SMALL STUDIES AGAIN

In the Jean Haines book, she uses cling wrap + salt in the door to add texture (what she calls her Venetian textures technique).   I didn't do that.  I just painted it, then lifted out and/or scraped the lines in while the paint was still wet.  I don't like using salt, and just didn't want to go back upstairs to get the Saran Wrap for this.  I added some flowers to the left side.  

I think the window looks farther away than the door because it's too pale.  

None of these little studies/exercises (eighth sheet size) are turning out anything like her's in the book! ha ha  Oh, well, that's what practice is for - and for me, it's about loosening up, not copying her work.

One of the things I agree with from the book, and which is a very good tip, is to put your subject down and then bring out your tubes of paint to see what colors you want to use on the subject.  Put the colors next to the subject to see how well they match.  I did that with these little salad tomatoes and probably used colors I would not have normally chosen (I would have used a warm yellow and then gone from there with reds, darkening as I went.)

Of course, this is if you want to paint the subject realistically with the colors you see when you look at it (and you don't always have to do that!).

I cheated on the tube colors and painted them just a deep quinacridone gold and two reds, a warm and a cool, and the reds were not exactly the colors I matched in the photo, but I mixed them a bit with an orange and gold.

I did not draw anything prior to painting.