Almost New and a New Watercolor Start

Almost New/oil on board/ 4" x 4"/gifted

Day 19 of the Thirty in Thirty Challenge by Leslie Saeta (link).
My theme is color.
In this little painting, I loved the warm browns against the shadowed (blue) whites and the fresh yellow green spring grass. The visual compliment of the yellow greens is purple, which you can see in the darkest darks, if you look closely.

I am also continuing to learn and making myself try new techniques. I wanted to alter the texture of the painting and I recently read about scratching through the smooth surface of paint which I did. I think it makes the painting "softer" and more like a newborn's fur.

I finished my previous small watercolor for "Watercolor Wednesday" so I decided to start another one. Here is step one: To create a "background" tulip, aureolin and indian yellow plus some permanent rose were painted into a prewet tulip area. Before this dried, the edges were softened. Then, the leaves and stems were painted with sap green, Skip's green and undersea green all mixed with cobalt blue, winsor purple or aureolin, onto prewet paper. The surface is 140# Fabriano paper presoaked and stretched .