Spring Breeze (Finished!)

It actually took quite some work from the stage it was in my last post to finish the painting -- first I was not so happy about the left side of the painting being significantly lighter than the right side, and added another dark passage to it wet in wet (which is a quite scary process since you can almost count on some of the darker pigments being picked up with you float water above a dried dark passage painted thickly, and move somewhere else -- somewhere you do not intend it to be...), then I have decided the flower itself looks totally washed out against an almost saturated wet background. I ended up adding at least three more layers of color glazes to most pedals (except the one on the very top), and used a fiber painting brush (a very stiff brush similar to the Cheap Joe's "Fritch Scrubber" brushes) to lift out some lost white highlights. 

I used a lot of Quinacridone colors to paint the dark shadows of the pedals. They are great for glazing and does not lift easily. Also, I found that it is easier to glaze over Arches Rough compared Arches Cold Press -- colors do not lift as easily, even the darker and thicker passages. On the other hand, correction by lifting has been proven a real struggle on the rough paper. 

I am having some trouble to mix the exact colors for matching the yellowish-brown and red-purplish-brown shadows on the pedal for this one. For some reason when the hues seem correct, the values just does not seem quite dark enough; when I add more purples to darken it, the color lost there brilliance. I used mainly Alizarin Crimson, Quinacridone Gold, Quinacridone Burnt Orange and Quinacridone Burnt Sienna, plus a small amount of Winsor Violet for my mixture. Do you have a good mixture for the yellowish and red-purplish browns that are both dark and brilliant? If so, please share with me!

Spring Breeze,  Watercolor on Arches 140# Rough Paper , 7"h x 5"w, 2012#8

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I am submitting this painting to the Daily Paintworks' "Color of the Year" challenge. I've already submitted the Californian Poppy painting I finished earlier. You can see them both here.