I never know when to quit

by Kathy Garvey

I was in the mood to paint, so I did. But I seldom call a painting finished because I don't know when to quit. This is my process for the past few days. Did I go too far? Not far enough? I never know!

So, I had some good watercolor paper and didn't want to just doodle on it. When I'm ready to paint and have no plan, I browse through my sketchbook. I decided to use this idea from November of last year based on one of my photos from May of the prior year. (I'm a hoarder when it comes to photos of flowers.)

I've also been having fun again with those so called calligraphy pens - The Elegant Writer. It bleeds...and in color...so it's no good for spending hours on a nice piece of calligraphy. But for painting, it's sort of a joy and surprise every time.

First you draw with the pen, then you wet it and it bleeds color. I like to also add additional watercolors to my brush as I paint over the pen. This was my first result.

Not enough. Added more, studied it, added more, studied it. That's my problem. It always seems to need more.

Now it needs something more still...a butterfly, lady bug, bumble bee. Yes, that's it. A bumble bee! I sketched one out and played with its position before adding it in.

Am I done? I don't want to mess it up, but I feel like it needs something else. I take it into Photoshop to experiment. Lots of experimenting later, I like the look of the oil paint filter and some watercolory washes around the edges.

Back to the painting and this is where I'm at. 

Did I go too far? Am I done? It's not signed yet. So, it's not done! And that's where most of my watercolors stand.