Pushing the Boundaries of Scale

I am totally comfortable painting tiny flowers at this point in my career, but the way to grow is not by staying comfortable. Am I right? So I went for a large floral watercolor last week!

Yes, it was a little scary to paint so large (it's an 18 x 24 inch piece), but also very rewarding. I love the scale of this one! So much texture, color, and movement to examine. I have to stand back a ways from this piece to take it all in.

This started out as strictly a watercolor painting, but I didn't like how it looked, so I rescued it with a black sharpie.  A little ink does wonders if you find your flowers a little lacking.

The art lesson #1 learned here is this: don't be afraid to push some boundaries, whether it's with scale, color, or medium. You'll never grow if you don't explore.

Art lesson #2: even though watercolor is known for being the most unforgiving medium, there are other mediums you can use to save a botched watercolor painting, so don't give up so easily! Paint on!