Flower close-up watercolor painting #2

This is a smaller watercolor painting I did of a flower close up.  I outline the flower carefully with pencil and then go on to wet the entire paper with clean water.  Then I put on a lingt watercolor wash for the background making sure the hightlights are saved by not putting too much watercolor pigment into it.  When the watercolor paper is still wet, I hold the paper at various angle to let the watercolor mix itself on the paper.  This will create a different color mix you get from mixing the color in the palette.  The painting is left to dry before more layers of watercolor is being applied to outline the background.

Flower close up watercolor painting - 15x22 inches

This is the final watercolor painting for the flower close up watercolor I started last week.  It is on 15×22 inches Arches cold press watercolor paper.  I have added deeper and stronger shadows in many areas with layers of watercolor pigments.  Details are also added onto the flower petals as well.  Some areas of the background are painted darker to help with the overall contrast.

Flower close up watercolor painting - 15 x 22 inches

I have painted the rest of the close up flower watercolor painting.  All areas have at least one or more layers of watercolor wash.  I started each area with painting the highlights with clean water and then add the watercolor pigments.  Then I move the paper around to get the color mixing on the surface of the watercolor paper.  I use 140 lb Arches watercolor paper.  The next stage will be to paint the shadows and add more layers in areas where it is needed.  This is the hard edge the watercolor painting need to bring out the three dimension of the close up flowers.