This week, I didn't do any physical artmaking. Instead, I spent a lot of time testing out different lighting and deciding what landscapes I liked as backgrounds. I took notes on what times made interesting effects and what directions made differences in the way blurring my vision changed the scenery. I noticed that, around sunset, I can get golden spots looking west and, in the mornings, they are purple and blue. I think one of these will be something I hope to try in the next piece.

This week, I finished up most of the main elements and now just have to complete the finishing touches. I'm interested in trying a more linear art style over the flowers to create a less realistic look, but I do want to add more depth to the flowers and the background first.

This time, I decided to try painting in a more layered style. I like the overall effect so far, and I'm mainly focusing on picking out colors that will drip together. I recently saw a few pieces by an artist on Instagram and all of their pieces had bright, abstract, and somewhat drippy backgrounds so I am taking inspiration from that. I have also been working on having a more dynamic composition and the research I did before starting this piece showed that it might help to include some dynamic elements in the background as well, so I am paying attention to that as I work.

This week, I restarted, working with oil pastel rather than acrylic paint. I've also been using graphite in some places (to emphasize darker sections that are too small to define with the pastel) and using an x-acto knife to scrape off color to create the brightest highlights. For next week, I plan to finish the stones and get into the background.

I reworked the composition and put in most of the values with pens. The next step will be to add in more of the dark values and colors to make the still life look more 3 dimensional.