Waterlily work in progress

I've decided to start on the background, this is due to the dark tonal values on the right. The waterlily has extremely delicate tones, so I needed a tonal guide of the overall composition, so the petals don't look too faint. The background is far from finished, I've just blocked in the basic colours and tonal values. I'm going to let this dry, then start work on the flower. Once I have most the detail of the flower I can work out how detailed the background needs to be, so it doesn't take away the focus from the flower.

Whilst this dries, I've another waterlily oil painting to start, so I'll get to that onto canvas tomorrow.

Next project

My next  project, or projects, I've two in mind. Both paintings are oil paintings of waterlilies. This one I've just put the oil paint skin on, which is a very dilute layer of paint. It's main function is to knock out the white canvas. The dimensions of this one are 16 x 12in, the other 10 x 10in, the small canvas is a close up of a waterlily. I got my inspiration this time at Kew Gardens, I'm very fortunate to have it on my doorstep, just a short bus journey away. In Kew there is the most spectacular glass house full of 

waterlilies, it's one of my favourite places in the gardens, it so peaceful.

Ponte Vecchio

I've put this on the shelf today, I've signed it, but not sure if it's totally finished, I need to ponder it and have a break from it. I'm pleased that I captured the illumination on the yellow walls and the reflection in the foreground. I need to live with the painting for a while to see if I want to pull any other elements out.

Light, shadows and reflections

Today, finally got the canvas covered. I also had another go at some of the perspective on the windows/shutters in the background. Now I've started to consider this painting as a whole, so light and shade on the bridge needed to be worked on. Looking at this photo, I needed to luminate the first building in the foreground, it's looking dull. I mentioned the window in the foreground, it has a great reflection, I've made a start on this today too. I think I now need to let this dry. Yesterday I sketch out my next project, a waterlily, oil on canvas, so I can make a start on this whilst Ponte Vecchio dries over the weekend.

Spot the difference!

Spent another couple of hours on this today, mostly using a brush this time. More shutter painting and perspective tweaking, as the work comes together I can spot areas that need more work. I'm looking forward to working on the final window in the forground, it has a fantastic reflection to paint.

Slow progress

Got back to this painting today. I started to work a little bit more into the details with a brush. I think I will be a shutters expert by the end of this. I keep tweaking the perspective, however, the main rule to this bridge is there is no rule to the perspective! I'm still enjoying this, the main requirement is patience, to not try to work details until the blocks of colours have dried. To try to avoid the temptation to rush, I am making sure I have a project to work alongside this painting. I've pretty much completed Sorrento Reflections, so have a new project lined up, another oil painting, 16 x 12 in, of a waterlily. I think I've got another day's work in the Ponte Vecchio before I need to move on my next project.

Reflections in Sorrento

Whilst my Ponte Vecchio painting dries and worked further on my Sorrento painting. I've used a palette knife for most of this work, however today I swopped for a brush, in order to tighten up the details on the rope and chain. I'm putting this on the shelf to ponder, I want to keep the reflections fresh, so I'm weary of killing it with overworking. This is only a small 10 x10 oil painting, so I wanted to keep it simple.