Smile

I took a workshop once years ago and the instructor said, “Don’t paint flowers like someone is taking their picture and telling them to Smile.  He said that flowers should not all be looking one direction like looking at a camera.  His statement has always stuck with me.  Flowers are so full of life.  Some are young and some are old.  Some are looking for the sun and some are not.  Some are standing tall and proud and some are tired and hanging down.  Some are full of color and some are not.  Some are complexed and some are not.  

There are so many ways to start out laying out the shapes of flowers on a canvas.  They can be blocked in value shapes or they can be out- lined to determine their placement on the canvas.  I have at times outlined flowers with many petals by only sketching in the general angles and not tried to put each little angle of all the petals of the other edge of the flower.  That way you end up with the flower being the right overall shape.  The details can be filled in later.  

Two examples of flowers I hope you study are in the art website under private collections.  One is titled Eternally Creating and Days End.

Flowers smile in different directions.