A Painting Edit: Peggy's Front Door

 My neighbor, Peggy, has some beautiful contrasts between her flowers and her wood work.  A lot of the wood is painted a warm, cheerful blue, and the flowers are a glorious jumble of colors.

Peggy's front door is flanked by two pots of pink geraniums, which contrast nicely against the door.  I spotted those while out walking the dog.  I, of course, tried painting them without looking at the door, taking a picture or any practical photo reference. This was complicated by the fact that I just opened a new tube of Indigo, and am switching from Holbein to Daniel Smith.  The paints are very different.  The Daniel Smith is more intense and I got a wee bit carried away.  Can you see how dark the leaves are among the geraniums? Can you see how I lost the shape in the geraniums and have some out of control bleeds?  (If you're reading this on my newsletter, you'll have to click through to see the changes.  If you're not subscribed to my newsletter, you definitely should--you can do that by clicking HERE.)


Today, I went back and overlaid Caran D'Ache Artists' Crayons, and I like the results much better.  I added some pinks (a light and even lighter shade) among the geraniums to give them more shape.  Then I added some blue to control the pink bleeds, and again to add shape.  Finally, I've overlaid some greens in the geranium leaves to give depth and shape.

The painting is about 11x19 inches on Fabriano 300 lb rough watercolor paper.