Help from "Watercolor Basics: Shape and Light Value"   - (Chinkok Tan)

I started this week with trying to paint some daisies that a friend gave to me. I was really struggling with how the foliage was looking flat. No matter what I tried, the leaves and flowers were not looking quite right. I could not seem to get the shading right.

So I thumbed through the collection of art books I have. I tend to pick them up when ever I see them at thrift shops, library sales, book shops, etc. with the intention of reading them. However, they usually end up on a shelf as if I were only into collecting art books. 

I came across a book titled "Watercolor Basics: Shape and Light Value". I realized that the trouble I was having was that I needed to learn more about light value. With only one light value, images will appear flat and not three dimensional. With the daisies that I was painting, I was using multiple colors, but not variations in the light values of the same color. WOW!

So I practiced with two colors: yellow and green. I used lemon yellow mixed with yellow ochre for the flower  and sap green as the starting pointing  for the pepper.