Purple Flag Doodle

Just a bit of fun on a beautiful spring day.

This is what happens when you're not paying attention

SEYMOUR
 

So I set out to do a simple still life of a potted tulip. Seems straightforward enough right?

Well, I was focusing on the terracotta pot because one of my favourite things about watercolour is the lovely mix of colours you can end up with. I wanted it to look worn and slightly dirty; a pot with character not some newbie fresh off the shelf.

So far so good, until I looked up and my lovely clay pot suddenly had this mutant ninja tulip growing out of it LOL. It doesn't look as bad here on my monitor but trust me, in real life it looks ready to devour the viewer. The more I tried to tame it with shadow and light the bigger it grew.

I'm going to keep it, because if nothing else it makes me laugh every time I look at it!  As for the terra cotta pot - mission accomplished LOL.

Another Orphan

 Have been sorting through my abandoned orphans drawer and picking out pieces to work on. Most of them, as this one is, are from some of my very early watercolour classes. This one is from the fall of 2007.

I was studying with Johnnene Maddison, a wonderful local artist who was instrumental in teaching me the fundamentals of watercolour. Being new to the medium, I often only got the lightest of values down in class with notes taken on how to complete each painting later.

Now watercolours, by nature, dry considerably lighter than when they're first put down. During the week between classes, I'd get out my notes and tackle the midtones. Annnnnd that would be as far as I would get. I was so fearful at the time of ruining what I had done LOL.

As my confidence has grown over the years, I am really enjoying going back to these pieces and pretty much approaching them with reckless abandon! As it stands now, they're just scrap paper so I may as well do something to them. Being able to finally put in 'the darks' just makes them come off the page for me.

I still have lots more playing to do with this one - the left side has been terribly neglected so far - but I'm very pleased with the progress!