Lily of the Valley for Sunday Sketchs

 I was recently asked how I start my watercolor paintings. This week I thought I would show some sketches.. This is called Sunday Sketch's. ha ha.

 I take all my own inspirational photographs to use as reference. Usually I pencil in my composition first so I can erase and correct things. Once I'm happy with the composition I like to start adding the watercolor, trying not to paint within the lines so that it doesn't look to tight and controlled.

 In this particular piece I added just enough color to see what I was doing. It was a close up photo and it was rather hard telling what was in the forground and what was the background.

I did start using pen at this point too.

Unfortunately I didn't take photos of how I layered the color for you.

But at this point I start adding more value contrast and building up the color.I love the transparence of watercolor and like to see the various colors used within the shapes.

The last step is adding more detail and value lines using the pen. 

 

Finally the finished watercolor that was started in the spring when my garden was full of beautiful 

   Lily of the Valleys.

detail #1

detail #2

detail #3

detail #4

The final piece

I thought you might be tired of seeing all my Holiday Acorns this week, so decided to post this watercolor which was finished in between doing all those acorns...ha ha

Don't worry next week your going to see all six finished Holiday Acorn designs! I even made four of the designs in two different color versions, and ordered cards which will be delivered November 26th. 

I'm so excited!!

Don't forget to follow the link to see what the other artists have created for this weeks Sunday Sketch's

Have a wonderful, safe and Happy Thanksgiving.

~ Karen