Cornflowers

I've been meaning to paint cornflowers all summer, and finally today I got round to it.  Just in time too , most of the cornflower plants on my have died back now and I just have one with a few flowers left. Heres a photo of the arrangement.

Here's the initial block in.  I use hog filberts for this stage, I like the texture these brushes create, which is useful for suggesting details which would be fiddly to paint in.

Next I use some small round kolinsky sables to pick out some details, I also build up a little impasto here and there in the lightest parts.

I mix up a pile of colour for the background, and with another sable, cut in the outer shapes of the petals more accurately, tasing negative shapes.  To give a bit of variety to the edges, in some places I paint the petals back over where I cut in with the background.

Heres the finished painting.  When Its dry and varnished I'll update this photo with a better one ( this one is taken on my phone)