Hibiscus in Costa Rica - WIP

I noticed that I have been to busy to do a weekly post this week. I started back in art class this week and I asked the teacher to work with me on making my paintings more three dimensional.  I had started this painting and had the basic shapes in before the class.  The leaves on the left were worked on in class and I do think that they have more dimension.  Over the weekend, I hope to do more.  I also worked on some of the leaves on the right. You'll notice that the ones in the middle are quite flat yet. Those are next on my schedule.

When I have finished the leaves, I will work more on the stems connecting them (they need a bit more color) and then finally on trying to get the hibiscus more toward the color in the original photo (more toward the red shade) while still keeping it light in value.

In my last online order, I bought a red acetate sheet.  I find this very helpful in seeing the values (light/medium/dark).  I put it over the photo first. The lights really pop out. Then over my painting and I see what I need to fix.  This is a good tool for an art student. (Inexpensive too).

I will post the same painting again next week and I hope you will see a big difference in the leaves.

If you are in the southern New Hampshire area, I have nine paintings on exhibit at the Derry Public Library for the month of April.