This was a design for a unit called the Bluejay Firemen in California (T-shirts). I used to work as an artist for copyartwork.com, that was a site that would contact me with small jobs in the $25-50 range. They needed me to draw up a quickly sketched design. Which they would approve or ask for changes.
Then, I would create a vectorized digital art file using Adobe Illustrator. It was one of the ways I paid bills between other jobs.
The only info I received about this design was a picture of their helmet and the firehose nozzle. The rest of the information like pictures of bluejays and firemen were found on the internet. You would not believe the pictures that come up on the internet when you search for “firemen”. I had no problem finding muscular men in fireman outfits for this project. Whew.
A Northwest Wildlife Waterhole mural was up for bid at a local adult family home. I called and got what information I could over the phone about the desired subject, asking about the surface type and dimensions so I could estimate costs. The next step was to
Setting up the paints, brushes, and pallets begins the watercolor journey for this wildlife waterhole creation. I put a brilliant sunrise sky over a snowcapped mountain top in the distance. The reflection of this sky is next on the water surface. The scene comes to life as layers of watercolor are applied to the meadow and waterhole shoreline.
More washes are applied to each animal character and I begin to see a 3-dimensional quality begin to appear with the values as they develop.
The 
Baby & Mom or Jesus are the subjects of this family snapshot showing the “Smooch, I love you!” moment, between a mom and her baby. It used to be a common practice for me to fully draw any idea out on paper before laying it out on any kind of canvas for painting. So, I’d typically end up with a pencil drawing and a painting of anything I was illustrating.
Oil on board painting, ” 
In 2004, this painting won a place in the west coast USA tour going from Seattle WA to San Diego CA for the Seattle VSA disABILITIES Art contest.
Finishing
We greatly darken the entire background and add more foliage shapes randomly. A really good and dark mixture to use is crimson with hookers green, it is my favorite black. Kind of a powerful black with a heck of a punch. Once you use this mixture you will be spoiled for life and never even open a tube of black again. More red will make it reddish, and more green makes it greenish.
With a sufficiently darkened background, we can now focus on the final details of Mr. Dragonfly and his sunflower.
Notice, the row of slight touches of acrylic white paint added to the dragonfly wing where highlights occur. A thinner mix is applied at each of these clear parts of his wing, which allows the underpainting to still show through. I only apply this where I notice shine and glimmer appearing. 
It becomes a game of applying, re-applying, and then softening edges with a clean wet brush until you get exactly what you want. You can get amazing soft hints of light by applying a weak mix of white or black to the previously painted surfaces.
Proceeding on, this wash fills the stem and leaves surrounding the sunflower.
Before this wash dries I apply drops of hookers green and either lemon yellow to the leaves along with tiny touches of ultramarine blue for those deeper shadows. The water spreads these colors together for me. All during this process, you may think that the colors are too bright but remember that they grow pale as they dry.
Remember in the previous tutorial, where I mentioned that watercolors tend to get paler when they dry? These last two photographs show a good example of that.
Adding ultramarine blue and even purple accentuates how deep this crevasse is. 
The yellow petals are brightened with more opaque yellow washes over some of the areas. Also, reds are added to encircle the flower bud where the petals are anchored. Crimson or cerulean blue are then added to various petals to show where they is shadow. 
Whenever I paint flowers with all of their curving bright surfaces, it amazes me how many surfaces you discover. Soft arms reaching out and then curving back under another. Do you see a more solid blossom in the illustration now?
Beginning with the sunflower petals, I want to carefully preserve how there are light gleams intermingled when the petals are viewed through the dragonfly wings. Notice the small areas of color showing through the wings where we are going to preserve sharp edges to emphasize this phenomenon.
After the initial Azo Nickle yellow base wash is applied, I can apply the smallest amounts of light cadmium or alizarin crimson and allow it to spread to give shadow and shape to the petals. In the wings, I purposely keep the values paler.
The Dragonfly in the Sun 01, this tutorial had a really neat start. My husband came in from the garden laying a perfect little dragonfly on my desk. An absolutely perfect specimen of a critter that I had never seen so up close and personal.
It begins with a sketch of the layout. Then I slowly add an alizarin crimson background wash. You can see my photo reference in the front on the left. My messy pallet up above and the water and brushes on the right along with paper towels. I try to remember to start the wash on the left and work to the right so I am not resting my palm on the wet surfaces as I work.
See how you can see the main images show better as the background becomes separated from the foreground.
Notice how the wet parts seem so much darker than the parts that are partially or fully dry on the left. When working with watercolor it is truly amazing to see how much paler the pigments are when they dry, it forces you to try bolder amounts of pigment as you paint. Scary but great fun when you finally try it out.
Tutorial 02
Details are rendered with the addition of the darkest shadows on the branches and trunk of the tree. Shadows are then also applied under her belly, nose, eyes, and ears which begin to show better definition. Details are finished using darks and light accents.
Tutorial 01
By blocking in the majority of the background with light washes allow me to reserve areas of white that will be needed later on. The tree bark and branches are the majority of the whites that I am worried about. Those along with the whites needed on the surfaces of our doe that will be shining in the light.
The next step for me is to identify where the darkest areas are at. As I begin to paint those darker areas with more opaque mixtures of watercolor, the layout seems to work out well. With a more visible mixture of watercolor, I begin to see 3D shapes begin to appear. Things begin to pop-out and show their shape.