At the risk of boring any followers of the blog (my wife doesn't think that anyone would be interested is seeing "just one more leaf added". She is looking out for my interests here I hasten to add!) I have posted this update. I think that it does show my process and gives a feeling of the the time that I spend on a painting. Some of the time is just spent 'looking' at it and thinking about which tone to use and which part of the painting I want to give the detail to. Also, it is sometimes necessary to alter the composition slightly at this stage, in particular to the choice of colour and whether I include an extra leaf or add a flower to the composition. I like to form basic triangles with the base at the bottom of the painting with both shape and colour arrangement.

I found the pig's trotters quite interesting, I'm not sure where it could fit into the story but enjoyed doing it anyway. The hut was the pig's first house before the move. It looks ideal but was too small as she grew to 160kg+ ! I will need about 24 or 25 illustrations in total to tell the story, so about another 12 to go. I am using 6 and 8B pencils on textured watercolour board, because I like the texture effect.
The environment, the fabric of such an animal is full of texture so I feel that this is fitting.

I have  added more tone to the shaded leaf area at the bottom right. The interest in this painting will become more evident as the sunlit areas are included as the subject will really be the contrast between the lit and unlit or the bright tones and dull tones. I have included a previous painting to illustrate what I mean.

A few more dark spots between the leaves. My style of painting takes patience, not just to do, but to follow. It may be noticed that there is a leaf on the right half of the painting that is a little paler. I had originally blocked it in darker but decided that I wanted it a little lighter. It is still in shade but not so far back as to be as dark as I originally made it.So, I 'blotted' off some of the colour. When dry, I shall add the leaf texture again with a slightly different hue and, hopefully, it will end up a little lighter in tone. Watercolours can't be removed or painted over when dry without great influence on the subsequent layers, but by blotting some of the stronger paint off it is possible to change the tone and colour slightly.

Just a little more added. The leaves are dark but the contrast between the light leaves and flowers will give the painting dimension.      

Another illustration for the planned book on the pig's big move! In this one, she is not too pleased to be going even when tempted with her favourite treat (and mine) chocolate!

This stage of the painting takes time! I try not to commit the paint until I'm as sure as I can be that I will have it right. Even so I make errors but I find that I can overcome minor errors and sometimes turn them to advantage. Of course, if you view the completed painting for the first time, you would be unaware of the error inspired changes! You will have to look closely between the last post and this one to see progress. I have completed some of the darker leaves on top of the underpainting. I shall leave the sun-lit greener leaves until I feel I have enough of the darker shadowed ones. The reason I have given them a pinkish tinge (may not be evident on the photo) with the underpainting and a wash on top when completed, is that the dark leaves are in the shadow of the flowers and some of the flower colour will be reflected there but not on the leaves in full light.

At this stage, I have under-painted some of the leaves with warm tones. The leaves will be various shades and tints of green, depending on the light, either reflected or refracted, but the warm undertones will add unity to the work. The underpainting is a relatively quick exercise, but the leaf detail will take longer. If I need highlights, I sometimes use a latex masking fluid, but I only put it on for a short time period because, in the sub-tropical ambient heat, the longer it remains on the paper, the more difficult it is to remove. My watercolour paintings take a while to complete, so the daily changes are not always evident, plus sometimes I just spend time observing before I commit paint to paper. Watercolour is not easy to change once applied.