Daily Painting Practice- Flower studies in watercolor or oil? - why not both?

I must be getting brave. I spent an afternoon at a painting get-together at a friends house  the other day and tried a flower study..... in watercolor!!!.  Since it was extremely hot outside  we all  sat inside and brought  flower cuttings in with us.

Painting Get-togethers are one of the best ways to practice new approaches. You are surrounded by fellow artists, you get plenty of help and suggestions. It's a great way to soak up some encouragement if you are at a low point with your art and best of all when ever artist friends get together.... you  eat well!

I started another study of a rose in watercolor back at home. Here's my drawing. I find that sketching always takes a me while to do, Always longer than I expect, with results that don't always seem worth the effort. But it  is probably the best  practice I can  do  to improve  every aspect of  my art. To me, sketching seems to  connect me with  that core artist inside. I think  it has something to do with the concentration of sketching being different than the  focus during painting.....Or maybe it's just my artist's brain getting a work out. Either way I find sketching  very much like a meditation.

It is a funny thing, after  many years of just wanting to get to the painting,  I am only now just learning the value of  the sketch..... I know,I know... I'm a slow learner.

I thought it would be fun to  paint the exact  same thing in oils. and see how the results differ. So I traced my  sketch and transferred it to a canvas board.

 Here's the  watercolor  study. I am still having a hard time  getting the colors I want. Pinks seem to be the hardest  color to try and match.

Rose Study

oil on board

5"x7"

I had just as much trouble with the pinks in oils. So it isn't the medium, ...it's the artist!

Daily Painting Practice- New Direction - Part two - Field studies in watercolor and oil

First, let me start by thanking everyone who commented and emailed me on last weeks post. I am so grateful for all your suggestions, ideas and the encouragement I received for my problem with painting the peonies. Of course, after taking in all those comments and suggestions ,  I made my decision...
I think it was either Rembrandt or Gandhi who said.
"It is the wise artist who knows when it is time to hang it up."
 In my case, that is just what I am doing. I am hanging it up on the wall in front of me until I know what  I want to do.

In the mean time-
I mentioned I was going to try studying nature (plants and birds) and try to use watercolor. TRY is the key word here. I am out of the comfort zone with watercolors, but why should that stop me?  I  am using my plein air box that I bought for oils. The  turpentine can works great  with water  but the plastic watercolor palette I had was 1/8" too wide to fit the box .... so I cut off the end with a hacksaw.

You can see the  watercolor palette now fits perfectly.  I sketched out the  tomato leaf then  laid in a wash  of yellow. I thought it was a good beginning.  It's 95 degrees outside, so the watercolor dries very fast.

The hardest thing I am finding with my first watercolor...thinking ahead. I'm not used to thinking in layers  of color this way. I'm using my brain in the opposite way  I do when doing oils. Figuring out how to mix the correct color is very tough too.. I keep reverting back to painting like it was oils.  My mind  is getting fried ... and it's not from the heat.

Since my oil painting composition of the peonies isn't working I thought I would try another idea....in watercolor.  A simpler arrangement... Here is what  my beginning  looks like.
I know , I know. What was I thinking! It looks so easy when people who know what they are doing  paint this way..... my artist's brain is throwing a fit. It wants to apply the paint like oils, but  my eyes are enjoying the  subtle values of the watercolor. This will take a while for me to get used to.

So in the mean time-
I'll fall back to  the familiar

 Rose Study

8"x8"

oil on canvas board