The evolution of today's poinsettia painting

Today, I went to Stella Niagara for a painting class. The theme was poinsettia plants. I had several references to work from so that I could see the size and shape of poinsettia leaves. I started by sketching several circles very lightly, and then I drew the basic shape of the flower. The circle keeps all of the petals (which are actually leaves) looking as though they are a similar size.

I completed my drawing, with poinsettias in the middle and design elements on the top and the bottom. Today, the style that I was going for was illustration. I was looking to create a design, rather than a realistic image of a flower.

I decided to paint the background first. I chose yellow as the background for the middle section.

For the top and bottom segments, I chose virdinian, which is a transparent emerald green color.

I painted the leaves and the poinsettias and the holly leaves and the pine branches. I used a light green for the leaves and two shades of red for the petals (carmine and alizaron crimson). 

Here is the completed painting, my interpretation of the poinsettia theme.