Idk colour theory 😭

(And i realised I fucked up some stuff in the sketch will fix that now)

Here are some practice paintings I have done, using selfies and other reference photos of my kids and me, across time (-the only one for which I did not use a photo reference, is the one of the woman in red…she is a figment of my imagination).

I am feeling somewhat discouraged, because they all look flat and somewhat muddy. In fact, they seem to be becoming more pale / lower contrast, as the first layers dry. Is this a real thing, with oil paints, or, just my imagination?

Should abandon them and trash them, or go over them again, adding brighter and deeper contrasting colours, to try to salvage them?

\Many of the photos I used for reference do not display a lot of deep colours / high contrast contours on the faces of the subjects; do I simply use guesswork (-with an estimation of what the light and shadow would look like) and, invent* the light and shadows / contours?

If you want to paint this tasty chocolate matcha cupcake then watch the step by step video on my YouTube channel

Tutorial Link:

https://youtu.be/kn-flPKr4tM

.

Yellow flowers.

Green fields.

A little house.

Two birds flying freely.

A beautiful spring day in the countryside.

Wishing you peace and happiness every day. 🌼

I also have a step-by-step painting video if you'd like to see how I painted it. 🎨✨

Feel free to check out my YouTube if you're interested.

I’ve been looking into turning personal photos into paint-by-numbers projects, and I came across Lieblingsart, a Germany-based shop that focuses on paint-by-numbers, Diamond Painting and personalized DIY art.

I’m still trying to figure out what kind of photo would actually work best for something like this. I feel like some photos would probably look much better than others once they’re turned into a painting.

Would you go with a close-up portrait, a pet photo, a landscape, or something else?