Sycamore seeds

Sometimes you look at something you've seen for years and it's as if you see it for the first time. That happened this week when I went to collect the post. The post boxes are opposite the house under a sycamore tree. I watch these trees every autumn and spring because there is three in a row and they change one after the other, not together. The one on the left, behind the post boxes, changes first and just recently the little helicopter seeds have been falling - the leaves are slowly changing but are not quite ready yet.

So how come this is the first time I've noticed they have such beautiful colours? I swear they weren't so colourful last year! Makes me wonder how much of my environment I actually take in!

I did three drawings this weekend that I want to paint and this is the smallest, a sort of practice piece to work up to something larger, which hopefully I won't ruin! Painting with watercolours is a bit like walking a tightrope, one mistake and that could be it. This wasn't quite so bad but I had a bit of trouble with the shadow - that's always the hardest area for some reason - and because I used Neutral tint with a little purple, it stained. I like Neutral tint for shadows but I think I'm going to have to give it up until I'm more experienced.