Something still doesn't look right.

It looks a lot better Denise although I like it before you have made the vase look a lot better. I think the dish is ok , but having  darkened the area in front of it it seems to make it look as if it’s up of the table and that there is a gap under it. Might be just me and how I’m looking at it . 

Paul’s right. You’ve corrected the vase, that’s now working, the base ( and slightly the top of the bowl) needs to be slightly curved downwards, just a touch. It’s hard to be objective when it’s your own work. Often you don’t see a detail because you are too close to the whole thing. It’s not unusual, I’ve often posted something in haste only to then see something I hadn’t noticed earlier. In one still life, a POL viewer said he couldn’t stop seeing a face in the bread I had painted. I then saw it too and had to laugh.

The vase is much better now! But… I think the composition is a bit side on and lacking any depth. A better angle would be looking down slightly, you’d see the curvature of the plate and an ellipse on the vase etc… all making for a more interesting viewpoint. The painting itself is well executed.

We can stare at our paintings for hours, knowing something's wrong, but having no idea what.  Very often, others can spot the problem instantly, but now and then others are as baffled as we are, while still knowing something doesn't quite fit somewhere.  I think I'm struggling here as much as you are, but I believe there are two elements  here that are arguing with each other - the dish, and the vase, don't look as though they're sitting on the same picture plane - I think you could adjust the vase by making a semi-circle of the base rather than having it cut off by a black line, as it is.  But I suspect you felt the need to adjust it in the first place because it just doesn't seem to match up with the perspective of the dish or plate.   In short, you seem to be looking up to the plate, and slightly down on the vase - which Alan has basically said.  Did you have these objects in front of you: and if you did, you observe them both from the same position (i.e. your position in relation to them)?   The quite strong outlining is also not doing you many favours - use of the dark outline is of course a technique which many have employed, but another approach is to allow the colours of the different objects to establish their place against each other - you may not have been going for an entirely natural look, and there's nothing wrong with that; but you might want to draw more with the brush (or pastels) without relying on a drawn outline quite so much. Having said all of which, you're certainly coming on - I remember your grapes like sprouts... painting progress tends to go up one hill; then you reach a plateau, and stay there for a while; then the next hill, the next plateau, and so on.  Somewhere at the top is the goal we're all working towards -- it's got to be up there somewhere!

Perspective, cast shadows and reflections are three important technical aspects worth learning Denise, there’s plenty of info out there. None of these are difficult to master, but it can all seem to be a bit boring perhaps when you just want to get on and paint! But they’re all vital if you are to avoid any pitfalls on the technical side. You are doing extraordinarily well with your progress but it does take time - I still have issues after decades of painting! 

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