First try at roses (and would love to learn from you!)

[ItsaWonder]

acrylic, 6x6" Painted from life, alla prima

I have just discovered this forum and WOW! I have browsed for awhile, and I think there are so many wonderful painters/paintings here. I hope it's ok to hang out here some. I am self-taught, have been doing art for 5 or 6 years, but only sporadically. Have most recently made a commitment to paint regularly. Lately I've been painting some flowers, probably because it's the season. I'm not really trying to make them botanically correct (that would be way above my ability), just trying to make them look like something! Trying to please myself with balance and color, and trying to learn how to paint light. I'm just finding my way around WC, just found this forum. I think those of you posting in here are AMAZING! I would love to comment on so many posts I've seen here, but some of them are older (i.e. not from this week), and I know it's not the greatest thing to bring an older thread forward.

Anyway, this is my first attempt at painting roses. I am happy enough with how they turned out, but the doing part I found extremely difficult. Is there a demo on painting roses in any opaque medium around here? The only demo I found on painting roses on WC was a watercolor demo, which was wonderful, but not going to help me with the acrylics, at least not the way I use them. I don't have much luck with my searches on WC, so I thought I would ask if anyone knows about a demo on roses.

I already posted this in Larry Seiler's thread on painting 120 paintings, but I saw in your guidelines it's ok to post here something that was posted on one other forum. I thought it would be good for me to meet and learn from some new people.

I should mention that the roses are in a pill bottle. I meant to put them in a nice vase, but I really liked the way the red and yellow looked with the blue of the pill bottle, so I decided to leave them in there and paint them that way.

Many thanks to you for looking at my thread and for having created such a feast for the eyes in this forum!

I am definitely open to suggestions on how to improve my paintings. I most likely will not change my little alla prima paintings, but I may repaint a similar image keeping the suggestions in mind.

[marionh]

Welcome to the forum Meredith, it's always nice to see people here.

I like this very much, your roses are painted quite well for alla prima and are nice and loose and their placement is good. I like them.

My main observation on this painting is that the background detracts from those flowers. Try softening it and toning down the colours - loose the bright yellow it pulls the eye away from the flowers.

Also the vase looks like it might be falling off the table, raising the back edge would give it more depth. The vase would be darker on one side, rhs?, I think the light is coming from the left as indicated by the shadow on the white rose?

When painting roses, always think direction of light. There is usually a large range in values and it pays to push those. Try taking a few touches of the background colours into the flowers and vase to tie the whole thing together.

All in all a lovely little painting. I've just been trying some alla prima florals myself and it takes lots of practice to get those values right - I'm still having problems.

I can't help you with rose WIP threads, but try searching on google, using wetcanvas.com in the search criteria - it works better than the wc search.

Personally I don't see anything wrong on commenting on old threads. I love to get comments on older threads as I'm sure others do too.

Looking forward to seeing more of your work.

[Charlie's Mum]

A warm welcome Meredith - and this is a very creditable painting too - there are some beautiful passages in it. That red rose and the area to the left are lovely.

However, I agree with Marion's observations so won't repeat them.

Do come and join us regularly - if you join the Plant Parade each month you'll learn a LOT! Also check out some of our web links to see work by members more quickly, perhaps, than by raising old threads - unless there's something you want to bring attention too

Glad you're joining us here

[Antiqueteacher]

Meredith, welcome to the wonderful world of Florals!! Lovely work on your Roses!! Good suggestions ^^^ (above). I paint in Watercolor, so, can't advise a lot on Acrylics, but hope you do look in on our May Plant Parade and see if you can give it a go!! We are all 'learning' how to paint Art Nouveau!

Katherine

[KreativeK]

This is a very nice painting, Meredith! Welcome to the forum here. I hope to see more of your florals.

[ItsaWonder]

Thank you all for the kind welcome to your forum. I am happy to have found this group and look forward to seeing more of your work.

Marion, thank you so much for your thoughtful critique. I wish I could see the painting through your eyes. I am studying the painting and your critique and trying to figure this all out. Painting like this is very new to me and getting this type of feedback is very new to me, and now I'm trying to understand it all. One thing I'm finding really interesting is where you think the light was. I must have painted the rose somewhat misleadingly (ok, possibly not a real word)...the light was coming from the right. Hmmmmm.....

Maureen, thank you for your welcome and for what you said about the painting. With you and Marion (and maybe others) seeing the same issues with it, I know there is definitely something for me to learn here. I will next go figure out what the Plant Parade is!

Katherine and KreativeK, thank you so much for what you said about my painting and for welcoming me here. This is only the second painting I have ever posted on WetCanvas, although I have been reading the site for years. You all have brought me one step closer to making it feel easy to post!

[GardenMaven]

I love the blue "pill bottle", thought it was a vase. I have a bud vase that color...hmm, there's a thought for the future. Thanks for sharing.

[ItsaWonder]

Hi GardenMaven (I love that name!), would love to see the painting if you do it. I'm looking forward to checking out the web links, too, that Maureen mentioned. Maureen, I am assuming you are talking about looking at members' personal sites and blogs (I've been bookmarking as I go through the threads)? Or are there web links that are part of WetCanvas you are referring to?

It's too late for me to paint these roses again in a nice vase, as they are pretty much goners. Flowers don't last long, do they? One reason it's nice to capture them for eternity in a painting!

[pancho]

Very nice colors. Welcome to the forum.

Janet

[jbart]

Looks great. You are off to a great start and will sharpen your skill with practice. Paint and post some more.

[Sharrm]

Lovely painting, and welcome to the forum.
You've done a good job with this. Great start. Flowers are not simple to do.

Some great tips above, and you can always PM (personal message)the member if you need more info.
I found that very helpful when I started out.

Also you should read the Stickys that are the Threads at the top of the Forum here.
That's the Information that Charlie's Mum was talking about and the Plant Parade Thread is up there too.
Its a monthly challenge-get together- that we do with a new Host every month.
Lots of fun, and very informative !!
I would also suggest you do the same in the Acrylics Forum.
the Stickys and the Information Booth at the top of the Forum page has great info on Acrylics.
So as jbart said above, paint and post some more

[SoftRoses]

I sure like the colors you have used - very vibrant and lovely! I paint roses a lot, but don't have much help as to any links on WIP's.

Welcome and you should feel comfortable to post here - great people!