When I went back to work on my daisy painting, I immediately had trouble mixing and matching the green. It was way off from what I started with. I realized that the more I mix my colors, the more trouble I’ll have matching them later. I had time that day and went to the art store. The woman there was very helpful and I was asking a lot of questions! I asked her how she kept track of colors she mixed. Her only advice was to keep a swatch of the color, which I already did.

When I told her I was painting a flower, she recommended “Hookers Green,” which is a leaf green. I was using phthalo green, which not surprisingly was very blue. I wasn’t so sure of the color when I first put it on (bottom right leaf in the photo below), but I decided to go for it and covered all the leaves. Then I started adding the details of the leaves. I had mixed shades of the Hookers Green using the Brilliant Yellow Green, which was the base color of my painting. I thought painting the leaves would be easy, but I was wrong! I think I started to get the hang of it. Painting in watercolor and acrylic is very different!

This time when I mixed my paint I used the disposable palette sheets I bought at the art store. These are perfect for me, because I hate cleaning up. I also bought a palette about the size of the sheet, to support it. When I was done, I was scraping off the paint I wanted to save, when I realized I could write on the sheet to label the paints and the mixes. This is so helpful! I have a terrible memory and sometimes don’t return to painting for several days (or even weeks). I guess I answered my own question. But I would love to hear other ideas! 🙂

I’m trying to figure out what section of the painting to attack next. Finish the leaves? The center of the flower?