As you remember, my watercolour sketch in the Botanic Gardens didn't exactly work out.. When that happens, it's back to basics for me! In this case, Catherine Gill's Powerful Watercolour Landscapes.
37 tools to make your watercolour paintings work, which can be applied to any type of painting - basic steps for good composition, for value contrast, shapes, etc.
So the first thing I did was experiment with thumbnails, and I decided that the one I liked the best is with a similar medium value for the all the foliage in my three trees (the one at the bottom with the little sunshine to the left).
Then I decided to try it out with my standard watercolour sketch palette (a tiny little palette I got as a present from my nieces for my birthday). I added a couple of people on the grass for extra colour and interest, but clearly got the proportions really wrong - either that man is a giant or those trees are really small. Not brilliant in terms of composition either. I think I should get rid of the tree on the right. I'm an artist - I can move mountains if I want to! 
Then I decided to try out my watercolour markers on the watercolour marker paper. The composition is not much improved (I didn't think of removing the tree on the right until just now). But the colours are nice and vibrant. Quite happy with my darks and lights. If I had managed to paint it like this on the day, I would have been very happy. But this is still not good enough. I'm currently going through a bit of a rut in terms of art. I haven't drawn all week, and I feel bad about it. But I keep finding other things to do - walk the dog, do the laundry, tidy my office (actually I haven't even done that yet!). I'm working on a Gelli print, but it's looking very muddy right now. OK, time to pick myself up, and get started. A wonky drawing is better than no drawing at all! Will let you know how I get on!
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