Cali Coast Lighthouse in Color

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I have added color to the drawing from a couple of days ago. 

The original sketch is about 5x7, the watercolor is 8x10.

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Somewhere on the Cali Coast

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I like lighthouses. Not really sure why, maybe because they speak to travelers at sea and I have always had a bit of wanderlust. For drawing practice today, I picked this calendar photo because it had a lighthouse and I thought it would be easy. I am not sure how long it took me, a couple of hours at least. I started it at work, but finished it later at home. I would like to show these 'projects' to my teacher, but she is sooooo good at what she does it is a little intimidating to think about sharing my work with her. I mean she would say nice teacher things, and maybe even offer a kind critique, but I don't know if I am ready for that yet.

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Drinking Glass

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Pencil sketch

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Before I can take any more watercolor classes, I have to take a drawing class. I have to practice every day and this was my attempt from yesterday. I didn't finish the top of the glass, but I was more interested in the shading. I did this during my lunch break. Now I need to get to work and finish today's drawing. 

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3 for the Price of 1

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I had several colors in my palette that I wanted to start cleaning up. I began by putting in the background using a wet on wet technique to blend from one shade to another. Then I added the orb; I wanted an element that was repeated in each of the 'frames'.

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Butterfly and Flower

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Now that I have completed my first watercolor class, I feel a little more comfortable mixing colors. I mixed all of these myself : ) It is not as hard as you might think. I also tried a wash for the background. Typically, I have too much paint on the brush which will take over. I think this was good practice of one of my photographs. We made a simple lightbox, I traced the photograph with tracing paper and then using the lightbox, I traced the design on the watercolor paper. It was good practice. I see a lot of things that could be better, but TOM says I am too close to it. He thinks its pretty good. 

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Pink Flower

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I found some patterns so I could get some practice. The flower was the easiest of the three, so I started with that one.

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