Poppy

Watercolor pencils
Watercolor paper
8.5 " x 12"
6-5-09

I brushed on water over the watercolor pencil. I put this off until this morning because I thought it might ruin the drawing. This took more time than I thought it would. I do like the brightness of the colors but it will take a long time to develop good brush control among other things. I also would like to experiment later with layering different colors together for the shadows.

This was one of my first attempts at water color except for small experiments. In the past I have tried a little painting with acrylic and pastel, but always come back to pencil or charcoal because I have one less thing to get right - the color. I find it quite difficult to to get the values correct anyway, and it is especially difficult with color. Anyway, I thought that the watercolor pencils would be a more natural way to transition to painting since I am most comfortable with a pencil.

There are also beautiful leaves that I could add to this painting, but I think I will move on to another subject at this point.
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Poppy

6-3-09 - In progress

I'm enjoying the water color pencils but still have many problems with shading. I am amazed at the importance of the little white line around the petals.
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Poppy

I wanted to try something in color today so I got out my water color pencils. I did a rough outline with a mechanical pencil, then began adding the darker values with the colored pencils. I have not used these much so am interested to see how this will work out.

Right now I have several sketches in progress. When one drawing starts to feel tedious I switch to another, working back and forth among them. It seems better to switch and keep drawing, rather than just stop for the day when I lose focus on a specific drawing. I set the others at a distance and occasionally glance up at them. At that point, I am better able to see errors and possible solutions.