How to create a painting - from scribbles to paint.

Click here to see a short video Dahlia Garden  

I usually start with a very small thumbnail sketch - it is REALLY small - maybe 2" square - and more of a scribble.  Small sketches like this help an artist figure out composition, value & color.

Then a more complete drawing is done and transferred to watercolor paper.

In the example I'm showing here, I painted a 'resist' liquid on those areas that needed to remain white (or protected) while I did background color washes.

Once the background was complete, I removed the resist and could paint those items (barn & flowers) that were directly painted against the background.

Gradually the brightest flowers were painted and then on to filling in the foliage, adjusting values along the way.

This painting was a commissioned piece of someone's very large dahlia garden south of Seattle.