DAY 6: Today I'm working on SUNFLOWER #1. Here it is sitting on the easel in my studio before I begin painting this morning.

I completed the lower right hand corner of the painting--it took me an hour to finish painting the small sunflower and leaves. I am still not happy with the center of the large flower, but it's still very wet so I'm not sure if I should walk away for a couple of weeks until it's dry, or try to see what I can do to fix it.

I decided to live dangerously and try some wet-on-wet painting in the center of the flower. This could really backfire, but worst case is that I ruin the painting for now. Then I would have to let it dry for a couple of weeks before trying to re-work the center. The problem with that outcome is that I have a show on February 6th and I was planning to bring the painting with me.

I'm really not sure how I'm going paint this area. All I know is that it's not right and I need to fix it. I'll start with adding some shadows and see where that takes me. I'm just experimenting, hoping that something will make this part of the painting look right. The photo I took of this flower shows the center seeds very clearly, so maybe that is what I need to recreate to get the effect I'm looking for.

At this point, I start to pray. (seriously!) I really don't know what I'm doing now. I guess I'll just keep adding more paint.

Now there is definitely no turning back. My main goal is to get rid of the bull's-eye effect in the center. I do this by adding tiny lines in shades of dark brown. These lines become the shadows, and the first layer I painted becomes the highlights.

This technique seems to be working, so I just keep at it, hoping that at some point I will feel like the center is just right.

I'm thinking this actually looks pretty good. I've walked into Tim's office twice now to ask his opinion on how the center looks, but he's on the phone with somebody. I better just quit while I'm ahead.

I decided to hang it on the wall to see how it looks as part of the series of five sunflowers and then move on to something else. The more I looked at it with the other flowers, the more I like it. Maybe it's done?! I'm not sure... I have to ponder this for a few days. This painting actually started out being my least favorite, but the more I look at it, it's really growing on me! I LOVE how 3-D it looks about the large leaf. This is a good way to end my day. 🙂