WIP & My initial thoughts on Dr. P.H. Martin's Hydrus Watercolors

This bouquet of flowers is taking FOREVER!!  I seriously feel like have been working on this non-stop for weeks but it has only been a couple of days.  Why oh  why can't I be one of those people who can knock out a painting in an hour or two???  I am happy with where it is going and anxious to finish but am taking a much needed break before I ruin it.  :)

I started with an initial wet in wet wash of Winsor & Newton paints.  I was going to do Dr. PH Martin's hydrus from the get-go, but I definitely prefer W&N for the initial wash.  They move better in the water, they don't stain as quickly  and I just found that initial wet in wet to work much better with W&N.   I did try to start with Dr. PH Martin's Hydrus but it stained before I could even get the paint to move around at all.  I was very frustrated.

Having said that, once I got the initial wash in, I decided to go in and do the remainder of the work with Dr. PH Martin's Hydrus liquid watercolors and I am LOVING them for this part of the work.  There was  (and is) a definite learning curve to working with them.  I am finding, for me, I seem to work best with them using a teeny tiny brush and LOTS of water but the teeny tiny brush part could just be because I am working on such small little petals (in comparison to the normal size flower I usually do).

It seems that if I dip the bush in some paint/water mixture and then start working on the piece, I then dip my brush in more water and kind of feather the paint out or extend the particular line I am working on using the water dipped brush.  It's definitely different than working with the W&N. I'm not actually rinsing my brush for the above, just dipping it into the water and going right back to where I was working.  

Soft edges work well as long as there is sufficient water and definitely work better over the W&N then just directly on the paper.  I am finding that I also have to move very quickly!  This paint seems to dry much faster than the W&N I am used to.  No time to think just do for those soft edges.  If I move too slowly, the paint has already stained and a soft edge is very difficult.  Again, though, after working with them for awhile I have noticed that they layer beautifully so if by chance I didn't work fast enough to get rid of that hard edge, going in with another color and laying slightly over that edge, watering it down slightly and then moving it along seems to do the trick.  I wonder if this making any sense?   It's so hard to describe in writing the process! 

I am making this sound much more difficult than it actually is.  It's just  a learning process and a different way of using the paint than I am accustomed to.  Well worth the effort and I absolutely intend to use these more often.

I am sure the more I use them, the more it will just seem normal and I likely won't notice a difference in the way I am working with the two different paints.

I bet part of the problem is I just used too much pigment to begin with.  The paints are so highly concentrated that a  little dab 'll do ya and I probably had my paint to water ratio off.  I think it is actually forcing me to be more creative and to develop my style a bit more which actually makes me very happy.  

Perhaps I should have chosen a simpler piece to try the Hydrus liquid watercolors on to begin with.  I usually tend to do single large flowers, so for me, this is a very complicated piece but so far  I am happy with where this is going.  As usual, I can pick out everything little thing I wish I had done differently but overall, I am happy with it and I have yet to paint anything where I don't see every little problem area.  I try to tell myself that is normal. 

Taking a break from the painting for now  - I seem to have drained away all of my creative energy.  Time to do some work and use the analytical side of my brain.  

I am definitely a fan of Dr. P.H. Martin's Hydrus liquid watercolors.  I love how vibrant they are and am looking forward to using them more.  

BTW - this WIP is from a photo I took of a bouquet of flowers at Costco of all places - inspiration can be found in the most unlikely of places..  Seeing as we had snow here yesterday, there were no flowers to be seen outside.  Somebody forgot to tell mother nature that spring has sprung!