Painting without an initial sketch forces me to truly see a subject in its simplest form. It trains my eye to mentally gauge the position of the patterns. It is challenging but I think this act of painting is the most wonderful. What went well–

• Painting with water plus a little paint (like a wash) creates a subtle look on the petals without the obvious hard edges.
• The added red splashes on the upper petal was achieved by re-wetting the already dried area of the petal in a hit and miss fashion; then painting the Cadmium red and allowing it to bleed into the surface.
• The patterns are what bring the flower alive. This was done by painting it all in Cad red before glazing it with Cad Red + Cobalt Blue. I rarely use black when I can mix paints.

What I need to improve here is to heighten the value a bit. Other than that I’m pretty happy with the result.

Does anyone know the name of this flower? :)

Update: Many thanks to Milo Chin for letting me know the name of the flower. :)