Waterlily - painting challenge!

I really wanted to take part in this new painting challenge by Lela of paintanddrawtogether.blogspot (click on the link to see the original photo and other paintings). 
I did a few sketches before I started with my watercolor!
 I started with painting wet in wet with the pink and roughly giving shape and color to the flower with its yellow stems, leaving part of the flower white.


Now I added some more color to define the other areas, keeping everything quite light. At this point I also wanted to try the plastic wrap technique - inspired by Jean Haines - so I pressed the plastic to the green areas while still wet to create some patterns on the leaves.



Working with the background, i.e. the water. The negative painting is used to determine the shape of the waterlily. I also played with some splashes on the leaves.


 Final shadows to define the shape of the waterlily. I also deepened some other colors, especiall the water, wanting to create more contrast and interest.


Some of the sketches and a couple of paintings. My way of painting is quite free and emotional. Unfortunately even if the original  subject photo is beautiful, I'm not too happy with the painting, as I feel that I wasn't able to 'make it mine' and capture  emotion and atmosphere in the painting! But painting is always a challenge and an adventure - and especially when painting with watercolors you have to keep in mind that the unpredictable is part of the joy - so even if you try hard sometimes you'll be less satisfied, sometimes more!



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