The Painter in oil

Get the large values, and as little as possible the expression of individual flowers; then
as the flowers fade and change, substitute one or two fresh ones at a time, in this or that
part of the partially wilted group, using the same kind of flower as that which was in that
place before; then work more closely from these new flowers, letting the whole bunch
preserve for you the mass and general relation. As you work, the bunch will be gradually
changing and constantly renewed from part to part, and you can work slowly from
general to particular. Finally, from new flowers, put in those more individual touches
which give the personal flowers.
This is the only way you can work a long time, and it is not easy. But it should not
discourage you. Nothing takes the place of the flower picture, and the only way to learn
to paint flowers is to paint flowers.
General Principles Hold Always. - Still, the principles of all painting hold here as
elsewhere, and what is said of painting in general will have its application to flowers.
Paint flowers because you love them; and if you love them, love them enough to study
patiently to express the qualities most worth painting, even if there be difficulties.
Details Again. - Don’t make too much of unimportant things. The whole is more
than the part; the flower than the petal. Of course you can’t paint a flower without
painting the petals, but you need not paint the petals so that you can’t see anything else.
If the character of the flower as a whole is to be seen at a glance without the emphasis of
any special petal, suggest the petals only. If the petal is important to the expression of
character, then paint it; and if you do, paint it well. Use your judgment; make the less
expressive of the greater, or do not paint it at all.
Colors. - Colors and tints in flowers are always more rather than less subtle than you
think them. If you have a doubt, make it more delicate - give delicacy the benefit of the
doubt. Still, flowers are never weak in color. Subtle as they are, it is the very subtlety of
strength. Black will be the most useless color of your palette. Make your grays by mixing
your richer colors. A gray in a flower is shadow on rich color, and it must not be painted
by negation of color, but by refinement of color.
Sketches. - Make sketches of flowers constantly. Try to carry the painting of a single
flower or of a group as far as you an in an hour. Practise getting as much of the effect of
detail as possible with as little actual painting of it, and then apply this to your picture.
Get to know your work in studies and sketches, and you will work better more difficult
combinations.
When you have, as you generally will have, still-life accessories to your flowers, rub in
quickly the color and values of the vase or what not first, but leave the painting of it till
the flowers are done. It will be a more patient sitter than they.
Apply the ways of painting spoken of with reference to still life to the sketching of
flowers. Either rub in quickly a frottée and then paint solidly into that, and work frankly
and solidly but deliberately to render the characteristic qualities. When you sketch
flowers don’t take too many at a time; calculate your work not more than an hour and a
half or two hours, and have no more flowers in your sketch than you can complete in
that time.
When you sketch, quite as much as when you work at more ambitious canvases, get
the mass first, especially if the group is large. Then put in the accents which do most to
give the character or type of the flower. Make studies of single flowers and sketches of
groups. In the study search detail and modelling; in the sketch search relations and
relief, effect and large accent.