Adaptablity

Things didn't start out well at water color class today. I unpacked my bag and realized I didn't have a water cup, I had forgotten to clean my palette and worst of all the wonderfully simple purple flower picture I had planned on painting was far off in the trunk of my car. This being a science classroom a beaker was easily found to use as a water cup, my palette was quickly cleaned but nothing could be done about the flower. So I pulled out my backup picture, a more complicated pink carnation I had hopes of doing in colored pencil where one can trace the picture, no drawing required. It is however a pink, painterly looking flower which lends itself to watercolor if one was talented enough to created delicately folded, overlapping petals. With no other options and two hours of painting ahead of me I carefully sketched out an outline an had at it. As the water went on the page and color added in bit by bit the petals started to take shape. I love the way the water and pigment mix on the page. The color shoots out in blooms of pink in the wet areas. You can add a little purple to give it some depth. Or wait till things dry a little to get more sharper lines and less pastel coloring. I did each petal differently, some more wet, some more dry, some with veins, some just the splashes of color. Some came out well, some not so much. But in the end I discovered I was happy with some of my techniques, enough so that I put do a few more petals this weekend. Maybe even take some of what I learned and put it to use on a new flower creating something that doesn't look quite so experimental. So what did watercolor teach me tonight? If you haven't got what you want, take what you do have and make it work. That's part of what creativity is all about.