Colourful Mixed Bouquet Oil Painting and Using a Computer to Paint from Photos

Mixed Bouquet 12x9 Oil on Canvas Panel

Here is my final painting from the Dreama Tolle Perry Workshop I attended in January. For our third day, we all used our own painting reference, so everyone had a different subject to portray using Dreama's method. It was fun to try and capture the sheer ribbon.

Instead of using a printed photograph, I found a shelf at eye level on which to sit my laptop. I almost always paint from either life or a computer screen. Printed photographs do not provide enough information to see all the subtleties we perceive with our eyes and are frustrating to try and work with. They lie about value and color and compress either the darks or the lights. I love how looking at a photo with a computer is much more like seeing something in real life so would highly recommend using that if you are not willing or able to work from life. That being said, working from life is non-negotiable if you want to grow in your ability to see and paint well.