Step by Step Watercolor Tulips

As usual it all began with photos of gardens past. Things keep me so busy in the summer that I seldom get a chance to paint things while they're blooming.

I started with a loose pencil sketch of my main subjects.

Here you see the photo I used along with the type of paints and water brushes I carry with me. Water brushes hold water in a compartment which comes through the brush when you squeeze  the handle.

I probably should have left it alone before trying to add borders and outlining it with ink. It looked fine at this stage, don't you think so?

I took this picture so that I could compare the outlined bits with the rest of the painting in case I was making a mistake I figured that It would show me where I went wrong.

  Well, for better or worse, here is the completed painting.

The ink makes it look a bit like a stained glass window and I kind of like that about it.

Kicking ideas around

Over the last week or so I've done a lot of tulip drawing and watercolors but they've all been in the bodies of letters and on envelopes so I haven't stopped to photograph them along the way.

Rather than focusing on art projects lately I've been taking some time to catch up with friends and family and take care of my health issues.

When I start a new series of paintings I should be working with a fresh perspective and a burst of energy that I haven't had in quite a while.

I'm as anxious about where it will take me as you are.

Thanks for your interest, I'll keep you posted.

Red Tulip Project

After 15 years the bed of bright red tulips has dwindeld to just 3 or 4 blossoms and since I don't have the money to buy more and replant I've opted to round up all of the pictures that I've taken over those years and start a new collection of paintings of them.

Here's the first of the paintings to come from this series of photos.

And here it is again as I added more leaves to it.

This is the first of this series which I will be putting up on products for sale on Zazzle. After spending some time "playing" with this image I couldn't resist adding a few more leaves.

I'm really happy with it now.

This was my next attempt at doing something interesting with those tulips.

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It's certainly brightening up the living room as I'm making just one more attempt at painting those tulips.

I decided to do a few drawings while I was writing a few people about the new paintings. I did them on the envelopes to brighten up the mail for all of us.

Here are the envelopes all together.

After a few drawings I went back to my paints.

I wasn't quite sure what to do with the background on this one so I tried just about every color in my paintbox.

I suppose this painting would be fine as it was at this point so I lived with it for a couple of days before deciding to make it part of a set with the last painting.

All it took to make it work was to change the background.

I will be using these paintings as part of a set of note cards on Zazzle.

HERE ARE PHOTOS OF SOME OF MY PREVIOUS EFFORTS:

Red Tulips: Garden to Canvas

Don't let the lack of an impressive garden slow you down. You can create art out of anything. I've only got 2 red tulips, the trick is to catch them at every stage of the bloom and make the best of it. Shoot lots of photos from different angles.

I started this oil painting many years ago but was never quite happy with is so I thought I'd give it one more try.

I started by holding the live flower in front of the painting and move it around to see where I'd like to paint another flower.

I'm not sure whether or not I like this any better but it was great to be outdoors on a sunny day and painting again.