Watercolor of Waterlilies Stage 3

Stained Glass Waterlilies ©L Watry

I have finished the water on my waterlily painting. Though, I do still have a few of the cream/peach reflections to put in. I will also clean up all of the edges where I removed masking before I finish putting the color on the reflections. The next step is to start the purple waterlilies and lily pads. I am continuing to take video, but I won't upload these to YouTube until I am done with the painting. I am entering it in the National Watercolor Society Annual and it has to be done by July 9th.

I have also included a close-up around the waterlilies. You can see some of the variation of the colors in the water. Some areas of water I painted wet-into-wet and some are hard edged.

Watercolor of Waterlilies Stage 2

Image 1

 I began posting about this watercolor painting demo of waterlilies on April 29th with Stage 1 (see link). Since then I have posted several times with videos taken while painting. These videos can be seen on My Videos Tab. I will be adding more videos as I have them ready, so check back.


To walk you through the steps seen here I began with the upper background water. This water had a reflection of something creamy and a peachy, orange pattern on that (Image 1).

Image 2

In the second image, I have started working on the darker parts of the background water. I looked for the changes in the values and color in these areas. Parts of the painting are still blocked with masking, that I will remove later. I have also started painting some of the blue sky reflections. I am trying to paint this background water in one pass, so that it remains fresh.

Image 3

In the third image you can see how far I am on this full sheet painting (this was actually several weeks ago). I continue to work only on the   background water and reflections. I will save the waterlilies and lily pads for later. In between painting, I take the painting around to different parts of the house. While I am busy doing other things, I can look over at the painting and evaluate where I am at.

In the bottom two images (Image 4 & 5) you can see that I have started working on the lower blue reflections. I mixed a film case full of cobalt blue, permanent rose, and a touch of manganese. I stopped working on

Image 4

the darker water and went to the blue sections so that I could make sense of the puzzles pieces that make up the water. I continue to look for parts of the water that look wet-into-wet and for sections that are more hard edged and bold.

Please check back for the next stages and if you have any questions leave a comment and I will answer them on this blog.

Image 5

Have You Ever...a look into the everyday life of an artist

Have You Ever...known an artist who didn't want a painting to sell, enter it in a show and place a really high price on it, and the painting sells? I read about one instance of this happening and I was at a show opening where this happened to another artist and she didn't know whether to be happy or sad!