The Sketch

A practice sketch - I have used a light weight paper for this one and completed it in about half an hour.
I was trying to see if the quality / thickness of the paper made any difference...My conclusion? Once you master your trade, paper will cease to matter - till then, its practice, practice, practice!
 14"X10" 110 lb watercolor paper

Little Girl and the Butterfly

This is my niece, a chirpy ten year old. She has a shy smile that I love to bring out on paper.I have tried working in layers on her face this time, hoping to achieve the right skin tone-but  the choice of colors for the butterfly went wrong, as it now seems merged with the wall...should have used lighter colors on it :(

watercolor on paper, 16"x12"

The Smiling face

Experimenting with darks here- I have been avoiding darker values in past, due to the unwanted muddy effect I get when I use more than two washes. This paper is different from what I have been using so far, and it held the washes well; more than I expected.So I used the washes quite liberally here, and was generally happy with the results.
Still, it could have been better if I was patient enough to let the painting dry completely in between! I finished it in one sitting, as I always do with my watercolors..in about an hour.
It was sketched freehand and the child looks a bit older than I intended her to be!
In future, I am going to try to give these paintings more time, and see if it makes any difference :)