Watercolor of Double Oriental Lily

I a m beginning a full sheet watercolor of a double Oriental Lily...I love how it is so curly in places and more petals! I sure hope it can make it through my cold winters...I am wondering if I should just lift the bulbs of this one to try save it or let it be...see if it can make it through our harsh winters...so very hard to know!!!
I had taken the first picture with my iphone and slipped it up on Facebook but the colors were not right at all...so I have retaken that first area so the colors are more true.
I often say to my students, first look for the shapes. If you can capture the shapes you will most certainly have the form more true to it's real identity. I also say there are very few straight lines in nature and you will notice I am trying to make each petal fluid and graceful. This always makes for a better flower...and hopefully this one will have a dancing quality about it when I am done!
So what you will see is the steps I took yesterday and then second picture is what I have done this morning. The rest of the day is spoken for so I tried to at least find the shapes which will speed things up in the end for me. I am sorry that the background is somewhat gray...light is not great here today and I had to take what I could get!
Thanks for watching!

Chicago Fountain Watercolor

I have not been painting much at all lately...and this has been done awhile but I was unable to get a good photo of it. I had it professionally done today and even he said that blue was very hard to capture I guess...so this is as close as it will get and I have it in a very low resolution so I am sorry it might seem rather grainy.
This fountain is at the Chicago Institute of Art in the special outdoor courtyard for members only that I managed to get in to...and yes this wonderful duck was there resting on the head as if she had been doing this daily for some time. I placed the egg in the hand because it was such a high contrast area but not sure it still drew enough attention...but mallard eggs are vey bland eggs.
I still do not have a title either other than Keeper of the Egg and Just Ducky...Egg Dancer ...just nothing hits me!!! Help!

Painting Was Put On Hold!

I have been so busy this summer that painting was put on hold a lot. I do have a full sheet that I have been working on every once in awhile and will try to get back to that and finish it up. These are small...the landscape is 10 x 7 1/2 and done to hopefully bring to Wyoming but not sure...I am not too crazy about it. ha!
The other two are stretched paper over stretcher bars and measure 8x8. I have two coats of varnish on them at this point...but I think some of the greens bled and faded...I could see green in the mixture as I varnished. So they are not the greatest either but wanted to get them done. They do seem to sell at $75 so I try to keep them on hand. I will show a side view too.
Maybe next week I will get back to the full sheet I have been working on. I think in less than a week it would be done so it would be nice to get it under my belt so I can start something new!

I'm Back!

I am sorry I have been so out of the loop lately. I feel like I have met myself coming and going and that will not end until July sometime but it is all good and life just has a way of happening like that!
I was so honored when my painting "Sacred Shadows" was selected to be in the Transparent Watercolor Society of America Exhibition. Even though I have had awards and have my signature with them I have never been able to attend until now. I had such a wonderful time! I was also able to meet up with many of my art friends there and make new ones so it was wonderful. If you go to their website and check out the latest exhibit you will be very impressed! http://www.watercolors.org/exhibitions/2013/

I hope to begin painting again in July. It is drawn and the first wash is on...I am rather excited as it is very different for me so I will keep you posted as it progresses! Thank you for your patience!

Umbrellas Watercolor Demo #6

I am unable to get the correct colors with my camera. The blues will not come true at all...but I guess this is not one to worry about anyway...several things have gone wrong. The background is just not becoming even...There seems to be something on it in several places and then in one small area of background it is a different color than it should be. I have no idea how that came about. ha! I used out of the same pile I made and yet it is appearing totally different. This had potential to be really cool but I think I missed it. I still have some areas to work on and will do that tomorrow and call it done...but I am disappointed as I can see it could have been quite an interesting painting had it worked better...but time to be done and move on!

Umbrellas Watercolor Demo #5

Slow as molasses is what I am. I just cannot seem to stick with this at all but did make a little progress. I have to figure out how to paint that complicated background as I do not have any masking and this has so many turns etc I think I almost need it...so I have to give this some thought before I move forward! Here is where I am now and I hope the next time I post the background is in!

Umbrellas Watercolor Demo #4

Well I am sort of surprised at how long it is taking me to paint this! I knew I was slow but really! ha! I am trying to find those crazy cast reflections that are odd but need to be sort of accurate to read the umbrella above...I nearly have it. Hopefully tomorrow I will close the gap on this part...then deciding on the background value will be my big task as when I took this picture outside the background was a dark gray blue. I am worried that everything will get lost in that color...so I have to put my thinking cap on. Now this would be where knowing how to use photoshop would really come in handy!!!  Something tells me there is a simple app on my phone that might help me with this if I can figure that out...but first I need to get the umbrellas and reflections done!