SBA Assignment #5 Composition - Flower Study

Alstroemeria 

I always have a vase of Alstroemeria in my kitchen.  One of the reasons why I love this flower is because it is so long lasting.  Sometimes the same bunch lasts three weeks and the variety of colors is wonderful.

As I was deciding on the composition, I was struggling with too many flowers and not enough steams.  One of the notes in the directions for this assignment was to remember the value of odd numbers and triangular shapes.  I then scaled down the number of flowers and finalized on this composition,

It was a bit too simple for my tutor, she wrote:  

Composition is the area where you could have gained more marks had you added a few extra stems.  Three is the bare minimum for this assignment so adding a few buds, half open flowers and one facing away would have been lovely.  However, as I said, what you have done has been drawn beautifully.

That being said, it's time to step it up on the next assignment.    

I received my highest marks for Technique, my tutor noted:

Your pencil technique is always very good with lovely blending and smooth gradations of colour from shade to light.  The veins have also been done really well so if you used an embossing tool then it doesn't show  -- which is great!

The instructions for this assignment were:

You are required to produce a composition comprising a group of one single variety of flower with leaves.  This does not mean a spray such as a single stem of spray, but an arrangement of individual stems.  Take inspiration from any painting of an individual flower variety im the textbooks.  

Carefully choose your flowers and use your sketchbook to plan the layout.  Remember the value of odd numbers and triangular shapes.  Both make good composition relatively straight-forward whereas even numbers result in square or rectangular shapes which are for less pleasing to the eye.  Do not show all the flowers facing the front.  If you place some in profile, semi-profile or show a back view this will add to the sense of a three-dimensional composition. 

I am very happy with my mark of 9.22

Now it's on to my Fruit assignment

(my essay is already completed, just need to tweak it a bit and post it to the UK)