Friday, August 31, 2007

Red Dahlia Watercolor Progress

I'm taking my time but progressing nicely on my Dahlia watercolor. The outer petals that are filled in are basically finished now. I say basically because it really isn't over till it's over if you know what I mean. I can change things up until the time Chris sprays the watercolor with its sealer.

In my last Dahlia post I had based in a few of the outer petals. I've added many other washes of color since then. I decided that I wanted to have an orange/red mix to give the petals lots of depth. In some areas, after the petals were dry, I added orange by itself over the top of the red.
Today I started basing in some of the inner petals that are unfolding. They have a long way to go but it's a start. I also jumped around a bit because I wanted to take a break from painting the outer petals and just do something different. Working in a different area kind of gave me a mental break.

8 comments:

Cape Cod Washashore said...

I LOVE your color palette! Such vibrant colors! For some reason whenever I paint, my colors (though they start off bright) always tend to become muted and "vintaged" on the watercolor paper by the time I am done! lol

Ruth Welter said...

Thanks Louise. Give painting on masonite board a try, it is a fun surface. It does allow you to get extremely vivid colors. I prepped it first with gesso.

Mark said...

I Ruth,
I love that style of painting and the dahlia works really well. I have a painting up in our living room by a local artist who has a similar style.If you google Beverly Fry you will come to her pages.

Cheers Mark

Ruth Welter said...

Thanks Mark. Cannot wait to see Beverly's work. I'm going to google her right now.

Naturegirl said...

The dahlia has so much depth to its petals and you have captured it beautifully! Thank you for sharing with us the progress of creating! hugs NG

Ruth Welter said...

Thanks NG>

Kim said...

thank you for the sweet comment you made on my blog . . . but wow, your talent surpasses mine!!! I love watercolor - but just can't do it!! Your art is really beautiful!!

Ruth Welter said...

Hi Kim, thanks for your visit and sweet compliment. All the best.