to do before I move to landscapes. But flowers and fruit just aren't me. I don't think they are my painting style.
As far as painting goes, I'm not inspired by flowers unless they're on a hillside, and I'm not inspired by fruit unless it's on the tree. And in order to paint something well, I think you need to be inspired by it, inspired in such a way that you want to just pick up a brush and paint.
Landscapes inspire me. Fresh air inspires me. Mountains inspire me. Anything outdoors inspires me. I'm just not inspired by indoor subjects. So I've decided it's time to take this act to the great outdoors! Expect a landscape painting in the near future.
