Art Journal Joy: 27 Days of Watercolor Flowers - Week 3

This week I did a little bit of everything - some bouquets, some floral wreaths and some new shapes. I'm still figuring out how to paint flowers that I like. Sometimes it's harder to do than I think it should be but I am still eager to paint each day and that helps a lot. If I didn't want to paint at all, I'm sure I would have abandoned this challenge.

I'm still struggling with sharing what I'm painting and making the time to practice.

I don't have a set time to practice my painting. That's largely because my kids are still on summer vacation so I don't have much of a regular schedule right now. I was planning to paint first thing each morning but most mornings that just isn't possible. I'm usually trying to find time somewhere during the day's events for painting. Maybe it will be easier when they go back to school - we'll see. One thing is certain, I do like having a daily art practice in my life.

Sharing my daily pieces is still a struggle because I don't always like how they look. I know I'm learning and it's a process but it's not easy to be patient with myself. Happily, there are some benefits of sharing my daily practice pages. First, sharing what I'm working on forces me out of my comfort zone and practicing things that are hard for me. I know I'll never get better if I don't practice the hard stuff but sometimes I need the pressure of having something to post on Instagram to get me to do that work. The other benefit is that I receive a lot of support and encouragement by sharing my pages on Instagram. It helps keep me motivated and focused on making and sharing pages.

So, let's take a look at the pages I painted this week.

I was doing so well with this page. I love how the orange tipped blossoms turned out and then I tried to add leaves. I just couldn't paint them to suit the page. So there are parts of this page that I like and parts that I don't.






I love this page. It's simple and it's blue.






August 21 was the night of the 2016 Olympics Closing Ceremonies so this page was inspired by the Olympic Rings. I like the shading on the blooms although I don't love the shape. I like how the stems and leaves turned out. I added some details with a Signo white gel pen.






I like how the sunflowers turned out on this page. I'm not sure about the leaves though. I still like painting floral wreaths because they give me an opportunity to practice painting the same shapes over and over again.






I decided to try some flourishes on Tuesday. I have always loved illuminated medieval manuscripts and the flourish down the side of a page reminds me of them. Flourishes are another shape I will keep working on. It's great for practicing shapes over and over and for filling up a page.






The next day, I tried another flourish using different blooms. I was going for Gerbera Daisies but didn't quite get it right.



I do love the thin vines and...



the tri-coloured leaves.  I think those turned out really well.



Here's my final page for the week. I love the color combination for this page. I used lots of layers while painting the blooms. I didn't want to add leaves. I liked the white space on the page as if someone had scattered flowers there.









I am nearing the end of this challenge. Next Wednesday is my last day and I'm trying to decide if I will continue painting flowers or try something else. I have come a long way but I think that I could make even more progress if I keep practicing.We'll see. In the meantime, I have a few more days painting pretty flowers.

If you're interested to see my other pages, here are the links: Week 1 and Week 2.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Cathie