Yes ... I'm Curious, Too!!!

I left off here ...

I decided to go bold and purple.

I'm doing a lot of w/w washes, not using masking.

Now I am here. I think the next step will be to do some w/w with aureolin on the leaves, before moving into the greens.

I actually did a color swatch. The left is  quin. violet + aureolin + phthalo green. The right is quin. violet + aureolin + phthalo +  indanthrone blue.

I really don't quite know what the finished colors will look like - part of the intrigue of watercolor. The woman for whom I am painting this [ a very sweet dentist with whom I occasionally work] loves her blues, violets and greys. I'm hoping she doesn't find the yellow iris too jarring.

Another "Process", or what am I doing up at 2:00 in the morning?

    I've been playing with this for the past few days, between work-time and horse-time. Above is the finished painting. It will measure 11 x 5 inches when matted. Below is the process, from sketch to last fussy glazes.

Initial glazes of aureolin on iris, then mask perimeter, and slop on some very wet washes. Photo taken while still wet.

I have intensified the dark in the background a bit with same colors, and on the iris I've added more yellow, and started to shadow it . For that, I used a very dilute purple/blue glaze.

After 2 washes, I remove the masking fluid. The washes are aureolin, burnt orange and indanthrone blue. 

For the stem and bud, I use phthalo green, with burnt gold and burnt orange, and a purple/orange mix for the bud tip.

Just more depth of shadow and hue. I also lift the warmer shadow on the far right petal, and went to grey instead.

Irises

   I've been so busy with horse stuff ... sick horse, getting the barn set up for winter ... and dog-sitting my sister's boxers. Finally I have a moment to catch up here. I'll keep it short and simple.
   I love big, elegant but showy flowers. Irises fit the bill. I've done several of the buds and flowers.

Wild iris studies