Watercolor - Girl with Carnation Hat

So I've been taking a watercolor class this semester, and honestly it's been more frustration than fun for me thus far! I've had two major mental breakthroughs lately: one like two weeks ago and one yesterday. Number one I came to the conclusion that I'm not good at watercolor. Not to say that I'm horrible, or can't get better, but my skills with that medium are really no match for what I can do digitally or with pencils/markers. So! I shouldn't be so agonized when my watercolor stuff comes out lackluster. Everything I'm doing is as much learning how NOT to do things as it is learning techniques, so I'm experimenting and it's okay! Secondly last night I decided that the way that other people watercolor, including my teacher at times, is not how I HAVE to watercolor. So I decided to go with something more in my comfort range, I decided to start having fun again, dangit!!

We have to take a picture of some Shasta Daisies that our teacher showed us and then interpret it in our own way somehow and as I was brainstorming I thought that three of the daisies kind of looked like on tall one and two short ones and the way they were tipped like a mother speaking to her two children. Then I was like 'flower hats! Whee!' and when I was at home I was 1) feeling the itch to art and 2) looking through the gallery of who is a ridiculously talented and whimsical watercolorist that I've been watching on DA for years. This piece was heavily inspired (but not copied I SWEAR) from her works, especially those at the back of her gallery (go look at the mind-breakingly awesome hair and detailed designs, makes me want to cry for desire to be that good).

Blah, that was a lot of explanation but... I scanned this picture on campus, and once again it looked all light-glared and too soft. I was messing with some enhancement options in Photoshop Elements and BEHOLD it looked craptons better! Anyways, still not as nice as the original but not as horrible as the first scan. *clap clap*

Anyways, I found a picture of a carnation online, then after using it to get an idea of the petal arrangement I sketched things out, then after a few times I got an eye and face that I liked, then I couldn't find a single nice reference photo of someone tipping their hat! Like, for realsies! So I made it up :I And it's decent, yay! Then I TRIED to make pretty pretty hair, not too shabby. I inked using a brown micron pen that I bought yesterday, I also bought a dark blue one too but I haven't used it yet. I want to experiment with lines that are colors other than just black :3 Then I used a crappy little brush and the only paint I used was what could be found/salvaged from a plate that I had been using to mix colors on an assignment for class. The point was to get a yellow and a purple (mixed from red and blue) that would go together and cancel to create a perfect neutral. So all these colors here were from that plate as a fun little challenge :3 I left the carnation white because I felt like it and bits of the hair are white because leaving some white untouched is actually a technique in watercolor pieces.

Totally long explanation for a wee thing such as this but I don't mind. :3 I personally LOVE reading artist comments when I find interest in a pieces, because I want to know what they were thinking, what they did, and what they think about a piece! Bugs the crap out of me to see nothing or some words that don't explain a single bit XP

Uh... enjoy!