Orchid Progression

I had two more of these 12 x 24 canvases so I thought I would paint an orchid from my house-(it's fake). Still lives are hard for me to do because I get too detailed but I am trying to just paint the likeness rather than the thing itself. 

I just stuck the Orchid on the desk with some cardboard behind it. Certainly not a professional still life but it just gives me the shape and some shadows.

Then I quickly sketch it out just to see if I could do it with a Sharpie. 

Below the canvas was already painted black so I decided to stencil some texture with Wood Icing.

I had two of these canvases so my first thoughts were to paint them both at the same time.

Here is a close-up of the texture with some brown gesso added. The brown gesso adds a folk art look to the paintings when it peeks through.

I sketched out both of the canvases with a chalk pencil.

Then below I blocked in the images using negative painting.

From there I worked just on the green one because I am not sure if I will paint another Orchid on the blue one. Maybe I will turn it into something else. I used a palette knife for the flowers and for the texture in the planter base. So here is the finished green one with lots of texture, stamps, scratching, sanding and.... praying.