Iris Painting

In an effort to diversify these posts, I am posting a picture of an Iris I painted earlier this summer. I am not an artist, I'm more of a crafter; however, I was working on a project for someone who really wanted wall art, so I bought a canvas and some cheap paint. This is the result. I like the way it turned out and realized that I could approach a painting in a similar way that I approach embroidery. I started out thinking that the flower would not have too many colors and it would be very straightforward. As I continued painting, I saw areas that needed highlights and adjustments. For the background, I had originally intended to paint everything yellow and call it a day. After I did that, it was much to bright/harsh when set against the flower, so I went back over the painted areas to add bits of green and soften the yellow using water.

I say that this is similar to my approach in embroidery because I also usually end up embellishing a picture or opting to use different color combinations or stitches as I work through the design.