I realize that this in not one of my best efforts but this is a small gouache study for the virtual paintout challenge. I'm a bit embarrassed to post this because it doesn't look like it took much time to do. Well, it didn't take much time. I did it yesterday and wasn't in the mood to paint. I tried a pastel first of a building in the Canary Islands that had succulents growing from the roof tiles. It was a very cool picture but my rendition of it looked very juvenile. That landed in the trash. I don't throw many painting attempts away so that should tell you how bad it was. I wasn't being lazy this week. I've been working on my big watercolor all week as you can see the WIP below.
I don't know if you can tell what this is or not. I started out by throwing some pale paint on it in an abstract shape. I knew I wanted to paint koi beneath it but that was as far as my planning stage went. I'm not sure what's going to happen with this painting. This is the only time I have tackled a watercolor painting without fully planning where it will go. Sometimes that plan changes as I paint but I have always known where I WANTED it to go. I have a lot of time into this painting so far and the thought that it may end up as a dud is not very motivating. However, I will plod forward and see where it takes me. I know I need to darken my values on the stuff under whatever that is on top. Then I need to decide what that is on top. Is it reflections, or flotsam and jetsam, or just some abstract something? I also thought of making it look like portions of reeds floating on top but I don't think that would read well. Any ideas?
