Long Still Life with Pink Vase

It seemed like a good idea at the time.

Some of the problems were a surprise - for instance, when I drew out the composition I was excited about the dynamics of it, but I forgot that the transparency of the glass removed the mass from the center of the composition, so it is sort of empty there with the stem of the aster making a bridge to the heavy forms in the top and bottom half. Weird. I also worked in a different part of the studio which is much darker and I did not have a light on the canvas, only on the set up. Half way through I set up the light overhead and found I had some serious value problems. These seem worse when you have big shapes going off the edges, because the eye gets drawn off. Aside from that, it was fun to do. I have been looking at that pink vase for a while, working up to it. Also, I used Grumbacher red for the pinks rather than cadmium red and like it very much. I'm reading Making Color Sing, Dobie, which is all about water color, a place I am never going to go, but there's a lot of graspable color theory in it which I am finding helpful.