Apple Cactus Bud — Day 11 of the 30 in 30 challenge

Finished Apple Cactus bud watercolor, a real learning experience!

I finished this painting yesterday but waited until today to snap a picture of it in daylight, to try and get the true colors. I also tried scanning it and it came out a whole lot more yellow green than it is in reality. The actual painting is more teal in the back spears.

I’m heading out to work but wanted to quickly jot some things I learned.

I really enjoy working with a limited palette and I feel like I really got to *know* these three and more importantly how they interact with each other.  I like how they lift relatively easy from the paper.  This was on Fabriano paper which I don’t use as much, really prefer Arches but not sure I can articulate why.  I think that painting the entire background in a “mother” color of a pale blue green might unify the spears more, that’s a problem I see in this painting.  now I’m more comfortable with larger puddles, larger brushes and covering more of the surface so that is definitely something to consider next time.

I’m enjoying the daily thought and practice of painting and feel it’s pushing me farther along, even though I’m not satisfied with this painting, it is what it is, and now time to move on!!

Photo of Apple Cactus (Cereus repandus) blossom

here’s the photo again from which I painted.  You can see that the spears behind the bud itself are a grayer/bluer tone than the ones behind the stem, and I didn’t convey that.  Perhaps a wash over the background ones might help but I think those are thoughts for when I paint this again.

Planning on painting this afternoon…thanks for stopping by.