Irises

Irises in Oil and The Preliminary Sketch

As promised, here is the final painting and its preliminary study. Having had a break from the painting for over a week, I came back to it and noticed right away that it needed a few more splashes of light oranges and earthy pinks to link various negative spaces more successfully and balance the cooler blues. I added earthy pinks to the buds in the foreground, which has helped to enhance the diagonal line leading from the lower left part of the painting back up to the upper right hand corner. I am much happier with the third to two-third composition running along the canvas width.

As well as being therapeutic and enjoyable, the drawing helped me solve my composition. I had a number of photographs which I had to put together and I wanted the painting to be bold. It saves a lot of time working it all out in pencil first rather than repeated scrubbing out o the canvas. The drawing is smaller than A4 so it does not take too long but it is worth the effort.