My try on Vickie's cone flowers

These sketches are based from Vickie's way of painting white cone flower which she shared in her blog. The link to her blog is HERE. The first one was really my firt attempt but I like it more than the second one. My version may not be as good as that of Vickie's, but I had some fun doing the whole process. Thanks Vickie for sharing what you know. I noticed that my cone flowers seem something like daisies. I need more practice I think.

Onion try-out

I thought of using apple for my painting practice today, but suddenly I changed my mind and tried white onion instead. My first try was not successful and the funny thing was that I was following someone else step by step demonstration of painting onion. I'm not saying that there is something wrong with the demo. Being challenged, I grabbed a scrap watercolor paper and used the other side to sketch my own onion based on the actual one and on my own way - see above sketch. Next time I'll try this on a clean watercolor paper. I'll continue doing this exercise of painting simple subject because I believe this is one way of improving my technique. And of course I'm also learning a lot from you, my blogger friends.

Strawberry try-out

 I felt an urge to paint today but I was lazy to make any pencil sketch. So I decided to pick up one piece of our strawberries in the kitchen and sketched it in watercolor. I had some fun doing those small seeds on the outer part of the fruit. They were not so difficult to do but I have to do it piece by piece.
I think I have to practice more on making shadows, that one above is not really good. If you want to see some lovely strawberry paintings, you can check Christiane Kingsley's blog, she had painted a few.

An orchid

I don't know how this orchid flower is called. It was not labelled when I took its photograph, and I forgot to ask the lady owner of its name. Next time probably I'll get the name.
This is done in watercolor, its size is approximately 24x30 cm or 9.5x11.75 inches. The original painting has much brighter colors and the background is much darker than what is shown here. Do you have any suggestion on what to improve further in the painting?

Mother and child

Last year when I was on holiday in a farm in Saulieu, France I witnessed the birth of a young cow or calf. I saw how the mother cow underwent a caesarean delivery. This was done since the mother cow could not deliver her baby naturally. While the mother cow was standing, the veterinarian made a cut vertically on her stomach, just enough for the calf to pass through. After some seconds I saw one of the feet of the calf coming out from the cut. The calf was pulled out from the mother's belly and was laid on the ground full of dry grass straws. While the veterinarian was busy stitching the cut, the farmer took care of the calf. When everything was put in order and the mother cow began to move to the direction of her baby, I wondered what she would do. After some minutes, I saw her giving a gentle touch to her child. What a marvel to see how the mother cow showed her love for her baby. It was so amazing and touchy scene. I was able to take some photographs of the scene and I used one of them to work on the above painting.
My intention in this painting was to represent what I had seen between the mother cow and her child. The painting itself is not remarkable, but what is important for me this time is what it represents. I know I need to improve it or perhaps paint a new and bigger one. This painting is only 18x24 cm or 7"x9.5".

Orly

This is Orly, the sweet and cute dog of my nephew. I love dogs but having one in the house is a big no for me. But when I met Orly, that attitude I thought changed. He is so lovely and clever. He is friendly to everyone and very loving dog. He shows us why we should care and love him. 

Anyway, this painting is not yet finished. I stopped working on it since I became doubtful as how to proceed further. I planned to paint it loosely but it turned out not. I find his nose not really good and I have to darken further the area under his ears. I also want to paint a light violet background, but not sure yet if I'll do that. I plan to paint the background just around the painting and not in the entire background space. Maybe some of you can give me advice what to do next. This is my first attempt to paint a dog.