Crowning Glory; Work in Progress

The last painting to finish before my show is the largest watercolor I've ever attempted.  The paper measures 30" x 41.5" - and is 300 lb. cold pressed Arches.  That's a pretty big piece of paper to manage.  I've been worried about it for weeks because I knew I'd be doing lots of details and some large areas that would have to be done in one pass.  

As a watercolor beginner I couldn't envision the steps each painting would take and now and then I'd paint myself into a corner.  However, now that I've gained more experience, I feel like I've been able to plan the steps for this and so far the piece is working like I'd hoped.   Painting in watercolor for me is a series of color layers, and the one you start with matters.   

After I drew it out, I began to mask the areas that would need to be white.  This took an entire day, and I still needed to mask after some color layers were laid down.  

The center of this cactus is in deep shadow.  As I put each layer of color in this area, I mask a few more thorn shapes.  

The ribs of the cactus are under painted, then the fruit areas are given a quick layer of yellow.  The yellow will show through, but hopefully not overwhelm the whole thing like it's doing here!

Each fruit shape has yellow petal things on it, so these need masked out before the greens and blues are added to preserve them.  I liked the way the mask looked after it dried; shiny.  

Different angle with the mask drying.  

Starting to paint the fruits; looks like something you'd see under a microscope at this point!  

I have to stop and eat.  It's easy to get involved in a project and forget to eat, or drink or even take a bathroom break!  This is where I'll leave it for the night.  So far it looks, to me anyway, like a bad tie dye tee shirt job!! I'm excited to get to the details when it starts to pop.  

We begin to hang the show next week, so this will have to be finished by Monday.  Stay tuned for the grand finale!