Blue roses

Beautiful roses - do you know what the species is? I think you have three choices with the background. One is to put it in first and let it dry and then paint up to it. The next would be the one I would choose, and is to allow the paint on some of the petals to bleed into the background, thus tying the two together. This would give a softer edge to the flowers and avoid that 'cut out' look that can sometimes happen and results in a looser look (but this may not be what you want). The third would be to leave a tiny edge of white around the flowers, as you suggested, which can look very effective. I think you have done a very good job with this painting as it is fresh, has beautiful colours and is a very pretty composition.

Hi, Ruth, I think Thea has given you some great ideas. Whichever you choose I think my humble input would be to darken part of the background blending to light as your flowers are quite a light tone. I think the depth of tone would add to the interesting flowers.

Thank you, Thea, for your remarks and the three possibilities. I think the first one would work best for me, but as I feel I need to loosen up somewhat, I will try letting some petails bleed in. As to your query, I have to confess they are 'Ruth's Imagination' species, drawn from observation of various roses, and the pictures in my own head...is that awful? I often draw from memory...I find that my work is much more spontaneous when I do that. Otherwise I get too 'hung up' about producing an authentic rendering. I do lots of tonal preliminary pencil sketches first. I suppose it is more representational than actual a lot of the time. I try to capture the essence of things - If I can -it doesn't always happen. Thank you for commenting, it is a wonderful help.