"Mixed Impatiens in the Sun"

[walden]

Oil 12 x 16, from a plein air sketch & photo ref. All comments welcome.

This is roughly proper viewing size.

[walden]

Larger version.

[Inkling]

This is lovely Walden. I love your use of color!:clap:

[vallarta]

I would suggest you look at other still lifes. You will find that most extend the value range to achive a dramatic effect. That means the darks get darker...the lights get lighter...and the subject is "spot lighted" against a background that has a lot of value shifting.

This was nice....but just nice. Keep up the good work. You can do it!

vallarta

[Paintonbrush]

Sometimes when you follow the directions in a book you get what every one else would get. Left the way you have painted it makes it your s and only yours. I say leave it, its a nice compostion. good work. maybe try deeper ranges next time, if thats what appeals to you.

[Allan Jameson]

Very pretty.....well painted and gets the message thru...

[walden]

Thank you for your responses, everyone.

I went back and forth on the value ranges here-- originally I had both the wall and the floor painted much darker. While I liked the lacy pattern of the sunspots and the shadows, I didn't want them to pull TOO much attention away from the plants & flowers, so I re-did them lighter. In retrospect, I probably should have left them darker, particularly since re-doing them resulted in my brushwork looking stilted rather than loose and flowing, as it originally did. Oh well, live and learn.

The biggest thing that I failed to capture was the value pattern in the lights on the plants-- I didn't quite go light enough on the highlights on the leaves and flowers-- my plan was that the eye follow the light streak into the painting & across the floor, up & left & down the tops of the flowers in an arc moving to the spots of light on the wall, & then into the dark shadow spaces & intense flowers in the lower left of the pot. I don't think that really happens-- I think the eye doesn't connect the lights of the leaves and flowers with the lights on the floor and wall.

The painting is a little bit darker than it appears here, and it looks really good in ordinary room lighting at night-- the value ranges appear much larger, and the intense reds and purples get much more intense. Maybe someone will buy it to brighten up a dark hallway? ;)

[Leaflin]

I love impatiens.
They brighten up any garden and flourish in the shade.
I think you have done a great job at showing off their beauty.