Iris Painting Finished
It's finally finished! In a perfect world I'd paint from start to finish in a few days. That rarely happens when juggling family commitments and I think it works in a weird way. It's easy to be too critical when you are working up close on a painting. A number of small break between painting helps me see it with fresh eyes. Things I thought were awful turn out to be just fine and having time to mull over the step helps move things along when I pick up my paint brush.
I surprised a lot of you, my dear readers, with my choice of red for the irises. I have pushed the red to more of a maroon and I think you will love how it turned out. I dug out an old hard copy photo of a maroon iris that at one time grew in my yard. I used this photo as a guide for the highlight and shadow colors. If you look closely, you can see the shadows are a deep purple and the highlights in the sun show fuschia, oranges, and a little yellow. Here's the scanned photo:
And finally – here's the finished painting!
I am pleased with the finished painting. You'll will be able to find this on my Etsy shop over the weekend. Hope you enjoyed following along with this painting and the peek behind my easel!
If you missed the beginning of the painting -links to follow along with the painting: