Watercolours - Don't be Daunted by White

After that lovely experience with dry brush, I took my paints and brush to a friend whose lodging for the conference was across the hall, and showed her what I'd learned. Together we looked for a flower on the GWU campus that we could try painting and found that there weren't a lot of colourful flowers there. Beautiful magnolias, unassuming clover, and that was about it. And both those blossoms were tones of white! We were not to give up, though, and carefully removed two magnolias from a low hanging limb, returned to the apartment, and set to work. One and a half hours later, we decided that it was time to sleep.


The leaves surrounding my magnolia have been left unfinished (above) and I over-yellowed the cream I was trying to make for the petals, but overall I was pleased with the result. My friend's was lovely - shadows, tones of whites, ivories, creams, and greens. I plan to ask if she'll allow me to post her painting here, too, as I'd love to show what can be done by a new watercolourer who won't be daunted by white on white!

And here is my pansy from our front garden the same day as the children did theirs. I love this process!