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Day 18: Crocuses, or Croci?

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Crocus & Bees (Chinese Watercolour)
Crocus & Bees (Chinese Watercolour)

 

Some more Chinese painting practice and a lovely demonstration I found to follow by Virginia Lloyd-Davies, prompting the question above – what is the correct plural for Crocus? Well, according to both the Oxford Dictionary and Webster’s either answer is correct, and you can also have just Crocus.

Crocus repetition
Crocus repetition

Now, please don’t think this comes easily, even after a year of tuition… this is the best of the two I painted right through after completing several pages of exercises. I’ve posted one of these practice pages to illustrate the process, you might be able to see that the first rows of crocuses have bled a bit and are fuzzy. By the bottom of the page I was beginning to judge the amount of water needed much better.

I think when I try it again the flower heads need to be a bit smaller for the size of the paper, and maybe I’ll tone the orange down a bit.