Watercolor Wednesday: Postcards and the Secret Garden

It's time again for Watercolor Wednesday. I painted a couple more postcards this month as well as a quote piece for one of the quotes that didn't make it onto the larger quote collage last month.

First up, the Cheshire Cat postcard.

I loved how the Cheshire Cat turned out in last month's quote collage around the "c" in "Chance and careful planning" and wanted to try painting him on a larger scale. I'm pleased with the mixture of the colors this time around, though I had some trouble keeping the purple consistent. The grin remained pretty well defined too, considering I don't have any masking fluid to keep the space clear of paint. I didn't even attempt to paint the legs and paws because 1) I would have botched them terribly and 2) he's the Cheshire Cat, so he might just be phasing his limbs out of focus. We'll go with that.


Next, my attempt to paint a sunset we observed on one of our drives home in the last few months.

This beauty is on its way to my grandparents. I painted this wet on wet, and the colors blended a bit on the edges, but I meant to have them fade into one another more. The sunset I was attempting to recreate was far more pastel than this. I'll have to experiment with lightening my colors more. I also meant to have a fingernail-thin moon in the dark part of the sky, but as I said before, I don't have masking fluid, and it didn't happen. Still, I am pleased with how this one turned out.

Lastly, my Secret Garden quote piece.

I've mentioned before, though perhaps not on the blog, how much this quote fired my imagination when I was younger. It still pops up in my mind from time to time. I'd originally included it in the list of quotes for last month's collage, but it didn't quite fit into the space, and I quickly decided I wanted it to be its own piece anyway. It took me a few attempts at sketching out the key/E to get the design I wanted. It's probably my favorite part of the piece. While I'm not a brilliant hand letterist, I've enjoyed doing these pieces. I may try one next month without the pre-drawn letters and just watercolor a message. One technique I tried with this piece that I hadn't quite done properly before was letting the paint for the D in "Door" dry and then layering more colors on top. It turned out okay, but not quite what I'd hoped for. I'll have to experiment some more.