Okay I’ve figured out my issue with watercolors. It’s called CONTROL. Like life, watercolors are unpredictable, and we retired school teachers who were raised by Swedes aren’t into things being beyond our control.

Before we go on, let’s review…you may remember I said I wasn’t crazy about the watercolor on the left. I realize now that I felt much more “in control” using my old faithful gel pens (right), with which I could get definitive lines and predictable colors. With watercolors you lose some of that control when you add the water. Especially if you are not a watercolor expert. There’s no telling how it will turn out, and for me that borders on the scary.

Not willing to give up on watercolors, however, I have started a “series” with all the components of Philippians 4:8. So far I’m on “True”. Only 7 more to go…

First I did the outlines and doodles around the word “true”. I thought it looked okay, maybe a little too busy toward the bottom center, but not bad. I had read that you should use less paint and more water for best results, so I applied the same concept to my watercolor brush pens.

I added a little bit of color at a time, and then went over it with extra water.

You may also remember that a certain cat (who shall remain Nameless) chewed on my water brush. So I don’t know if that is making a difference in how my work is turning out. I might also mention here that it’s pretty hard to photograph your right hand by holding an iPhone in your left hand, especially when you are right handed…but at least the “right hand knoweth what the left hand doeth”…

Above are closeups of some of the details in progress.

I tried to keep it down to fewer colors than I usually do, thinking that might have been my problem before.

I thought of adding pink to the flowers above the letter “u” but went for blue instead.

These are the colors I used. I think now that I probably could have done without the orange in the center of the flowers. Maybe blue would have been prettier. But like I said you can never tell with watercolors. Another thing I discovered is that they change while they dry.

Above you can see how it looks now, after adding a little more light green to the bottom center. Don’t know if it’s done or if I will add some more to it tomorrow. But for now I think I’ll leave well enough alone…