Watercolour exercises

I went to Brisbane for work last week and enjoyed it very much. While there I bought a water colour travel set. It is a Windsor Newton set with little squares of colour that can be replaced when they are all used.

I had nothing to lose so I set about trying them out. Here is a Jet Star plane that I painted while waiting at the airport.

I went to the airport early so I would have plenty of time for fun activities like this.

Here is a view of one of the wings of the terminal that was opposite the plane. I sat drinking my bottle of water (it was early in the day) and painted the reflections in the windows.

They looked a lot better in reality than they do here in my painting!

Good practise.

By the time I got home I was pretty taken with this little palette of watercolours and I decided to pull out my old water colours that I have had for years but have rarely used. I just didn't have the skills to paint in water colour and all my attempts previously were disasters. After using this little travel palette I was reasonably happy with my attempts and decided to keep on working in this medium for a while.

As it is the time of the year for the Rugby League football finals I sat down to watch the Brisbane Broncos defeat the Bulldogs and painted these roses as an exercise. I think they wouled have been okay if I hadn't added those dark colours around them.

I had aimed for pretty delicate roses and need a lot of practice to attain the skills to paint them but at least they are recognisable.

And finally, I have been a great admirer of Karen's blog The Creative Journey for a long time now and harbour a secret desire to be able to paint beautiful gardens as well as Karen does. Her water colour gardens are so clean and fresh and bright. At the risk of self destruction I attempted one today - not quite up to Karen's standard but okay for a beginner.

I still harbour some hopes and will not give up. My attempts so far have given me hope and encourage me to continue practising.