Day 4 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days: “Daffodils” Watercolor on Canson, 140 lb, 6×9

Tonight I finally got brave enough to try painting flowers, but first I watched a couple more video demonstrations. My finished product is a copy of one of those demonstrations, but it doesn’t look anything like the one in the demo. For one thing, I don’t have the selection of colors that she had. For another thing, I don’t have her experience. But considering the limitations of my palette and experience, I’m not ashamed to own it.

To accomplish this one, I first sketched in the flowers with a soft (6B) pencil. Then I wetted down the paper around the flowers and added the background color by first putting the color on my brush. I would paint in a spot close to the outline of the drawing, then rewet my brush and draw the color away from the drawing. I used purple and two shades of blue for the background. I also incorporated the splatter technique, but I’m afraid I went a little overboard with it. Next time I’ll tone it down a little.

To color the flowers, I used yellow, orange, and a hint of brown. The stamen, stems, and leaf have two shades of green and a hint of yellow. To start with, I first colored directly onto the dry paper, then applied water to blend and soften the colors. Then I added more color by applying the color directly to the brush first and then adding it to the paper. This is how I added the veins to the petals, and the brown shading as well. I should have used a small flat brush, like the woman in the video. Instead, I used a small round brush, which didn’t hold enough water. I found myself having to reload water constantly.

If you are interested in joining the challenge, you can sign up at Leslie Saeta’s 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge and then post and/or view the other entries at the linkup.