"Strictly Ornamental" - A Still Life of Christmas Ornaments

One of my goals for this year in my daily painting challenge is to learn and master as many textures as I am capable of, or at least get as close as I can to mastering them. Eventually, I would like to learn to paint glass, lace, silk, cotton, beads, water, droplets, and metal, among so many other things! The possibilities are seemingly endless, but here's one I've yet to do that I tried tonight - Christmas Ornament glass. It's so reflective not only because of the fact that it's glass, but also because of it's spherical shape. I know it probably seems a little late to be doing Christmas-y themed paintings, but these balls were still out so I decided, "what the hey, why not?" And so this is my very first attempt at painting colored glass ornaments, and I must admit, it is FAR harder than I thought it was going to be! I had to work in many layers, allowing the paint time to dry in between, and for some reason I never really quite achieved the color of red I was hoping for. That is definitely something I will have to figure out some other day, because that was quite frustrating. It's never fun to admit one's shortcomings, or come to realize what they are, and apparently I am not quite as good at achieving the exact colors I am striving for yet. But you know what? With practice, I know I'll be getting much better at this, and now that I know it's an issue, I can try to focus on it in my paintings even more from here on out. It definitely is making me debate working with a very limited palette soon!

"Strictly Ornamental"     4" x 5"     Acrylic on Archival Canvas Panel