Today I decided to paint a vase with some flowers. I thought it would be good to practice a little negative painting with white flowers. I didn’t use a reference photo, but rather just winged it from my imagination. Soon I’ll have flowers blooming out side I can cut and use to paint.

I don’t paint much glass and this was a good exercise in painting the glass with water and stems visible. Again, it probably would have been better if I had worked from a photo or actual vase and flowers, but I don’t think it turned out too badly.

Do you find yourself painting from your imagination more or do you usually use reference photos?