Painting – MINDING MY P'S WITH Q

In January I took part in the WetCanvas Watercolor Challenge January 2013. I live only an hour and a half away from Lancaster, and have often visited this lovely area. I was really pleased with the way this small painting turned out.

5 x7

Winsor & Newton Paints (Winsor Blue, Quinacridone Magenta, Permanent Rose, Hooker’s Green, Cobalt Blue, Burnt Sienna and Naples Yellow)

Arches 300 lb Cold Press Paper

You can see the work of the other participants here: Wet Canvas January 2013 Watercolor Challenge.

My work was posted on page nine of the thread.

Why not try the February challenge? The WetCanvas Forums are free. Find the link to WetCanvas in the top right hand corner of this page. You can also go directly to the Challenge through this link: Wet Canvas February 2013 Watercolor Challenge. It’s as easy as signing up and beginning to paint.

You can find my step-by-step progress below.

Original reference photograph posted by Yorky

Watercolor Tip: Black out of the tube is usually flat and lifeless. Mix up your own blacks and deep tones by combining contrasting colors.

I mixed Hooker’s Green, Quinacridone Magenta, and Winsor Blue, and even a bit of yellow. You can pick out the different hues of colors blending together in the thinner areas of paint, notice the deep tone they create when mixed together.

Using the same technique of copying reference photographs, converting color to black and white, and then using the edge filter, I enlarged five of the poppies once again to fourteen through sixteen inches. The pods were enlarged to about four inches across.

I was pleased with this composition, although I am thinking of removing the bud in the right center. My eye seems drawn to it, it is in the “golden ratio,” and I am not sure I want that to be the focal point. I might switch places with the pod in the upper right corner and let the bluish-green of the pod take center stage, but who knows…on second look, the perkiness of the bud ready to burst into bloom is beginning to intrigue me…hmmm…what to do. I’ll update as I progress on this project.