Tulips In A Bowl WIP

Sketch Stage
Background wash in to offset yellows and ochres in tulips. Bowl painted completely.
Starting to paint tulips.
Continuing with painting tulips. Purple under-painting done for bugleboys.

This is the WIP of a replacement painting I'm doing for my mother for her birthday. Her original painting was a victim of the postal system and never found it's way to her. At first I was a little saddened by this because of the fact that I worked hard on the other painting and because she would have to wait now for her birthday present. Then when reality set in and I realized she'd never receive it, I started working on this and realized this one was 10 times nicer than the other one and that maybe it was a sort of blessing in disquise, because now she'd have THIS particular beautiful painting instead. I still miss the other one and wish I would have thought to take a picture of it before I sent it out in the mail. I just figured I would have her take a photo and send it to me. Oh well. That was another learning lesson. Now I take frequent pictures of my works, including their processess, that way I'll always have a record of my work. =) Hope you all enjoy! I'm hoping to have this finished soon...and it's further along than the pictures above show, I just haven't taken an updated one since the last was taken. The tulips are all completed now and I only have the bugleboys to paint now.

La Bella de Rosa WIP

Pay no attention to the blue shadow my arm is casting over the painting, my studio has horrible lighting and trying to get a good picture is like trying to pull alligator teeth. Here is a picture of the full painting after the skin tone has been placed. It's looking a little flushed in this shot, but don't worry, it looks normal IRL.
A detail shot from the above so you can get a better shot of the skin tone and the face. I'll have to go back and fix her eye later, the paint was starting to get a little too wet and I a little too impatient.
After laying the skin tone in, I tossed in the underpainting for the red dress she's wearing so that her skin wouldn't continue to look so flushed. I then went in and added the background using ultramarine blue, paynes gray, sap green, and ultraviolet.
I've started to go back into the face and add a few more of the color details, particularly in the lips and neck. I've also placed down the mid tone for her hair as well as blocking out where my shadows there will be.
Please pardon the graininess, my camera has issues. This is, as above, a detail shot albeit not a very good one. Anyway, you can see I've got a way to go yet on this painting, but it's starting to really take shape.

I've never worked on a portrait in watercolor before and am only making the attempt because some of my "fans" have asked me to try. I needed a break from the flowers for a bit, so I surfed around for stock photography that I might use and came across this image posted by LockStock. I thought it was absolutely beautful and that it would be something that fit in well with my floral work because the girl herself displays a natural beauty...and she reminds me of sort of a fairytale character like Beauty or Snow White. Thus I named her La Bella de Rosa...which I'm hoping is correct spanish...I was never very good (probably if I'd actually made it to class and not gotten detention I would have learned more.) Anyway, there you are, the newest work in progress. I'm hoping to have this done before Christmas, but my schedule is pretty full, so it may be early January instead. Thank you all for viewing!