I Can't Help Myself!

This painting will be, as I mentioned before, a painting of a crystal vase and roses. Both the vase and roses are my mother's. The roses are from a bush she planted about 50 years ago.

I know that I should be working on "Spring Cascade" but I had been thinking and sketching on this for about a week and I just could not figure how to draw the cuts in the crystal.

Tuesday was my day to stay home and paint or draw. I had planned to paint but I can't help myself, I couldn't get the crystal out of my mind. I needed to solve this problem! I sat down to draw and came up with the 1st drawing to the left.

It looked ok until I stepped back and looked at the whole drawing. The cuts are much too small for the size I have drawn the vase. The vase is actually much shorter than this but I wanted to make an impression and to fill space so I decided to make it taller which means that everything has to be elongated.

After studying the vase by sight and touch, I came up with what you see in this photo. I still have to work on "seeing" how the cuts appear as they curve around the vase but I am to a point that I can put it down and finish work on the painting...I think.

If anyone has advice on drawing crystal PLEASE feel free to share! Thanks!