French Tulips

I spent the afternoon painting at Trisha Ratliff's house while the boys were at the Capital's game.  I continued painting on the french tulip painting I started in Robert Johnson's workshop.  As usual, it is unfinished but I'm very motivated to complete it because I love the set up and value distinctions. 

Of course the flowers are long gone and I'm painting from photographs.  Since all my friends are starting to buy iPads, uploading their source materials, and then painting from the screen, I've been very jealous.  So I purchased the poor man's version--a consignment store digital picture frame.  It works great and was only $25 but I do need an outlet (no battery).

Photos always wash out the colors and my photos were  no exeption compared to the real flowers.  As  result I had to change the entire value and saturation scheme compared to what I already had on the canvas (as represented from the first painting session).  Anyway, I prefer the photos because the value adjustment are so much easier to see.  The photos also seem to exaggerate the amount of dark and light values, so it makes the final painting much more dramatic.