Emilee Williams Art

I've been watching a lot of other watercolor blogs and I am amazed at the ease that these other artists paint with. Everything looks so flowing, beautiful and brightly colored. I feel like my paintings look contrived compared to theirs and like I am using the medium incorrectly. So, in this next painting I am not going to worry so much about the outcome and just relax, put the color down, and have fun. I hear a lot, especially from my younger brother, David, that all I paint is flowers. So, I'm going to try to stay away from flowers for a while. The next picutre I would like to tackle is one I took in Villefranche, France. I love the colors and the memories it brings to mind when I see it: I did a quick sketch because I want this painting to be loose and more about the paint than the drawing. I still probably put too much into the drawing: The drawing is not nearly exact, and that's a-okay with me. My goal on this painting is not to try hard and just do it. So here ...

The poppies are finally finished. I am pretty happy with the way they turned out but as usual there are a few things that I wish I could have done better. I may tweak it here and there in a while, when I can look at it with fresh eyes. It's hard to tell what it needs when I have been staring at it for a long time. Two things I learned while painting the poppies: 1: Orange is easy to work with. It lifts quite well. 2: I need to work on my shadows. Hopefully I'll get some more practice with another poppy painting. Here is the finished painting:

So, once again, I haven't had much time to paint lately. Surprise, surprise! It's been hard to find time between work, studying for my multi-engine checkride, and being out of town. I did have some time while I was in Park City to make some progress on the poppies. I need to make some adjustments to what I've done and finish the centers of the flowers and I think I'll call it done!

I am still working on the poppies. I haven't worked on them a whole lot lately. Partly because I have been busy with school and work, and partly because I was intimidated by them and scared to keep going. I didn't want to mess it up. I was scared until I got some inspiration from another watercolor blog I follow: Laura's Watercolors . She described having a similar problem and attributed it to being "too attached to results". As soon as I read it I knew that was what my problem was. Looking back, I can see that I have probably always been too concerned with the results of my painting and it is my goal not to do that anymore and just paint. If I can do that, I think I will be a lot more productive. I think it will be better practice and refine my skills, too. So, today I sat down and just painted. I think it worked out pretty well and I got quite a bit finished in a relatively short amount of time. Here is what I've done since my last post: Th...

I've been working on the poppies for a little over a week now and it is turning out to be a lot harder than I had anticipated. I can already see a lot of things that need to be changed. I'm hoping it will look better as I go. And if it doesn't, then it will have been good practice. Here is what I've done so far:

Today I started painting a picture of the poppies that come up in my backyard every year. They are my favorite flowers and they should be blooming in the backyard soon! The picture I am painting from is a few years old. I've wanted to paint them for a long time and now I am finally doing it. This painting is going to be quite a bit smaller than the lilies I just finished, so it shouldn't take me nearly as long. It definitely won't take me four years! The lilies were a half sheet of watercolor paper (about 15 in. x 22 in.) and the poppies are 11 inches x 15 inches. The picture I am painting from: The drawing (with a few modifications): The background:  

I have been working on this painting on and off (more off than on) for about four years now and I am excited to finally be finished. There are a few things that I wish I could have done better but I am pretty happy with how it turned out. The photograph I worked from: The finished product: