Branch with Golden Berries (Oil Bar Painting as of Dec. 10, 2013)

Branch with Golden Berries (Oil Bar Painting as of Dec. 10, 2013), a photo by randubnick on Flickr.

This is my oil bar painting in progress as it looked on December 10. This painting is loosely based on one of my posterized photos (published here December 1). It had been several days since I had worked on this painting. (The previous session was December 6.) Of course, I was busy with other things. But I think I was also frustrated because I seemed to be losing the composition as I added colors to the background. So on December 10th, I began with the main focus, those golden leaves and berries, and revised my placement decisions until I began to get those long lines of yellow and gold. So even though I continue to use the reference photo quite a bit, my emphasis shifted to the composition on the canvas. By the time I was finished painting for the day, I felt things were back on track.