Cactus Flower 2

 

This is the second time I worked from the same photo of the blossom from my cactus that blooms only at night.  After working with layering transparent washes to do a deep dark background (in the workshop with Soon Warren)  I like the effect and the contrast it offers for a painting like this.

Crystal Vase with Peony

Here is a painting I finished recently at the Soon Y Warren workshop during this year's Florida Watercolor Convention.  It was great working with her and watching her paint.  I used a lot of frisket to begin, and did some scrubbing out of color on the Peony petals.  When I was about half done Soon Young suggested I tape off the outside edges as they were distracting from the main event.  I was planning on just cropping out the outside edges, but when I removed the tape everyone around agreed that it was great looking the way it was.  In fact it enhanced the "main event."

This is how "Hello Birdie" began. I drew from looking at a favorite photo, then put some block-out medium on certain areas to cover where I wanted to maintain the white of the paper. I also put down a few of the light values of the bird colors.

Adding medium values............

Just need to remove the block out, add medium and some darker values. Also do background washes that enhance the theme.

The final painting