Three Red Carnations

6x6, water mixable oil on gessobord, 4/17/15

 I like the variation of values in the petals of these carnations--ranging from almost black to a lighter, almost pink color where the light hits the edges.

Matching the correct value is something I've really been working on lately, and flowers are a great subject matter for value matching--especially because I have to fight extra hard to overcome my preconceived notions of what color a flower looks like--I might think "those carnations are red". But oh, there are so many shades! It's fun to look back at flowers I tried to paint a few years ago and see that I have made huge improvements in my ability to see them for what they are. Case in point:

I almost shudder looking at those--but  I believe in sharing the failures along with the successes, because hey, if I had really known a long time ago that everyone starts out churning out horrible attempts at art at first, the prospect of improving my skills wouldn't have seemed so daunting. And even experienced artists have their off days.

Another case in point, painted only a couple of days ago:

I painted this from a reference photograph. While I'm happy with many aspects of this painting, I posted it online, and while looking at the thumbnail version, I realized that my proportions were so off I just couldn't stand it (nothing like shrinking a painting down to make proportion errors painfully obvious)! The man's face is completely lopsided, the woman's head is too big, she's seated too low on the couch, the values are off in the blanket, etc, etc. Stepping back more often probably would have fixed these issues earlier on (but it's hard to do in my tiny painting corner, which we have gated with a baby gate to keep the kids out). Anyway, maybe I'll try this one again later. But the first attempt went straight to the garbage.

So here's to another day of a little bit of improvement. I do get discouraged sometimes when my vision doesn't match my ability, but I know practice is the only way to overcome that problem!