Delphinium botanical series

This watercolor, even though my reference was good, I had problems trying to capture the delicacy of the flowers. Arches water color block 12 x 16. Daniel Smith watercolors.

Gerald Brommer watercolor demo

Last night I had the opportunity to meet Gerald Brommer and watch him give a demo on his approach to painting a watercolor. He started his demo showing us his sketch book of sketches and doodles. He picked out a sketch he had done in Provence. From that sketch he did maybe six thumbnail, picking out elements and re-arranging them as he pleased. He then choose one of the thumbnails to use for his watercolor. He proceeded to map out the drawing using a paintbrush and do a line drawing. After he had his line drawing in place he started to lay in various washes. In less than an hour he had completed the 1/4 sheet watercolor painting. It was really amazing to see his approach and style of painting. This was such a treat to meet him and watch him paint. I came home and ordered at least 4 of his watercolor books. Maybe tomorrow I'll try this exercise using some photo's from my Venice trip.

Purple Iris botanical series

Purple Iris in botanical series. Arches 12 x 16 watercolor block. Daniel Smith Watercolors.

7Th botanical in series "A Sunflower"

Sunflower botanical. Arches watercolor block 12 x 16. Daniel Smith watercolors.

Chinese Brush paintings

Yesterday was my monthly Chinese Brush painting class with Nan Rae in Burbank, California. The focus of the class was roses,dragon flies, and butterflies. This is just a sampling of what I did yesterday in class.

6TH in series of botanicals Poppies

This watercolor was a little complex for me because a lot of detail needed to be illustrated . I had to play around with the colors, creating my own shades of orange and reds. 12 x 16 watercolor block. Daniel Smith watercolors

5Th in series of Botanical A peony

Here is my 5Th botanical rendering of a Peony. 9 x 12 watercolor block. Daniel Smith watercolors.

4th in botanical series White lilies

Here's my 4Th installment of my botanical series that I'm painting. 12 x 16 watercolor block. Daniel Smith watercolors

March Challenge @ Wet Canvas Chat

Every month on Wet Canvas Chat...a photo is used from the reference library. People that participate in chat all paint the same reference photo doing their take on the subject. For my submission,I used Pan Pastels on pastel paper...8.5 x 11. It's amazing to see every bodies take on the same subject.

3rd in series A purple Clematis

Sometimes when I start a new watercolor, I'm not sure if I can read the flower enough to pick out the small details...this was one of those flowers. The leaves had these raised bumps, which I found frustrating to paint. Also the flower itself took over 10 glazes of color, but eventually I figured out how to show all the detail and am quite pleased the way this turned out.

12 x 16 watercolor block. Daniel Smith watercolors.

2nd in Series Orange and red Parrot Tulips

12 x 16 watercolor block. Daniel Smith Watercolors.

1st in series of botanical flowers

This will be a 1st in a series of botanical flowers.

Hydrangea...12 x 16 watercolor 140lb block. Daniel Smith watercolors

Peony

I love painting flowers and I especially love peonies. 9 x 12 watercolor block. Daniel Smith watercolors.

4 orchids and a tulip

I always forget about my Faber-Castel markers. So I took them out of the box and used them, creating four orchids and my last tulip!

Chinese brush paintings

Today was my monthly Chinese Brush painting class with Nan Rae. We worked on dragons and a Crape Myrtle w/blue bird.

New pieces of hand made jewelry

Here are a couple of pieces that I made recently. The bracelet is all hand wired with an array of stones.

Pearl necklace with purple stones.

Pearls with red/orange and jade stones

Red Tulips..

There are many colors of tulips...Daniel Smith watercolors, 4 x 6 postcard size.

More Tulips...

Last night on WC Chat we had a discussion about using only 3 colors and the biggest brush to create an impressionistic painting. So here is my attempt. I used Daniel Smith hansa yellow medium,sap green, pyrrol orange, a #12 round watercolor brush. The size of the paper 4 x 6 post card. I basically dropped in the color wet-on-wet. It was rather freeing to paint this way.

Blue flower wet-on-wet

I'm not a big fan of wet-on-wet, probably because I always feel like my paintings turn to mud. I thought I'd play around with a small practice piece 4 x 6 postcard size. I did a quick line drawing. Then I wet the background with clear water. When I saw the sheen was almost gone, I re-wet the paper again letting it dry a little then dropping in the color. I used this same approach with each petal of the flower. I liked the diffused feeling my little wc has. I might do this again, but on a larger drawing to see if I can fine tune the results.

Tulips WIP

Final painting of Tulips

Going back to basics.

I first did a line drawing of tulips. Then I did a value sketch to see where the lights and darks should be. Finally I painted the tulips using the value sketch to tell me where I needed to have highlights and shadows. When I thought I was done I took a picture with my digital camera. I used Adobe Photoshop to make adjustments, but mainly to do a gray scale to see if I needed to add more darks. With the gray scale I noticed that I needed to darken my darks to make the tulip leaves pop.

Painted tulips before I do a final gray scale

Line Drawing and Value Sketch