Cathy's' Sunflowers - step by step

Cathy's Sunflowers - Pat Dolan 13"w x 10"h - watercolor on 300# Arches wc paper

Here's the step by step process from start to finish. I had a nice bouquet of lovely sunflowers in my office from which to draw inspiration.

I rearranged the flower on the left in my drawing below to create a better composition.

The smaller sketch below the drawing on wc paper is my value study - making sure to have lights and darks in a pleasing arrangement for balance and harmony, but not to be boring!

Adding the first washes of watercolor - sunshine yellows!

Adding the first washes of greens in the lighter values.

Adding the dark center to create contrast.

Adding the background contrasting color so help the sunflowers pop off the page. And the final painting, after adding some darker darks to the flower petals to create a better sense of depth. Plus a signature!

New Work

Joe & Aggie's cat, Lily - watercolor done on Shutt Flamboyant Extra Rough 140lb watercolor block

Shutt Flamboyant Extra Rough 140lb watercolor paper - I love the texture of this paper!

Cathy's Sunflowers up and ready to go this weekend. This one is 9x13" on Arches Hot Press Rough 300lb paper.

Sunny Sunflowers

Sunflower Duet - (c)Pat Dolan - 9"x12" watercolor on Arches 140# paper

Playing in the studio with some sunshine and flowers. I have one early photo and this final shot, above. Which do you like better?

Often, it's so easy to go BEYOND the finish line when painting - to go too far, add too much, create a muddy mess or something less than what was desired. This one is a rather "in between" one for me. I think I went too far...

June is "Busting out all Over!"

Our great-granddaughters came with their mom and grandmother for a few days! Such fun!!! And now it's already almost the middle of June - and I've done very little painting this month, as of yet - although I have prepared several drawing that are ready to go.

Meanwhile, here is what's happening in our yard and garden. Enjoy!

Heuchera

Roses

A Grackle - aka "oil slick bird" as our granddaughter calls them

Two fledgling House (English) Sparrows

A tiny egg found on my concrete porch - we believe it belonged to a House Finch

And a lovely fledgling Bluebird - their mom/dad was teaching them to feed from our worm feeder. After just two days, they were eating without a problem. No parents needed to stuff their mouths!

I bought these Sunflowers as inspirational for my watercolors. Keep watching to see what happens!