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This is my painting from Melissa Gannon’s fourth class.
Did you know that if you really don’t like a watercolor painting (and your paper is of a decent grade), you can run it under the tap and wash most of it away so you can use the washed out background for another painting? I had done that with a painting, and when I saw the reference photo for Melissa Gannon’s first class, I thought I would it for my preliminary painting.
But I liked it, and decided to just keep it and make this the finished painting.
I tried to get a bokeh effect on the upper wing. You know, where the light is so bright that some areas are out of focus and others are bright and clear? You see it a lot in photographs, and I love it. Not sure it worked here though.
And, of course, I went a little crazy with lavender. I think you are going to have to start calling me the lavender lady, lol.
Life Imitates Doodles 
I always love getting a good bokeh in my photographs so I understand and I think your wing tip worked 🙂 beautiful painting. I am enjoying watching your progress in the class.
Thank you, Alice! I was hoping to get a little more blurred light on that wing, but it wouldn’t go any lighter. Ah well. I’m happy with the painting over all. The class is fun. I don’t think I’ll do another, but then, I’ve been known to change my mind.
I didn’t know that about washing the appear, hmmm I will give it a try.
If you have used a good watercolor paper, you can run a painting under the tap and wash away most of the paint, leaving a ghost image. This can be used as an underpainting, as I did or for mixed media. If you’ve used staining colors, what is left may still be bright. I had in this case – Hansa Yellow Lt. The whole upper left is nothing but ghost image from the prior painting. I put a pan under the sink to catch the paint that washes off, since it isn’t good to have that much paint washed down the sink.
Sandra, you have an intuition about color use. Most people would have lost the butterfly in this painting, but you’ve made it come forward with the brilliant use of the dark blue/dark red markings.
Many thanks, Sharon. The dark markings were actually dark brown/black, but it just didn’t do anything for the painting, so out came the lavender! I don’t know what I’d do without it!