Challenge...

Another timed painting challenge, recorded here in the hope that my journal will show my improvement as time goes on.

This one was a challenge.  Watercolour on hot press paper, and not just any hot press paper, but Botanical Art hot press paper.  The surface is SO smooth!  And that's the reason I rarely paint on HP paper.  It's so smooth, I find it difficult to control the paint.  The paint also dries faster (in my experience) so there's less time to blend it and move it about the paper.  

I've been watching some botanical art videos on You Tube (I don't think I will EVER have the patience to paint in such painstaking detail as these amazing artists) and remembered I had some BA paper, so decided to throw it into the mix of today's challenge, and gave myself five minutes.

Having had my nose stuck in my colour theory book, the main basis of today's challenge was to recreate the colours of the tulip as closely as possible, with no colour mixing before the challenge started.   I'm quite pleased with the result on that score, although I am annoyed that I painted over the lovely pale creamy yellow that I'd created at the base of the petals.  

I was also surprised by how much I enjoyed painting on the paper.  It wasn't as difficult as I remembered and I suppose that's because I have done a fair bit of painting since I last used HP paper, so that experience has obviously helped.  I will definitely give HP paper another go in the not too distant future.

Thank you Ingeborg for creating such a stunning photo of the tulip that I just couldn't resist having a go at painting it.  I will return to it as an art subject properly in the future.  Five minutes was far too short a time to capture its beauty.

In other news, Tesco delivery arrived, the guy was here to service Alan's hoists, and David got a hair cut.  

Excitement central.  Not!  lol!