For my final project I decided on another composition of Positional Variety using gum blossoms as the theme - think I went a little overboard with the dots but am so enjoying painting a flower type I really love and always thought too difficult to tackle. :)

Balance, Proportion, Emphasis, Unity, Variety - image 1 - student project

Now to consider what to do for my final project :)

Below, Variety - my own theme and composition using Philotheca wildflowers (I prefer my daisies!)

Balance, Proportion, Emphasis, Unity, Variety - image 2 - student project

Below, Variety - daisies as per Natalie's theme, this was fun

Balance, Proportion, Emphasis, Unity, Variety - image 3 - student project

Unity: This has been my favourite style so far. Really loved painting the gum blossoms, but this technique with the dark background looks amazing and adding the salt on the leaves adds a fun texture!

Below, Unity Silver Princess gum blossoms using my own composition in the style Natalie demonstrated.

Balance, Proportion, Emphasis, Unity, Variety - image 4 - student project

Below, Unity gum blossoms following along with Natalie's example.

Balance, Proportion, Emphasis, Unity, Variety - image 5 - student project

Natalie, thanks for your reply with suggestions about things I could try with my hydrangea. I gave it a go (several times) without much success - just couldn't get it to work. Decided to move on to the next one - much happier painting poppies :) It was really interesting seeing that you started with the centre of the flower - in my first attempt I did completely the opposite and did the centre after the petals, which didn't work very well!!

So many useful tips in your demo, too many to mention - but one I really liked was doing the stems in a pale tone so they don't dominate too much.

I also found one of your previous classes with practicing brush strokes - I really need to do more of that for variation and brush control.

Thanks again. Learning so much!

Below, 2nd attempt at Emphasis - after the demo

Balance, Proportion, Emphasis, Unity, Variety - image 6 - student project

Below, 1st attempt at Emphasis - before watching Natalie's demo

Balance, Proportion, Emphasis, Unity, Variety - image 7 - student project

Below, 3rd attempt at proportion - running the hydrangea off the page.

Balance, Proportion, Emphasis, Unity, Variety - image 8 - student project

Not sure I have the hang of this one yet, especially painting hydrangea!!

I did freak out painting the hydrangea without watching your demo. What a mess! Being brave and posting photos even though I'm not happy with them. In the first one, couldn't work out how to make a distinction between the flower heads, and then the leaves just went all wrong. With my second one, it still didn't go so well - I kept adding more darks to try and make it work. It ended up very 'heavy' feeling which wasn't at all what I was attempting - haha. I also had problems placing the leaves.

Natalie, I'm interested in your thoughts on my 'dominant' composition arrangement and perhaps how I could improve it. I want to have another go at this one, more in the loose style you approached painting the hydrangea.

Below, 2nd attempt at Proportion

Balance, Proportion, Emphasis, Unity, Variety - image 9 - student project

Below, first attempt at Proportion

Balance, Proportion, Emphasis, Unity, Variety - image 10 - student project

Below my 2nd attempt at Balance

Balance, Proportion, Emphasis, Unity, Variety - image 11 - student project This course so far is amazing Natalie. I took you literally and stopped the video to play with the cut outs and do my first painting. Then I had a second attempt. Loving the content and your explanations a lot!

The photos have loaded sideways - below is my first attempt, the cover image is my second attempt (both should be rotated right but I can't seem to work out if I can do that here)

Balance, Proportion, Emphasis, Unity, Variety - image 12 - student project

Louise McDaid

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