Finished Japanese Garden Page

I was planning on making this my last page of my Virtual Trip to a Japanese Garden journal.  After looking at it I thought it would be better as my first page.  It shows a sketch from each lesson plan and would nicely fit as the first page even though it has sayonara on it.  This was sketched on Arches off white 140 pound cold press watercolor paper.  Watercolor paints are from Daniel and Smith.  The bamboo is drawn in copper ink with a  Pelikano Junior fountain pen, and the writing was with a bamboo pen and watercolor pigment. Just want to thank Laura for letting me know about the class.

Sketching in Watercolors

I am taking an online course in sketching in a travel journal with watercolors. The class is being run by Laure Ferlita http://www.imaginarytrips.com/ImaginaryTrips/Visits.html .  It is a virtual trip to a Japanese Garden. The class is 4 weeks long and we learn different techniques along the way. I was suppose to finish the whole sketch in 30 minutes. It took 60 for me to finish as I took too much time in making the background.  I needed to make the background more simple and concentrate on the main subject the flower. It is also scary to draw a few pencil lines and then do the rest with paint.