I've noticed that you never see watercolour demonstrations that went wrong - so....I'm going to occasionally post a step-by-step watercolour demo that got away on me. Just for the fun of it. I usually destroy such disasters, or paint on the other side of the paper, but I invariably learn something from the experience. These mishaps are long gone, but I kept the files for future use. I'm starting with my attempt to paint some lilies. These photographs were taken in the days before digital cameras.
I was inspired to paint these beautiful lilies many years ago, and I started out with such high hopes. I saw this as a colour-drenched painting with the light shining through the petals. I saw dramatic shadows enhancing the rich orange hues, and so on, and so on. Alas, my reach exceeded my grasp.
I started off full of confidence with a careful drawing projected onto my 300lb Arches watercolour paper. I spent some considerable time deciding exactly how I was going to paint this picture, and started off by putting in a basic blue background to set off the rich, vibrant hue of the lilies - I hoped.
Now it starts to go wrong. If I remember I used an orange composed of New Gamboge and Cadmium Red, two hopelessly opaque colours guaranteed to ruin just the effect I wanted to achieve. I laid on my first wash happily oblivious to the damage I was doing..
With some strategic misket work I began making the petals three-dimentional, although I remember thinking at the time something was wrong here; my petals didn't shimmer and shine. No matter - press on and hope for the best.
I was so pleased with myself I even took a close-up for posterity
Now for the greens to enhance the rich orange hue of these glowing petals. I'm still quite confident, but in my heart of hearts I know something is terribly wrong but I put it down to early fears. If I remember, I put this aside for a fews days before coming back to it, and this nagging feeling that something was wrong would not go away.
I desperately try to boost the green stalks to give me some bounce, but I know this has got away from me. I think I put this aside again for a few days to calm my nerves.
Back to the scene of the crime and I hopelessly overwork the greenery and realize my muddy painting cannot be salvaged. The sequential photographs cease at this point, although I remember I struggled to get the greenery to balance the petals, and I probably over-painted the petals in desperation. I eventually gave up. Looking at this disaster after a few years the photographs don't look as bad as I remember, but we're viewing them as a kind of slide-show using transmitted light, not reflective light as a painting is normally viewed. I never had the courage to try this again, and the moral of this story is - what the hell - you can't win 'em all!
