Art Deco Tulips

Day 10/30 of the #30x30DirectWatercolor painting challenge on Facebook. I won't be finishing this paint 30-consecutive-days challenge but it's been fun participating until my busy summer schedule kicks in. I've learned a lot more about color mixing, but mostly I've learned that I've been VERY dependent on presketching the basic shapes before laying down color, which limits spontaneity. I'll have to figure out strategies to develop myself as a more spontaneous painter. One strategy I used was in this painting -- I spontaneously masked with masking fluid where the tulip flowers, stems and fore-leaves would be. The masking created the overall shape of the painting so the rest was easy.

So, the tulips painted yesterday turned out a bit like art deco. I'm not too keen on the Canson cold-press watercolor paper, esp as Manganese Blue Hue Daniel Smith, salt and this paper all create granulating patterns. For this color and paper combo, the granulation process just doesn't work ... the color turns out very flat. Usually I've used Arches hot press paper and have loved how the colors, even Manganese Blue Hue, granulate on that paper. The Canson also buckles badly with much water,  despite being #140 lb. Live and learn. The Canson is inexpensive and is more suitable for casual plein air painting done with waterbrushes and not watery washes.

trial run .... I think I could fix it with a bit more time but wasn't liking how the leaves were turning out

second attempt - the background and main subject colors didn't have enough contrast so added the fine liner inking. Turned out kind of art deco, but kind of cool at the same time.

Art Deco Tulips