Step by Step.... Pinks?

As promised have been working on my flowers from life again this afternoon and have managed to get this step by step together. I still can't get into the habit of photographing everything in stages so do lose opportunities to share how I go about things... sorry all!!!

These are the flowers I have been working from but as you will see, I use lots of artistic license and the final study is nothing like really!!

I add a few random marks for the first flower head which I place in the focal area top right.

While it is still wet I drop in more water so that the paint and water mix and spread on the paper.

I add 2 more flower heads as again add water to let them mix on the paper so that all I have at this stage is a rather crude impression and a vague shape. I also try and do each head a slightly different shape and face a different direction to add a bit of variety and interest.

Here I have added a touch of yellow and blue to create the base of the flower and some of the stems and at this stage I don't worry about whether the flowers are dry as I don't mind the pink mixing with the greens and yellows

While the paint is still wet I wash away some of the edges..... I know this is going to dry quite a bit lighter and will help how my flowers sit in the bg. Now I let it dry.

I have tried to show a technique with this image which is a really good technique to learn and will help your work improve if you can get the hang of it. In the first image you can see I have added some think pink/red paint but as you can see it has dried with thick unattractive hard edges. I have added the paint in exactly the same way in the second image but have gone back in with clean water. The water dilutes the paint but if you tilt the paper in the direction you want the paint to flow you will get edges that are much finer and look far more like delicate flower petals. it is a good technique to use on stone and brickwork as well rather than adding straight hard lines. Practice this until you can get it looking right and it will really help the appearance of your work.

Before you all shout at me, yes this is a different piece as I had forgotton to photograph a couple of steps!! Here I started to use the technque I've described earlier and slowly begin to build up the petals. I do this fairly randomly as they are not uniformly placed and again adds to the variety.

You can see more clearly on this one as I have left the lines before I have added the water.

Back to the original    have called it a day with this but I could go back in a work on the flower heads a bit more yet and add a few more darks under the petals but for the time being, I think you can see the flowers have appeared and are giving the impression I want. Now it's a fine line between overworking and stopping...... better to stop and leave for a day and as I am beginning to learn, once you step back sometimes it becomes more obvious what, if anything, you need to do to add those very important finishing touches.

Hope this makes sense and you have enjoyed, but more importantly will give it a go yourselves and please do let me know if you need any help understanding anything.. I know what I mean but that doesn't mean all of you will!!!