Practicing Shading

I have been practicing shading with my watercolor paints and it's not as easy as it looks. However, I'm pretty proud of this effort even though it took me about an hour to paint. Or maybe more because I had to lay down the light wash and then wait for it to dry before applying the darker colors for shading. I'm happy with it for now. I wish I had more confidence and didn't have to use pencil for my initial drawing but that's ok. I like that the flower looks like the "old fashioned" variety that it is and not something more structured and perfect like some of today's hybrids.