Today was the first day I had to turn the heat on, painting this little ( 4 x 4″) rose bud in the cool morning fog.

I painted out a loose gestural outline of the rose on a prepared pink ground.

I blocked in some major highlights and shadows with color.

I blended the tones in the base of the rose and built up the highlights , curving my brush stokes to echo the shape of the petals.

I played up the color reflecting in the shadows which helped to develop a sense of volume and refined the details until the point where I felt there was a balance between lights and darks, angles and form, depth and volume, detail and negative space. A lot going on in 4 square inches!