Exercise 2! Gotta do it before I start to quilt!!!

This is a START on Exercise 2- a portrait of an old Venetian Doorway. I am following Ms Haines' directions but adding my own touch to a degree. There is still quite a bit to do!

Well, I am well and truly hooked now and SHALL quilt the beech leaves but MUST try this watercolour exercise first. I must  confess, "though warned with quotations not to", I DID roughly sketch my Venetian door before beginning to apply paint!! I am still stuck in the "draw first, paint later" rut. Besides, I chose a pretty square piece of paper for this, although it is a vertical picture. Never mind! It is an EXERCISE.

So WHAT, I hear you asking, am I learning?? Well-
1- I am VERY timid
2- I am stuck in my ways
3- I DO need a MUCH better, bigger palette.( Curry's, my lovely local art store was VERY short on palettes and I got one that is just NOT wonderful at all)
4- I need to get MUCH freer in my use of colour. Jean Haines is GOOD for me. She'll get me loosened up.
5- I need to do some colour mixing exercises. I am a BIT rusty on which pigments are the best mixers.
6- Not a revelation to me but... I DO love to paint! It MAY be a revelation to YOU!
7- I need to choose a paper shape appropriate to my subject AND...
8- I REALLY need to loosen up!! I am VERY tense at the moment. [could it have anything to do with the bank giving us grief over Mum's estate??? SURELY not  ;-)]
9- I learned a fun, fascinating technique for creating texture. You work over WET paint and stretch a piece of Saran Wrap , shaping it with your fingers to what you want, place it over the wet paint and leave it there till it dries completely.

Here's the look of the Saran over wet paint. I used it to make "weathered boards" for my door! Pretty cool and I am pretty sure it could be refined with practice. Not one of those things you should OVER use but interesting, cool and effective in certain cases.

Stay tuned Dear Friends. There will be more to come. This is SUCH FUN! I forgot how much I love it!