Beautiful Pink Rose Watercolor On Masonite Board

Do you remember this 11" x 14" watercolor?? I started it way back in November, got a bit side tracked with it ( I change directions so fast that sometimes I get whiplash ) and then went off to paint ceiling tins for a while, putting this aside to collect some dust. As you can see from the above though, I have finished it, just this week.

Here is what I started out with....some lovely rose photos that I took in my garden a few years back.

I never know what photos I will use or if I will use them, but it pays to save them all because then when inspiration hits, I'm ready. I decided to make this a pink rose, hence the color change.

I'm a huge fan of Georgia O'keeffe, I've fallen in love with her style and the beauty of all her floral works. Her work really inspired me for this painting and my Red Dahlia watercolor, which can be seen in the watercolor category to the right.

These of course, are just the beginning stages of the design. There really are so many steps and decisions to make along the way, that if I listed them all, we would be here forever reading this post.

I've got a lot more of the colors finished in this shot but still a lot more to do. This is when I really start seeing things take shape though, and the subject gets very exciting, it is starting to come to life.

A close up of the finished center of the rose. I ended up redefining and sharpening the edges and colors in areas that I thought needed it. When it was all finished, I had Chris spray it with a protective coating....it can now be hung on the wall as is, with the hook on the back, or put right into a standard frame.

I'll have to have my favorite webmaster put it up on my website this week. I'm glad I was motivated to pick it up again and finish it.

Last but certainly not least, you may have noticed my beautiful new blog. For this I can thank Sara over at Sadie Olive Design. She did such a beautiful job for me and was so professional and easy to deal with that she made this blog redesign a very pleasant experience. Be sure to check out all of her beautiful designs at: http://www.sadieolive.com/ .

Starting From Scratch Again

This is my least favorite part of beginning a new painting, starting from scratch. This photo above is one of my garden roses. I used it for inspiration on my rose jewelry box from the last post, and it will also be my reference photo for my watercolor rose that I'm just beginning.

After I decided what photo I wanted to use, I cropped it to focus on the area of the rose that I want to paint. This photo represents the exact layout I would like my painting to have. I then sketched the design on an 11 x 14 masonite board that I prepped with gesso.

This photo shows only the very beginning stages of work. I basically sat down last night and decided to lay some color on this board to just get it going. This is the hardest part for me, as I tend to procrastinate and put off starting to paint. Nothing is obviously finished or perfected, it's just the beginning of the project. I just based in some areas of the rose, decided on a background and also, thought I would add a leaf. What I will do in my next step, where I think I would like to pick up, is to finish the background properly, reshape the leaf and then start on the inside of the rose and work my way out. I'm also changing the color as well...the reference photo is of a creme colored rose and I'm making mine pink so, I'll be using some different colors. I'll try to work on this little by little and chip away at it inbetween holiday orders, which are already driving me a bit crazy. So, here we are at the start again, I hope you'll enjoy following along with the process.