More floral cards

Once I got started sketching, I ended up with four 5" x 7" florals to do as watercolors cards.  They are clockwise from top left: Blue Flag Iris, Eastern Purple Coneflower, Cherokee Rose, and Swamp Sunflower.

Each of the sketched flowers is different color, and so the palettes for each painting were adjusted to provide the correct mix of colors.  I used Lemon Yellow, Phthalocyanine Blue, Quinacridone Rose and a touch of Quinacridone Gold for the Iris.  The Eastern Coneflower included Quinacridone Rose, Cadmium Yellow, Lemon Yellow, Phthalocyanine Blue and Phthalocyanine Green.  Lemon Yellow, Phthalocyanine Blue, and Quinacridone Gold was used for the Cherokee Rose.  The Swamp sunflowers required a mix of Chrome Yellow, Aureolin Yellow, Quinacridone Gold, Burnt Siena, Raw Umber, Cadmium Red and Cobalt Blue.

The fourth card is of a Swamp Sunflower.  I had previously painted a version of the flower, and used the photo, sketches and finished watercolor as resources for the card.  For this version I zoomed in on the flower, letting it fill 3/4 of the card's space.  Swamp Sunflowers, like the previously painted Eastern Coneflower, are composite flowers.  I love the small red disk floret surrounded by the bright yellow ray florets.  It was why I had taken the original photograph.