More Hydrangea Paintings in Watercolor

Here is my second set of hydrangea paintings from my personal challenge on www.SketchingEveryday.com.

Hydrangea Painting #3

5.5 x 7.5" - transparent watercolor on Arches 140lb. C.P., matted to 8 x 10"

Painting #3 was done wet-in wet with minimal pencil guidelines. Here I totally wet both sides of the paper with clean water and used mostly a dry brush with plenty of pigment.

Hydrangea Painting #4 - Step-1

For painting #4, I wet the back of the paper throughly, then wet the background, carefully going around the flower and stem area. Wetting the back allows a longer workable half-wet period and allows the painting to dry flat without taping or stapling it to a board. You can see the nice edges of my painting in these two photos. I crease and tear my sheets to achieve this effect. This gives one the option of various mountings and mattings.

Hydrangea Painting #4 - Step-2

After step one was completely dry, I wet the back of the paper first then wet the leaves with clean water, carefully going up to the edges.

Hydrangea Painting #4

5.5 x 7.5" - transparent watercolor on Arches 140lb. C.P., matted to 8 x 10"

After step-2, and the paper was throughly dry, I dunked the whole sheet in water and let it get real wet. I took it out and placed it on cardboard so it would dry flat as I worked.

I'm thinking I want to go back on #4 and do some calligraphy and detailing like in the painting below. What do you think?

The Spirit of Summer

11 x 15" - transparent watercolor on Arches 140lb. C.P., matted to 16 x 20"

The comments on these challenge paintings have been most appreciated.

Thanks to those of you who took the time to comment or email. You are awesome!

As always, I'd love to hear your feedback.

Which one(s) do you like or dislike and why?

Thanks again for reading and have an inspired week!