Rose twice

Watercolor on 7 x11″ Arches paper. Click image to enlarge, select “All Sizes”

I’ve been oddly out of synch all day today, not having energy or focus, which was frustrating. I was about to go to bed, tired and grumpy, having painted the rose below which is overworked and not what I wanted. Then I decided to give it one more try and did the rose above. The top image is better, still somewhat overworked, and still not quite what I had in mind–which I now realize needs a big sheet of paper and more time.

Watercolor on 7 x11″ Arches paper. Click image to enlarge, select “All Sizes”

I wanted the rose to fill the whole page but somehow each time I drew it (3 times) it kept being too small and I hadn’t plan to paint the little handblown glass vase at all. I decided to start painting anyway, rather than doing the drawing over yet again. Then once I started, I just kept on painting when I should have been stopping, looking, thinking instead of covering every inch with too much paint.

If it wasn’t midnight, I’d do it one more time. I like painting flowers by doing each petal wet in wet one at a time, in several layers, and that just doesn’t work very well working small, nor trying to get the painting done in one setting, since each petal has to dry before moving to the next.