Hydrangea in watersoluble crayon

Hydrangea in watersoluble crayon on watercolor paper

Another page in my small Strathmore Visual Journal. The cold press paper has a very strong weave texture almost like Mi-Tientes wove side, but it's good paper and somehow I can get clean lines on it. This one involved some negative drawing and painting. I did it in three passes, with blues, greens and finally the black background with dry green and yellow ochre stems over it.

Had fun with it and may try some other floral subjects with my Neocolor II sticks. They have a great texture, soft and opaque.

EDIT: Later on, I found the watercolor pencils I was looking for and did my Hyacinth again in full bloom. It's very brilliant now in its corner of the garden, this time I brought in the two stones marking the corner of the bed. I love how it blazes there, contrasting the yellow jonquils and bright spring greens.

Purple Hyacinth in full bloom, 3" x 5"

watercolor pencil on watercolor paper, washed and detailed.

Day 24 - Nectarine in Watercolor

Nectarine

Watercolor in Moleskine Pocket WC journal

Painted this from my own photo in several layers. Started at my clinic visit yesterday, waiting for my shot, with a flat bright yellow wash over the entire fruit. Then whle it was wet brought in first a warm red and then a cool red, letting the watercolor pool and run. Blotted out that yellow patch on the side wile it was damp and glazed over part of it again today in warm red.

I did the shadow today. Same thing, started with wet Ultramarine and then brought dioxazine violet and quinacridone red into it. Love those clean saturated colors. I've got everything but green in this one.

I seem to start a painting the day before I post it, finish and start the one for tomorrow. But it works. I've been keeping up. Only six more to go and I will finish out this September with all 30 paintings in 30 days in my collage! That's a last cool litle thing Leslie Saeta does, connects to a service where I can make a creative collage of all the paintings I did and see how they looked together.

That'll show me things in aggregate that I don't notice one painting at a time - favorite colors or composition types, favorite mediums, whether I progressed. I've learned a lot this time. I feel as if both watercolor and the brush pen are coming easier now. It's a great feeling.