Brenda Jones

Champ de marguerites roses à l'aquarelle : superposition des verts | Série 2

First of all, I love your attitude about this piece because honestly, this is exactly how growth happens in watercolor. The students who improve the fastest are usually the ones willing to experiment, make mistakes, repeat projects, and keep going instead of giving up. And there are actually so many beautiful things happening here already. Your soft background greens are lovely, your composition flows nicely, and I really like the graceful movement in your stems and leaves. I also think you are very close on the flowers. Honestly, I don’t think the issue was your flower shapes at all. I think you simply added the pink while the paper underneath was still a little too damp, so the petals continued to spread and soften more than you intended. If you try this one again, I would let that base layer dry completely before adding the brighter pink flower shapes on top. I think you’ll immediately see more separation and definition in those blooms while still keeping that soft watercolor feeling. And truly, don’t look at this as a failure. This piece taught you something extremely important about timing and moisture control, and that lesson is huge in wet-on-wet watercolor. You’re learning exactly what you should be learning right now, and I can absolutely see your growth from class to class. Keep going.

And honestly, now that this piece is fully dry, you could absolutely keep going on top of those softened pink flowers instead of starting over.At this stage, I would try adding a few darker petal details and centers right on top of the blurred blooms and see how the whole painting changes. Sometimes a piece suddenly comes together in the final layers. One of the best things about watercolor is realizing a painting often isn’t “ruined,” it’s simply unfinished 😊

First, I just want to say thank you for the encouraging words and advice!!  I am also appreciative on your willingness to respond with such great advise!  I will try and paint on to of the blured flowers to see what I get.  warmest regards, Deanna

So, before I continue with additional classes from you, I'm going to retake all the classes I've done from you so far.  For two reasons, one is to see how or if I've imporved; two, to see how much I've retained.  😊

That honestly makes me so happy to hear, Deanna. 💜First of all, I think it says a lot about you as an artist that instead of giving up on a difficult piece, you’re willing to revisit it, study it, and learn from it. That mindset is exactly how real growth happens in watercolor.And I truly believe you are going to surprise yourself when you repaint some of these classes. So much of watercolor is repetition, muscle memory, timing, and learning how water behaves. The second or third attempt often feels completely different from the first.I also love that you’re choosing to paint over the softened flowers instead of discarding the piece. Sometimes those “mistakes” become the most interesting layers in a painting.Please keep sharing your progress along the way. Watching students grow in confidence and develop their own style is honestly one of my favorite parts of teaching here on Skillshare.

I have painted this four times.  This was my last attempt.  Instead of getting frustrated and giving up I tried to salvage it:).  Many mistakes and many lessons learned... Priceless 😊
<img srcset="https://static.skillshare.com/uploads/discussion/tmp/1ac6af45.jpg 600w, https://static.skillshare.com/uploads/discussion/tmp/1ac6af45.jpg 1000w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 600px, 100vw" src="https://static.skillshare.com/uploads/discussion/tmp/1ac6af45.jpg" loading="lazy" alt="Epic Fail Lessons learned - image 1 - student project">

Epic Fail Lessons learned

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