I don’t know how old Arthur is. I thought I was a better parent than that, but I guess I’m not. It may be because it is so hard to tell from which point to start. Do I start counting the time from when his seed split? When the root started? When the stem sprouted?  When I planted him? Funny, that last bit. When one plants a person, it is the end. With a tree, it is the beginning.

Those of you who haven’t been following my blog for too long, Arthur is my pet avocado tree. I set his pit (aka stone) atop a water-filled glass jar some time ago, just like junior. We almost had a disaster when I first planted him in inappropriate dirt, but he has been thriving ever since I potted him in a clay pot with potting soil.

Today’s watercolor experiment:

For several weeks I noticed that Arthur had company in his pot. I thought it was a weed, but I tend to live and let live, so I did not extract the new life from A’s pot. I was surprised to find that this ‘weed’ was an errant seed of a plant that grew in a neighboring pot. Today, the new flowering plant (as yet unnamed) is almost as tall as Arthur. They seem to like each other.

Arthur and Friend
12″x9″ 140# Cold Pressed Watercolor Block

Process:

I used an HB and a 2B pencil to sketch Arthur and his buddy. I also used my phone to take reference photos. After I was satisfied with the sketch, I washed most of the background with a variety of greens (thalo yellow green, viridian, Hooker’s green). I did not wash the left side where the flowers were to be. The dark areas of the broad green leaves were important, so I used the Hooker’s green where I had penciled in the shadows. For the places where the sun provided illumination, I used cadmium yellow pale.

Some of the leaves showed a tinge of red. For those areas, I used quinacridone nickel, an earth tone, but one with a hint of red.

I used a light green (the thalo yellow green) for the leaves of the flowering plant. I played around with the reds of the flowers, experimenting with Winsor red, permanent alizarin crimson, rose madder and even a bit of quinacridone purple. I used aurolian yellow to stripe the flowers.

I filled in the space around the flowering plant with a light green to merge with the rest of the background.

I’m happy that Author and Flowering Plant are sharing. I hope they are too.