As a botanical illustrator in training, I really need to increase my painting speed. Margaret Mee painted over 500 finished works in 40 years—not including sketches! 
So my goal for today was to finish this watercolor of Stelitzia that I began over the weekend. Here you can see it as it was at 7:30 this morning (it’s a square, slightly wider than an A4 sheet):
Strelitzia at 0730 hours
Then I went off and did my morning routine, coming back to the studio at 10:30 Here is the painting at about 11:00 am:
Strelitzia, 1100 hours
As you can see, I’m working all over the painting, not allowing any one area to become more “finished” than another.
I worked til about a quarter past noon, then took a lunch break. Here the painting is at 1 pm:
Strelitzia at 1300 hours
At this point, the stem is more defined.
I finally laid off for the day at 3 pm (there’s ironing to do, oh boy!). Here’s the final shot of the day.
Strelitzia at 1500 hours
The orange bracts are gaining dimension. I still need to define the blue petals and stamens, the “pod” from where the flowers and bracts spring, and finish the stem and pod with the odd bluish “bloom” that covers this particular specimen.
I didn’t achieve the goal of finishing the painting, but I am pretty excited by having gotten more done in 1 day on a botanical piece than I have managed before.
