I would recommend that you maintain the integrity of the overall form and then comes the importance of the texture. Maintain your hierarchy of importance. Don't want to have the tail wag the dog as it were. Think, what are you painting. In this case it's some tubes that have light and shadow. The way you painted it, you're painting the texture of the bark that somewhat has a tree attached to it. So you have to develop some subtlety, unless you are going with a style that is uniquely your own about chopping away with less-considered paint strokes as a sort of exercise in controlled action painting where it becomes more about the painting itself and less about the subject except as a departure point.
And then it comes down to some fundamental questions to ask yourself.
You can explore it out to your own satisfaction. But as you're going, these are neither realistic nor loose enough to quite fit into the world of abstraction. You have to decide where you are heading as an artist. If it's to paint realistically, then get more accurate. If it's to be more expressive, then you might want to get a little more broad and gestural. If you're really wanting to paint like you did when you first started posting your paintings here, with a sort of out of foggy watercolor base with some drawn elements indicating what is the subject, then focus on that style.
I can't say which direction is for you. And trying all different directions is fine too. But you probably want to find where your happiness is, which way to paint, and do that for a time and explore how these different subjects might appear in that style.
I know you can paint what you see. When you were painting water droplets on leaves I think you were getting there. So I'm assuming there is something inside you pulling you to form you images in a certain vocabulary. So enjoy it and see what happens. And if it becomes unsatisfying, then you can push into a different arena. But until that time, see what comes from what you're doing rather than anticipating what you should be doing. . . until the time that becomes important. But looking back at what you've done as a group of paintings tells a lot more than trying to mentally anticipate where you're going, at least until you have some solid foundation you're happy with building off of.
And as a side comment, if you're not wanting us to consider the background, don't put it in. Perhaps paint a vignette or against a simple color as an exercise and then really get in there and paint the heck out of the subject. It would surely simplify things for you.
Have fun.
Last edited by D Akey; 05-03-2016 at 04:25 AM.
"Not a bit is wasted and the best is yet to come. . ." -- remembered from a dream
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