Practice Make Perfect?

This weekend I spent time practicing painting a camellia. I painted these over and over again. Here are 4 examples:

First, the flowers were flat. I did a little research and added shadows in the flower. Then the middle of the flower became muddy. I lighted the shadows and liked the results much better. I learned about layering the watercolors. I worked on a scrap piece of paper and finally applied what learned to the camellia. Finally, I left white spaces and liked it even more. It still doesn't look like I want it but I can see improvement.

Maybe it would look better this way...

The bee turned into a wasp! 

This little bee died right outside my door and sat on my desk all weekend as a prop.  Poor little guy!

Thanks for peeking in my sketchbook!