Painting Flowers

I bought a book at National bookstore, painting flowers using photographs. I love all the paintings! Unfortunately, almost all of the paintings require me to use a masquepen or masking fluid for the veins of the flowers and to achieve the intricate  details of the flowers. The painting above and below are just a few of the watercolor projects that does not require any masking fluid.

But the books teaches the techniques needed for flower painting, as well the colors you will need to build your palette.

 for this painting, I made a few alterations and I did not stick with the colors used in the example ( simpky because most of them I dont have ) so I just used whatever is similar. I find that the green stems over powered the flowers abit so I lifted the colors. Maybe I will just correct some tones next time.

 Now for the above paintig, admitedly, I painted itin a hasted. I used a sponge (man made ) to create the effect of the flowers. I was a bit lazy and distracted at that time with my son so I just wanted to finish the painting right away.