Watercolour pebbles

 After doing my swatches and starting my first pebble circle, I let it dry and then went and worked back into the pebbles.

First of all I rubbed out the outline.

Then I began to work over the top of the initial wash, oftentimes leaving a thin, lighter line like a stripy pebble might have. Again, this was from the video.

For a non-painter I was pretty happy with how this worked out, and definitely was getting better by the end.

The next day I turned my mind and my brushes to a warmer palette and created the same size circle and once more began to paint pebbles.

This time I focussed on not working from the outside in and ending up with small holes near each other. I think I got the balance better here; but some pebbles still appear a tad contrived.

Waiting to dry.

Again, I rubbed out the pencil outline and over-worked the pebbles to create a few more stripy ones. I think it is amazing how the lines really lift the work and make it much more interesting.

I also think I got some interesting colour-blended tones across the pebbles; again more interesting.

I need to go back to the video and see what else I could have done - something about shadows I think!

Here are the two circles on a sheet of A4 watercolour paper - good samples and reminders.