From the Artist: I used acrylics on a canvas board and found it was quite hard to do as the board had some sort of primer on it that repelled the color a little, which is why the background is not as smooth as I would like. However, it is done and I am going to try a landscape next using mainly blue and leaving the other colors out.
From the Painting Guide: I've had ready-made canvases where there were small spots where the paint wouldn't stick, as if something had been spilt over it during manufacture. You do also get canvases primed for oils only, but these days most seem primed for either acrylics or oils. If it happens again, I'd take some fine sandpaper to the board to roughen up the primer that's on it, then apply a fresh layer of primer/gesso, or a layer of white, then leave it to dry thoroughly before trying again.
Things to Consider When Looking at This Painting:
Background: I find the easiest way to get a smooth background, without a sense of it having been painted around the subject (in this case a flower), is to paint the background completely first. Allow it to dry, then paint the subject. If the first layer or two of the flower were done in an opaque color, then the blue wouldn't show through. (Titanium white and titanium buff are excellent for this.) But you could also use the blue to build up any greens in the flower, by glazing over it with yellow.
Composition: Consider cropping in on the flower so there isn't so much 'empty' blue space around it like this. If the flower reached the edge of the canvas, or went off it in places, the blue would create negative shapes that would be more visually intriguing. The artist Georgia O'Keeffe did some great flower paintings where the composition is very focused on the core of the flower.
From the Painting Guide: I've had ready-made canvases where there were small spots where the paint wouldn't stick, as if something had been spilt over it during manufacture. You do also get canvases primed for oils only, but these days most seem primed for either acrylics or oils. If it happens again, I'd take some fine sandpaper to the board to roughen up the primer that's on it, then apply a fresh layer of primer/gesso, or a layer of white, then leave it to dry thoroughly before trying again.
Things to Consider When Looking at This Painting:
Background: I find the easiest way to get a smooth background, without a sense of it having been painted around the subject (in this case a flower), is to paint the background completely first. Allow it to dry, then paint the subject. If the first layer or two of the flower were done in an opaque color, then the blue wouldn't show through. (Titanium white and titanium buff are excellent for this.) But you could also use the blue to build up any greens in the flower, by glazing over it with yellow.
Composition: Consider cropping in on the flower so there isn't so much 'empty' blue space around it like this. If the flower reached the edge of the canvas, or went off it in places, the blue would create negative shapes that would be more visually intriguing. The artist Georgia O'Keeffe did some great flower paintings where the composition is very focused on the core of the flower.