Camellia

Ahhh the lovely camellia.  Such a nice flower.  I wanted to paint one and and thought this would be a good time to do some graded washes.  Well, I accomplished both of those things with this painting, but I don't think I did either really well.

The painting is OK.  There really isn't anything wrong with it, though its a bit banal.  I could really have punched this up by doing a couple of things.

See, in watercolor to make a dramatic painting you need to have lights next to darks, and darks next to lights.  Well, I've got lights next to darks with the petals.  you can see how the center is lighter and the tips darker.  This makes for a nice petal (here its a bit bland, but nice).  But Ive also got a background that is the same intensity as the petals.  There is no room for light and dark to touch, both edges are dark.  Hmmmm what to do...

Well, I could just as easily put on another row of petals (this would have made the flower look fuller too.  Right now its a bit small).  The outside row of petals would have been all light.  That lightness would have served two purposes.  First, it would have ensured that they looked as though they were behind the petals in front, then it would have allowed me to make my background as dark as I wanted.

Well, there is always next time.  I think its a good project for tonight, paint this one again.

If you have interest in seeing how I did this one, watch the video below.  Thank you.