Give Thanks Watercolor Step Two

As you can see I moved right into the lettering. My photo had the red leaves from my Maples here and it looked workable from the photo but the further I got into it I wished I had used some of the yellows. There were not as pretty but now when I see the composition I can see I might have problems...but with a deadline I forged ahead . I think if I had had time I would would have paused at this moment to reconsider the leaves. I also did not have time to consider that background but kept hoping it would come to me as I worked. It did not! ha! But I loved how the dot on the i was helping to hold up this gourd and the letters were so interesting so I hoped it would be enough to help carry this off,. The building up of washes on the gourd were working well too so I felt ok at this point but questioning some things.

Beginning Give Thanks Watercolor

I had just finished the peony painting when Pablo asked if I would be part of the Thanksgiving Challenge. I never find time to do these wonderful things because I am always in the middle of a painting but this time I was totally free! I know those of you that follow me on FB know that I love my pet Blue Jays and I had been thinking I would like time to try to paint one of my friends. So with the challenge I decided one Blue Jay would be in it for sure but had no further ideas. So I went to a friends house who loves to decorate for the seasons and there was this Give Thanks sign on her table and I immediately fell in love with it. I took her large paper gourd that you see and marched home hoping they would work. I set them up on my art table with the afternoon sun coming in and it was magic. I loved the reflection of the word better in some of my other photographs but this combination worked best for placing my bird. I was on this deadline so I just began and had no idea what was going into the background. I had even thought of no background. This is where I began and immediately I was very excited about the words and that lovely gourd! So here you go...my first step..blocking in some color!!!