The weather today has been atrocious, at 10am I was soaked to the skin walking the dog, showered for a second time then had to dress for an occasion that meant I was out in a skirt (and freezing) until 4pm – when it’s sunny it gets dark here at 5 o’clock so I didn’t get much chance to paint in daylight today.
I decided to play with the Chinese bird book again and chose a blue swallow to try and convert to watercolour. I don’t think this one worked as well as the Kingfisher, but it was a good lesson none the less. I had a bad water control day and lots of the leaves and flowers started out too wet, that’s why they have second washes to strengthen them and therefore they look a little blotchy.
I’m quite enjoying this as an exercise and I think I’ll continue to try it every now and again. I definitely like the opportunity to attack a painting start to finish in one sitting, although these shorter winter hours are going to limit my capacity to do that, unless I can find at least an hour to spare somewhere in the day. In the meantime I need to find some more ideas for paintings that need a few days to complete and that I can build on step by step.