Basket of Sunflowers

I had the bright idea to paint a stamped image. But I soon realized that my watercolor paper is too bumpy for stamping. So I had to pencil-sketch and then ink a copy instead. I actually made several. The one below is the best. The rest were kinda ugly.

I painted a light wash of color on first, then painted more darkly over it. That's called layering. 

Some of the adjacent colors bled together because I wasn't patient enough to wait and let the paint dry first. Luckily, I had a paper towel on hand to blot out the bleeding in time for most areas. 

I tried to leave white spots because one tutorial said to do that, but it turned out to be easier said than done. Like shading, I didn't know where is good.

Lastly, I wanted to add in a funky color somewhere (like Mindy Lacefield), so I painted some fuchsia into the basket. I actually had too much water on my brush, and the fuchsia started spreading out more than I had expected. I had to quickly blot that too. Phew! Paper towels are my friend.



This is the brush I used.  I love it. It's a very thirsty brush which is good for watercolors. 


It actually looks too big for my small painting, but the tip is pointy enough so that even the small petals of the flower were no problem. I got it from Hawaiian Graphics. Regular price is $22.95. At 40% off it was $13.77.  The sale is still on this week. If you go, maybe you'll get free David Smith sample dots!


P.S. I went back to Hawaiian Graphics yesterday and got a similar brush but of a smaller size.  I had the same cashier as the last time so I hinted that I just looooooved the David Smith dots that he gave me. Made him smile. And that's all I got . . . one smile.