Red Rose in White Vase by Tanweer Mahmoodullah (Tannu)

Photo © Tanweer Mahmoodullah (Tannu)

"Red Rose in White Vase" by Tanweer Mahmoodullah (Tannu). 17x7.5cm (6.5x3"). Watercolor on paper.

From the Artist: I wanted to concentrate on the rose. I painted the shadows falling on the vase and the table from the overhead light. I used gray mixed with alizarin red and ultramarine blue for the shadows. To make the rose and white vase stand out on the paper I used a wet-in-wet technique to acquire a soft background.

From the Painting Guide: I consider roses tricky flowers to paint because of the layers of petals, and all the highlights and shadows within these layers. But roses are so beautiful they just demand to be painted!

The angle we're seeing the rose in the photo of your setup is different to that in your painting (which is from higher up), so I don't know if when you were painting you could see the shadow cast by the rose on the leaf behind it. But I feel the flower needs a bit more shadow within it, to give each petal a bit more definition or shape. I would glaze with a little bit of blue to do this.

Things to Consider When Looking at This Painting:
Background: I like the soft background with its soft colors merging into one another. Notice how it's been used to as an element in the composition, how the background colors create a shape and doesn't stretch from edge to edge. This is something I think works very effectively with watercolor where the paper itself is beautiful (unlike raw canvas which I think is ugly).

Foreground: To my eye the vase and the leaves at the front are floating in space a little, that they need something to anchor them, to make them feel as if they're sitting on a surface. I would do this by extending the dark tone at the bottom of the vase out a bit, as a touch of shadow.