New litte project continues

This is the allotment garden I have been visiting every Thursday morning. I try to get there before 9 a.m. so that I have an hour of shade.

I have followed this red watering can around it's plot. The plots are about 8 foot square. This plot holder has squeezed in many things, including the lovely little Johnny Jump Up that refuses to grow in my yard. There is hardly an angle in which these sweet plants don't show up in. I have to spend a day just drawing these. There are Sooooo many of them in clump.

At the far end of the allotment the plots merge into a soccer field and are a bit smaller.

The shade lasts a bit longer here, so I was able to do a complicated sketch.

There is a nice hill with trees on top and behind that frame the allotment.

My traveling kit has several H and B pencils, a .05 and a .01 pen, an eraser, paint brush and pencil sharpener. I'd like to add a .03 pen.

Back at home, or really, while at the camp, I added watercolours to the view of the hill.

I keep thinking I know what I want the colours to do, but I never stop to figure out in advance how to achieve that. I just toss water in the direction of the water colours and start mucking about. Afterwards, I think, "What a glop."

I need to have a dedicated think time and write some short "To Do" notes and put them in with my paints. For instance. Never use the middle green, it is just wrong. No matter what I mix it with, it just looks horrid. Really, all my greens are disappointing. I use a fairly good flat of hard paint pans that are easy to mix and am happy with nearly the whole thing. Except the greens and the red that I keep forgetting is really purple. I'd like a crisp red. I have purchased several tubes of paint. Now to add them to the traveling kit.

I am finding this project surprisingly exciting. I look forward to each Thursday. I am more comfortable being out in the open and committing to the page. I start with pencil to get the main angles right. I hate wasting a page if the first strokes are hugely off. My goal is to reduce the amount of time spent with a pencil and eventually, start off with the .01 pen. Maybe by the end of August. Or Sept. Or next year.