Oil Painting lesson with Gregory Smith - Day 2

I started with thin Black over leaves, creating a foundation for later work.

After that, I tried shadows in background using White, Black, Ultramarine and Burnt Sienna.
That was Greg's choice, and I was very surprised by it. He said that it doesn't really matter as long as a tone is right. Amazing.

I also tried to fix top area. I have a bad habit of not putting enough paints. Greg told me that it's far much better to be more decisive, therefore, later on it will require less work.
The colour turned out to be too bright, and I had to tone it down with Ultramarine.

Then, I spent the rest of the session doing middle section below leaves. I don't know what's called, a kind of wrapping plastic paper.

It really was a great challenge, seeing a tonal shift to create three dimensions. The colours seem a bit weak and need to be enhanced more, but, I'm reasonably happy with this one so far.

Finally, I did a box at the bottom.

Leaves will be a big challenge next week.

Work in progress. 16 x 20 in.