Colour or no colour?

I love doing little sketches in my sketchbook. I don't have as much time and energy for getting out my acrylics and a canvas or art journal, as I would like. But I want to do something creative as often as I can, every day, if possible. And sketchbooks are just perfect for that. I have a number of different sketchbooks for different themes and media.

Nature is my biggest inspiration, and I love sketching flowers, and flower/nature patterns. I usually make a pencil sketch first to get the design and composition right, then go over it with a variety of pens.

I love colour, but I also love the purity of the black and white sketch, and I often can't make up my mind whether to add colour, or to leave the pen version. Like in this case, where I really liked the black and white version, but felt that I had to add colour, because this is a sketchbook with proper water colour paper. Such sketchbooks aren't always easy to find here, and this one, I had ordered in the United States, so it felt like a bit of a waste to not add some watercolour paint.

At the end, I made three versions of my simple flower pattern. The first one I left without colour, in the second one I only added colour to the flowers, and in the third one, I added a background too. I love to see the three different versions, and the different effects the paint give. But most of all, I love drawing up the designs. So relaxing, and therapeutic.