Roses by Vincent Van Gogh: Session 5

{my setup at the end of the fifth session}

For this session, this is where I began.

And keeping to my plan to work outward, painting in a very direct manner, I began by fanning out from last week’s session. When working in a such a direct manner, it is especially important to focus on setting up the correct values and building up the texture like Van Gogh did.

Copying this Van Gogh has made me realize how this painting incorporates a lot of the affects of a bas-relief sculpture. The majority of the leaves are laid down with minimal paint texture compared to the full impasto texture of the roses, with the petals being built up in a three-dimensional way.

I have found that even the shadows that are cast by the thick impasto painting play an important part in giving dimension to the roses.