hydreanga finished, very colorfull

In finished the little painting of a hydreanga flower. 15x20cm
What a joy to paint all those tiny flowers.
Very difficult to take photographs. The layers of colors are so subtle and the underground is shining through.

I learned so much from painting this subject.
To see and paint all the different shapes and the many many tones.

Hydreanga, oilpaint, old master technique, next stage

This is the second layer of umber and white oilpaint.
The underlayer must be painted in very light tones, so when the transparant color layers will be painted on top of the underlayer the light will shine through.
And it looks like the painting is glowing from the inside.
The second photo looks more crispier and not so flat anymore.
Not easy to take a picture of though.
The different tones are so subtile and the photo looks on the screen a bit too harsh.
I have particulary problems with painting leaves so they are still in an early stage.

hydreanga flower, oilpaint, underlayer, first stage

To relax a bit and as a great excercise I started a new painting.
I am painting the underlayer with Titian white and raw omber. I love this color mix.

This is the first layer and it took me many hours so far. I have to paint the leaves the same way and then................. yes, start over and paint everything again. I have to add pure white to lift the lightest places and make other parts also lighter and sometimes other parts darker. But not too dark though

The Titian white oilpaint sink somewhat in and therefor I have to put another layer on top of the first layer. Perhaps I have to repeat this process befor I can add some transparant layers of color.
Size of this little painting is 15x20cm and I use MDF with a couple of layers of grey acrylic paint on it and I sand the surface really smooth.