Taking a Flat Painting to a Finished Painting

My Painting Looks Flat!!!

You've been working on a painting and you think you're done,

(how do you ever know we're done?)

but it looks flat.

What's the problem?

Here's my example.

My husband gave me a beautiful bouquet of flowers for our 48th anniversary and of course, you know I had to paint them.
I did and I was relatively happy with the painting.

I didn't sign it though which usually means changes are on the horizon.  

The next day I was looking at it deciding if I was really done or not, and I saw it.

There was no distance between that big beautiful stargazer lily and the vase.

What to do - What to do?

I took some of the color I used for the vase and added its complement, the color opposite it on the color wheel.  I added some white and could have added more if I felt it was still too dark.
Then I made the shadow between the lily and the vase. 

 BOOM!

Much Better.

However, looking at the petals of the lily, I realized there was room for improvement, especially with the one in front.

It also looked flat, so I took the color of the lily and aded a tiny, I really mean tiny, bit of dioxazine purple to it to darken the center and give it a deeper feel.

On the petal to the right of that, I added a shadow where the petal is turning on the top, and I darkened the other petals a little to make the center pop.  

I also darkened up the leaves under the lily as they would be in shadow also.

Such small changes made a 

huge difference in this painting.

If you're not certain if you're done,

it's always a good idea to leave it sit for a day or 2 and come back to it.  

Look it over and see if anything speaks to you.

It was just a few strokes that gave this painting the zing I was looking for.

It took less than 5 minutes once I stopped looking at the parts and began looking at the whole painting.

Just in case you were wondering...

Yes.

I signed it. 

And it's available.

Anniversary Flowers

10" x 8" canvas panel, unframed

$50 + shipping

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Stay well and 

let's paint together real soon.