Painting Day

While there are still some photos yet to show from Hong Kong, today was painting day.  Unlike last week's sketches in my sketchbook, today I worked on a study.  What's the difference?  In my mind, those sketches were one way to try out something that I liked but didn't like enough to make a finished painting.  Today's subject is something I like enough to take it from study to finished work.

The bamboo forest we visited in Japan provided me with many possibilities for a watercolor painting, but there was one that talked to me from the first time I saw it.  I certainly hope it shows up better on the blue background of my blog than it does on the white background I have while writing!  Not that it's really much to look at on either color.

First I worked on the background to get a feel for the brush strokes needed and to try out the paint colors.  Didn't have time to go back to making the bands that mark bamboo stalks because I thought I'd do it once the trunks were dry. I had done only that much when Sharon walked by to help out.  She gave me quite a bit of advice that should help with the next attempt.  

Then I just decided to paint in the two young kimono-clad women.  That was fun even though I didn't have time to finish them.  Playing with the colors and figuring out how to handle the obis (sash and big roll of fabric) kept me busy until it was time to go.  That's when I realized that I had the proportions of women to forest all wrong.  They are much too small.  Sharon laughed and told me to cut the lower corner away from the larger surface and use the women as a note card.  Something to think about; it is a way to salvage it!