Note to readers: Yesterday I got a comment from a new reader who questioned the relevance of my posts about painting on my blog where she was expecting to read about autism. She has a good point, which will prompt me to expand my blog header to include how autism in my life (my older brother Mike is autistic, low functioning and nonverbal) has influenced my creative process.  My early posts, from January 2013 through November 2013 were specifically about how autism affected me and the dynamics in my family. My later posts are mainly about creativity in the visual arts, although I do post on scientific enquiry as well (i.e., cybernetics).

I intended this blog to be a narrative about the influence of autism on a sibling (specifically, me) with the hope that other siblings in similar situations can work within their family dynamic and understand their own narrative arc.

My apologies to those expecting my latest posts to directly relate to autism. However, I direct those readers to my early posts, as mentioned above.

I will revise my header to avoid confusion.  Thank you for understanding.

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Today’s watercolor experiment:

I’m working my way through sketching and painting the succulents I bought the other day. Today’s plant is called Graptosedum. It is also known as California Sunset.

Since this plant is still small, it is enveloped by the clay pot where it currently grows. I sketched it with light pencil marks and used an ink pen to define the edges of the leaves.

As in yesterday’s study, I used lemon yellow to paint the leaves.

The leaves of this plant vary from a reddish color at the tips to green at their base. They are triangular and fleshy. In the next stage of this painting, I used rose madder, a shade of red, to color the leaf tips and a combination of Prussian and phthalo blues to make the green colors at the base.

The final configuration of this watercolor sketch widens the scope of the picture and includes the soil in which the succulent is planted and the clay pot.