Watercolour lilacs

 The streets of Oslo are now full of lilacs in bloom. They are beautiful. And quite difficult, at least for me, to capture in watercolour. Here are some examples of sketches I have made. I strive to achieve a loose style, but I need to practice, practice and practice. I have used both salt and clingfilm on these sketches to play with different textures.

 This sketch shows more clearly the clingfilm effect that indicate leaves, and the salt effect that gives a nice representation of the lilac.

I found it surprisingly difficult to paint the lilac. At least to achieve the mental vision of how I want a painting of them to look like. I want to achieve a dreamlike impression of them, and also to capture their intensity - their sweet perfume that pulls our attention towards them when we walk past a lilac three on a warm summers night.

This is a pen sketch I am working from. I will continue to paint lilacs and see where I end!