A Purple Bearded Iris caught my eye in the garden. Its blossom is just so voluptuous and colorful. The bright purples are so intense and fade into beautiful ruffled lace on their edges. I especially love the spots in the center right next to a fluffy yellow bump. What is that bump called? I like the way this painting transforms into a black and white image so I thought I’d share that first.
The first step for me is to identify shadow on the blossom, using royal blue. Yellow gives me background separation as it helps me to recognize where my petals are. I love the way royal blue can be used in almost invisible layers up to darkly opaque. It seems dramatic at this point but I hope to bring it into line later.
I keep adding greens to the background till I get the effect I want.
To make the rich color of the petal centers, a deep red purple is dropped in on wet surfaces and extra is brushed off with a dry brush. The line details at the middle of the petal are carefully drawn in on dry paper. A drop of yellow brings that bump out. Browns are washed over the background last.
After reviewing these photographs I may try stopping with the background and leaving the tangle of leaves more singular in the next rendering.
Black and White
Large Area Wash
You can see the yellow petals painted carefully with lemon yellow and reserved light areas. While still wet, I drop in a mixture of orange, alizarin crimson, and cerulean blue if needed for shadow. It is a fun way to get the paint to do the work. I can always use a dried brush tip to lift off any excess paint in the wet area. The leaves in the background on the left are painted the same way.
A Bucket of Berries is the subject of my next watercolor. While looking through pictures taken in the garden last year I ran across this photograph. A bucket of blackberries and strawberries turned on its side on the dining table. Every morning I pick the berries that are ripe in the garden. They are so very colorful and juicy. The photo just looks yummy to me. The berries are coming back to life in the garden and do not seem to mind the fire at all.
Next more light washes sort out the blackberries from the strawberries and the tabletop gets a light shade in front.
The darkest surfaces are carefully painted while saving the highlights on their shiny surfaces.
The blackberries are rendered one-by-one on the left side as they lay on the table. It is a gradual berry-by-berry painting, with darkening on the bucket parts to give us a hint of the depths. The darkest shadows on the berries are painted, and with a little water added the bright medium shades are applied. If you are careful enough, the saved highlight will show well.
A Charming Traveller visited me in the garden. I heard him arrive with those fast wings and watched as he screeched to a stop and hovered right in front of me. Luckily, I had a camera locked and loaded and got a great picture of him. 
Hummingbirds are such expert aviators. It is utterly amazing how fast and accurate their flying is
Beginning with the hummingbird’s main subject, I then drew the most important flowers behind and below him. I used his photograph to draw him entering the stage from up and to the right. Putting a pastel kind of wash in the background helps me to see the bird outline better.
I faithfully render the hummingbird main star.
To show how he quickly arrived and froze, the only thing I could think of was to put those cartoon movement curves on him. He was repeatedly drawn. The first image was very light and getting darker till he arrived in full color.
The patch of sunflowers I sat in is pretty thick, full of flowers and leaves. With a complicated puzzle of background requiring a little bit of simplification. Finally, becoming a continuous melody of nature.
Slowly finishing the background and adjusting the hummingbird shapes to allow transparency was kind of tricky.
The gradual darkening, and adjusting transparency of the bird were completed in many steps.
The painting was almost complete. But as I gazed at it, there was something wrong. It was the background that competed with the main character.
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