Looking for some inspiration

By learning to see the objective world, we can then

     transfer our newfound visual skills to create our artwork - to see its

    "formal" values - composition, color relationships, spatial properties,

  etc. And ultimately, we use our new visual skills to see the inner 

world, the world of ideas, feelings, etc.

http://www.ndoylefineart.com/pastel.html

http://www.ndoylefineart.com/discouraged.html

'Composition' , 'Subject-matter' and 'Simplicity of the frame'. Forms/patterns which standout and yet enable to relate to the real life frame depicted on the painting make the image more realistic and yet easy to do.  All need to be there in the dynamic subject you pic if you want it to speak to the viewer in person and deceive him into thinking it is realistic while yet it lacks in details. Impressionist. Basing on previous common, popular impressions and drawing from the imagery that is familiar in form/color/simplicity/composition to invoke the remembered feelings into your image with less effort thereby avoiding painstaking detailed reproduction.
Correctly choosing all these components matters in elevating the painting to a next level.