Continuing Watercolor (Mar/Apr 13) - Sertoma

This is the magnolia as a value study.  I mixed a purple and painted the values on the petals, then the background, and then the leaves.  In the background I wanted texture so I wet the paper, dropped in purple in varying values, and used salt.  The little areas of color are examples of the glazes we will do next.  But first - value and detail!

This is the butterfly   First I wet the background, dropped in color, and added salt.  After it was dry I started on the butterfly mixing a dark and painting the black areas (permanent alizarin and pthalo green).  I wet the orange part of the wing and dropped in yellow, orange and red paring attention to value.  Next I wet the body, painted it yellow,  added a little burnt sienna, added more yellow to the right (to push the darker colors out of the light area) and then used sandpaper and watercolor pencils to make a texture on the left side (this technique is called sanding).