Bad painting...bad, bad painting!

Today I decided to follow along with Birgit O'Connor in one of her workshop videos.  She works wet-in-wet with large shapes and sweeping brush motions.  I thought things were going pretty well with her initial exercise to show how much water to use and ways to get the colours to blend on the paper.  I think mine turned out pretty well, with only a few backwash issues (the colours running between rectangles was done intentionally).

Then I thought I'd press on to her next demonstration - a succulent.  It all seemed simple enough, just follow the same steps as in the rectangles.  Of course it would help if I had the same colour palette, but I was not to be deterred by something so small - I improvised and did the best with what I had.  On the first petal I knew I had a problem.  Watching Birgit do it, with her broad sweeping strokes and ability to get the exact shape on the paper with her brush in one stroke, I thought it would be simple.  Turns out there's more to brush handling than I anticipated.

Now, I have painted before and it's turned out decently enough.  I guess I've always known my brush stroke could use some work, but now I REALLY know it!!  Anyway...here's my finished piece.  It's decent enough I suppose for a beginner.  Definitely could use some work.

Here's what Birgit did:

Let's face it, mine just doesn't compare at this stage :P

It's a good thing that I'm not overly self-critical, or I might just want to chuck all my painting gear and hide under my blankets until the world once again becomes a nicer place (I struggled with that thought for a long while).  I think I will try this demonstration again.  I got the impression that I was starting to get an idea of things at the beginning and the end, but in the middle everything went (to give it a Pratchett reference), "banana-shaped".  Ah well, there's nothing like dogged perseverance to learn a new skill!  And now that I know what not to do, the next time should go better, right?