More From Trisha Adam's Workshop

Here is another painting I did in Trisha Adam's workshop last weekend. The gerbera daisies painting was actually my first attempt and you can see I didn't keep it loose. I enjoyed keeping the leaves a mass. But, I may have gone too far with the veins and the value variation they create. I stopped finishing the leaves when I realized they were starting to have a uniform level of definition and thus affecting the focal point. I really need to finish the underside of the leaf (the cool colored one), which isn't working.

But notice again the principles Trisha highlighted in her workshop: the red/green and purple/yellow (complimentary colors) composition. The main subject is the full bloom and the other flowers are trying to point to it with the circular motion. Again I hope I achieved a strong value contrast between the flowers and the background/leaves and the high saturation (for the main subject) vs. low saturation for the leaves and background.

Trisha also talked about the notan. Trisha really presented great examples of this concept. A notan is a black and white design of your painting. Instead of having all the middle values you convert them to either white or either black (e.g. you are making decisions as to whether the middle value is more white or more black). The thought being that you should have a pleasing black white value composition (that is what reads from across the room), with not too much white or too much black dominating. I've converted this painting to a notan (well the best I can). Makes you see things in a whole different light. This notan is perhaps my ideal notan. And I like it because the whites creates two nice triangles. However, when I look at the main flower it could also read pretty dark so it is possible that my notan is nothing but black. That would be bad.