Water lilies

How to express water lilies in direct watercolour? I'm really not sure how it's gonna work, but yes, I have discovered my new obsession. There were lots of water lilies in the Botanic Gardens, but with only white flowers. But then I found some pink ones in the rose garden fountain in Ardgillan. I took lots of photos.

I had a bit of fun with colours first, then explored some more, trying to figure out the shapes - they go from really flat in the water to almost vertical behind the flowers, and a lot bluer.

I quite like this little one, although I painted the flowers too dark and my attempt at painting the flower on its own was a disaster.

First exploration of shapes and values and composition. Actually the vertical pads are as light as the flat ones, a 1. They are just a cooler colour. And the shadows under the pads are probably a 3 at most, not as dark as I thought. And I think I prefer a simple horizontal composition rather than a diagonal. This is gonna be fun!