Hydrangea update

My hydrangea painting is basically finished. I may tweak a few things before signing it. I prefer the right-hand side and wonder if I should not crop the painting this way, into a much smaller and square format:

Let me know what you prefer.

What have I learned from this painting?

-from the left to the right, I painted with a much lighter touch with clearer pigments to obtain a much better luminosity.

-my intuitive assessment of the level of wetness of this particular paper improved during the painting process.

 What do I like about this painting:

- the lower right-hand side was so much fun to paint and I like the hint of warm gold against the cool pinks and mauves.

- the highlights and the whites

What insights can I transfer to my next painting initiative?

-you really can't get into much trouble if you add thin layers at a time and if you are patient enough to let each one of these layers dry properly before the next ( I often get too impatient:-)

Hydrangea WIP-Part 2 and Artalee Feature

I have worked some more on the hydrangea although I did not get as much done as I had planned during the last few days : I am celebrating my first week of retirement with a really bad head cold:-)
The hydrangea is certainly more complex than I thought. You really have to focus on each little petal...at one point, I think I was painting mini Xmas poinsettias instead of hydrangea petals:-)
I am using Arches CP 140 lb as usual, but from a pad rather than from a single sheet - I am finding that the paper is not reacting quite like I am used to: it bruises very easily and does not allow much scrubbing to lift the lights...For my next painting, I will certainly return to the single sheets cut down to the proper size.
So, without further ado, here is Part 2 of this WIP. The photo was taken insides and it is very overcast hre today again. I rarely say this, but I think this painting looks better in real life than on this picture.

There is still a fair amount of work to do on this painting.Let me know what you think.

Please visit the Artalee site where I have just featured another of my favorite artists and bloggers, Mollie Jones.!

Celebrating a New Beginning! WIP - Hydrangea _Part I

 

Today is a most special day for me: it is the first day, officially, of my retirement and it is, officially, the first day of my new beginning as a full-time watercolor painter! To celebrate, I worked on a new painting, branches of hydrangea ( instead of working on my Venetian Pool Party started over a week ago). Here is part I of this WIP - hopefully the firstWIP of many for the month of December.

So far, I have only put in the dark background, the leaves, the stems and I have started on the darkest background petals. Overall, the flower clusters will be mostly light pink with a touch of mauve. The challenge will probably be to keep a unified look to the painting. It has been raining here all day and I took the picture indoors with a flash; consequently, the colors are probably a bit off.

As always, I love to hear from all of you!