Watercolor Petunias
Here it is November and I am painting petunias. This was a painting I had started as a demo in a summer class.I started a new eight-week session today that will actually run into January because of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years. We are going to be paying close attention to composition and enjoy the process that takes us to a finished painting. We are going to do a lot of thumbnail sketches and value studies, and take our time to get things just the way we want them before we ever touch brush to paper. This is hard for those of us who are into instant gratification (ME?). You notice I said "enjoy the process" - it is actually fun to plan, draw, and work out a color scheme. I often rush into a painting and miss out on the fun of doing the preliminary steps.
The painting above was started on location, with little planning, except the negative shapes. When I got to a certain point, I really didn't know how to finish it. When I pulled it out again, I played a lot with the lights and darks and shadow colors and it began to come together. Not the best way for me to come up with a finished painting, but that is the way I work on location and in my sketchbooks. I save the "enjoyable process" for winter painting in the studio.
Three days into "blog everyday for a month". So far so good - on my end anyway - I'm having fun.