Intuitive Watercolor Florals I: Get Grounded

1. Introduction: Hi, I'm Stephanie Ryan. I'm an intuitive artist and writer and welcome to my intuitive watercolor floral class. Intuitive painting to me is about connecting to my source and feeling my way through the creative process. This allows me to create from a place of peace and knowing from the safe space, I am able to tell the story of my soul through my heart. I create art and words that inspire and courage and comfort others through my stuff. Me, Ryan brand and art licensing business. I have had the opportunity to translate my art into appealing and meaningful products. I have worked with over 100 companies to develop countless products that have been sold around the world are can be found on greeting cards and calendars, notebooks and planners, tumblers and bags and cellphone cases, giftware items and mugs and stationary quilting fabrics, home decor items like bath dinnerware, entertaining pieces, table linens and textiles and pillows. And so much more. Some of my products have been seen at thes top retailers and in fine gift stores around the world. I created the Siris of classes to help you learn the techniques I used to paint in my washy , soulful style. There is so much more to this style than just techniques. Together, we will walk through my creative process. It's about quieting your mind and feeling your way through. We will let the materials do the work and let go over need to control the outcome. We will surrender to the creative process and let our souls tell our story. This first class is about getting grounds it and building a strong foundation. We will cover painting wet on wet, dripping and blending colors and overlapping shapes. We'll be it leaves and flowers using simple brushstrokes combined with basic techniques to make stunning florals. Ah, break down each of the techniques I used into easy to follow projects. This classes for all levels will be starting with my simple basic painting techniques to build a strong foundation to start, and we will build on those techniques in the intermediate and advanced classes. Don't forget to select the follow button and be the first to know when I launched new classes or have special announcements. Also, follow me on instagram at Stephanie dot Ryan dot artist. Okay, let's begin our journey together 2. Creative Toolbox: let's start off by reviewing the supplies in my creative tool, Box E used to kinds of paper. This is the cancer watercolor paper, and I use this mainly for my workshops and have started using it more in my daily practices . I'll be using this the most throughout the classes. This is the Fabbiano artistic Oh extra white hot press, £140 paper. I love this paper. It comes in a block, which makes it nice and easy, so you don't have to tape it down. And I love that. It's a hot press paper. It makes it a lot easier to photo shop your art and remove the backgrounds. I'll be using this towards the end of the class is just to show you the difference between the two papers and now onto brushes. We're gonna use two brushes throughout the syriza classes. The first is the Princeton Neptune round brush. It's a size 10 and it's the brush I probably use the most. It has a really great tip, and it holds a lot of water, so you can get a lot of really great effects with it. The other round brushes the Robert Simons White Sable. It's number 10. It's not as pointed as the other brush, and it doesn't hold as much water, so I prefer using it for my flowers. It gives me just a little bit more control, so I love the round brush. It gives me all the effects I need, and it's really great to learn on. So let's move on to paints. You can use whatever paints you want, but I thought it would be fun for me to show the pain said I use especially the ones that I use for my workshops. These are the colors I use in my workshops. I'm going to be using them throughout the syriza classes. These are the paints here. They start with the light green up here and the end with the violet down here. These are all professional grade paints, but if you don't have them, that's OK. Just much the colors as close as you can and follow along. Or you can use whatever colors you want. It really doesn't matter. It's up to you, so I'm just going to go through them quickly. This is the Shrinky. It's the olive green yellowish. This is whole bine, Shadow Green and I love love. Love this because of the dark green you can get with it. The shrinky Prussian green. It's a really pretty color, and then the Paynes Grey is whole buying hold buying mineral violet schnitkey, finishing Red Divinci Opus pink and you get this really vibrant pink and then hold line. Quinn Noppadon Violence. These are the three brands I use the most. I also use Windsor Newton. I find that I just I like the colors and I like the way they blend together. But again, it's a personal preference, and you should pick the colors and paints that works best for you. The reason why I picked these colors is because they all blend really well together, and also they're not traditional flower colors. I want to take the pressure off of you to paint the perfect flower. I want you to use your imagination and use your intuition to create something fun and unexpected. Let's get started on our first lesson 3. Spiritual Creative Toolbox: I want to take this time to review my spiritual creative tools. Since this is foundational class, I thought that it would be a great place for me to share some of the foundational tools that I use in my spiritual creative practice. We're not gonna deep dive into any of this. I'm just gonna show you how I used these different tools in my creative process. It's all a way that I make are a sacred practice. Throughout this series of classes, we will explore the spiritual tools I used to make artistic or practice items like crystals and essential oils, smudging using Montrose and meditation and some other practices I love to incorporate into my creative practice, going to start with creating a sacred space smudging with sage and crystals. The tools that I describe in this lesson will become part of your spiritual creative tool box. They will set a strong foundation for you to become an active participant in the quality of the energy in your creative life. When she learned how to harness them and feel the shift in your energy field, you will forever hold them close to you and call them in whenever needed. Let's begin with our sacred creative space. A secret creative space is a holding place. It's a cup filled with nurturing and supportive energy, a safe place to create from your heart. It is essential to protect, nurture and support all aspects of your creative process, which includes creating a space that energetically and emotionally support you. I live in a tiny one bedroom cottage, and so I have very limited space for creating. I set up a little area in my living room to paint and do whatever I need to do. I have my computer over on the left side there. It's kind of messy, but where I actually do my creating and my painting, I try to keep this space really clean. I say Jit, I keep the energy feeling good and I fill it with things that I absolutely love. My painting table right now has my singing bulls on it. I love sound healing, and I use those to clear my energy field and the energy in the room. I have a little altar set up honoring the medicine wheel and that changes with seasons. I have one of my intuitive symbols with the mantra on it. Feel your way through. I have my essential oils and some blends that can help me for whatever I may be needing in the moment something as simple as this piece of linen. It's organically dyed linen that I absolutely love and just seeing that there can change my energy. So it's so important to surround yourself with things that you love and that have meaning for you. Obviously, I have crystals everywhere because I'm obsessed with crystals. I like to keep my supplies really clean, neat and organized. Even this something so simple as your brush holder. Ah, this glass piece was a gifts, and I feel the bottom with quartz crystals, just something to make it special. Under here, I keep my drums. They are for clearing the space and my energy and pears Luna outside looking for ducks. And then this space over here is my alter space. This is a space where I do energy where in rituals I clear in charge. My art supplies here, and I also charged my paintings. Before that, I send them out into the world. I load them up with crystals and I staged, um and I send raking energy into them is also where I take a lot of my photos for social media marketing because the lighting is so beautiful here. I love this space, and I think that comes through in my images. The importance of a sacred creative space is having a space that feel special to you, even if it's a tiny table in the corner of your bedroom. Create a supportive space but things you love and good energy, and you will create art that feels that same way. Smudging is an ancient secret ritual used to clear your energy field. You're energy Field can include your mental, emotional, spiritual, physical energy as well as the energy of the space you are occupying. As an artist, it is important to keep your energy clear. This allows you to work with the higher vibrational, expansive energies that help you to get into a state of flow to create your beautiful form of self expression. When you burn white sage, the smoke positively Georges the ions in the room and clears the negative energy from your field, leaving space for that higher vibrational energy to work through you. Sage can also be used on the tools near creative Tool box. This is a great way to remove unwanted energy, and also it helps you to create a deeper connection between you and your supplies. I like to clear my creative space every day, and one way to do this is with white sage. If you're creating and feel blocked or feel imbalanced, grab your sage for a good energy clearing way. That I use crystals is personal to me. You may be called to use them differently, and that's okay. The key is to connect your intuition and follow its lead. I like to look at Krystal's as living energy forms. I treat them the same way I would a flower or a tree. I care for them, but keeping their energy clear and by sending them gentle and loving thoughts and energy crystals have their own vibrational signature. They have the ability to store information and admit their own frequency. When I hold one, I can feel it subtle energy in my hands and body. I've read many books in the meaning and uses of crystals and how to work with them. And to be honest, sometimes it could be a bit overwhelming. I decided the best path for me was to work with them intuitively and trust the information I was receiving. There are some crystal meanings that do resonate with me and others that don't. The best way I've learned to connect with them is by getting quiet with each crystal and listen to what my body and energy you're telling me. Have you ever been drawn to a certain crystal and don't know why? That is your energy resonating with the crystal. Perhaps your energy is low and the vibration of that stone is what you need. Whatever the reason may be, don't ignore the connection. There is a reason you're being called to that crystal. Remember, It doesn't have to be complicated. Build your own relationship with your stones and they will guide you. I'd like to fill my creative space with crystals so that they are constantly interacting with me and my surroundings. I also like to put black obsidian in my painting water to clear my water and charge my paintings with the crystals. Beautiful, subtle energies I love using amethysts for connecting to my intuition Black Tor Moline for protection and clearing negative energy. Sit Treen for personal will, manifesting an abundance clear quartz for clarity and focus and energy amplification. Moonstone for journeying dreams and connecting to the sacred feminine, then rose quartz for unconditional love, compassion in trust. So you may be asking yourself why? Why should I use crystals or sage my space or have a special space to create it and you don't have to? It's up to you. But what I have learned is that these processes and these tools have helped me to connect more fully with my artwork. They have helped me to get to a space, to define my style and to really create a style that is my heart and my soul. I don't think I would have gotten there without the use of meditation and mindfulness and these different tools. So that's what these classes are all about. Connecting to your intuition, connecting to your work and making it all special and an experience to bring more meaning into your everyday creative process. 4. Guided Meditation Get Grounded: before we get started, I would like to do a quick meditation with you. So it's a really, really quick meditation. We're going to get grounded. Remember, this is a foundational class, and so I think, in honor of that, we should do a quick grounding meditation. I want you to just close your eyes and let's begin. Get comfortable in a seated position with your feet on the ground in your sacred creative space. Take a deep breath in and release. Imagine a golden light coming down and resting just above your head. That's this golden light. Years through you, it will feel every atom of your being with its healing peaceful energy. I feel this late as it enters through the top of your head at your crown chakra. Take a deep breath in an honor, your divinity. A see. The Lyte moves down. It pauses at your third eye beyond your brow. Take a deep breath in an honor. Your intuition, like, continues to move down into your neck. Take a deep breath in an honor, your voice, your truth. Follow the brilliant light down into your shoulders and let it rest for a moment in the center of your chest. Take a deep breath in an honor. Your loving are moving lower. Now this powerful and eliminating golden light Pulis. Is that your solar plexus chakra Just below your strength. Take a deep breath in an honor, your personal power and you're worth The light is growing brighter. Now continue following it down to just below your navel, your sacred chakra. Take a deep breath in and honor your creativity like clues even brighter as it slips interior chakra at the base of your spine and starts to pulse. Follow the pulsing light as it moves down your legs three or feet and into their golden lane, forms into a bright, shimmery, gold threat like roots and moves through the foundation into the air. Deeper and deeper, the thread grows. I feel it's strength. It's power and its gravity has. It moves down through the soil and rock taper, taper. What is the thread reaches the earth's core moves down into the fiery center. It does not. It glows brighter, turns red. Take a deep breath in an honor. The earth the glowing red thread begins to ascend. It is being called back. It starts its journey back up through the earth. It enters into your feet and up your legs into your root chakra at the base of your spine. Take a deep breath. It feel the grounding power of the earth within you. Red thread transforms back into illuminating red light. It floats up through your body, turning orange at your sacred shot up. Two yellow. Your solar plexus transforms into a beautiful green light at your heart in a bright blue as it moves up through your throat chakra as it enters your head, it transforms into a deep indigo at your third eye and brilliant violin at your crown. Light now moves out of the top of your head where once again turns gold, every trends home to the light glow of the universe. Yeah, I feel your connection with you are powerful, strong, safe and protected. Feel your body been your eyes, Reacher, your sacred creative space. You are now ground ready to begin creating. Okay, let's begin 5. Color Swatches: for the first lesson in this class, we're going to be making color swatches. We're going to be mixing colors together to see how they blend. And we're also going to be practicing the techniques that will be using throughout this class. Give yourself permission, toe. Let go and have fun. Let's begin. So I made these little three inch by three inch square swatches, just used a ruler, and I tackled the edges. So we're going to start. I just use some of the light green and just painted on there. No, I'm gonna get some water, and I'm gonna just gonna push the water up into the green. And this is a technique I use a lot. You can see already how it's reacting. The water will bleed into the color. You can leave it just like this. It's really beautiful. Or you can add more color to it a little bit more green. I'm gonna take some of the Prussian green, and I'm gonna trip that in. No, this is a technique will be using throughout the class, and I'm just gonna mix some color. See how that reaction created that blue color. They're the kind of things that were going to try to achieve just a color and play. You can see how much water I use, and I'm gonna drip in some more. See it reacting. Just gonna leave it like that and see how it dries. It's gonna dry in such a beautiful way. Okay, let's do another one. This is a little bit of Prussian green can mix in some water and then I'm gonna play with some contrast. We'll see how dark I can get the color there, and then I'm gonna mix in some shadow green. You can see how they're still all mixing together. It's at more water, not fussing too much with it drip in more water, then on a little bit more of that shadow green to the top, Get nice and dark. Okay, Now we're gonna try my favorite color, Payne's gray, to put it on nice and dark. And then I'm gonna take some water, and I'm just going to kind of blend it down. This is a really great thing. Toe. Learn how to mix water into your paints as they're on your paper. I do this a lot when I'm using my blending techniques so it's just dripping some color and mix it right there on the paper. Remember, this is your opportunity to play. Put them just mixed together. You don't need to control it. You can just let the materials do their own thing at a little bit more water and then to mix it up a little bit. I'm just gonna put a different color at the bottom. This is the Venetian red. I'm just gonna add it, not mix it in too much and just let it go. I'm quickly going to go through and create a group of swatches. Watch hell I blend and drip and experiment with each one. Get lost in the process. There's no pressure to create anything perfect here. See how the water pushes into the color and see how that color blends in. But the materials do what they need to dio and then just let them go. Try mixing together really dark colors and mix them on the swatch. Maybe dripping some water Really play. This is your time to experiment. I want you to make its many of these as you want to get lost in the process. Play with contrast. Play with mixing colors you may not normally mix together. I used this technique a lot of my work learning to drip and blend and see how the water affects the pain is so important to achieving. My look even experimented with making some of them look like landscapes. There are no rules. Just play, okay? We're gonna finish up this last one, and we're gonna let them dry, and then we're gonna come back and look at the mall. So the swatches were all dry and they turned out so cool. I I love the effects that we got. I love how this one looks like a landscape. They always dry so much cooler than they look when they're wet to. The main purpose of this exercise was really to give you a quiet space to play. I want you to play with the water and paint and paper and see how they react to each other . But most importantly, I want you to allow the materials to do the work for you, without any pressure to perform or make a perfect painting. And now you have all these really cool swatches. So they added bonus this exercises that you can use the swatches in your social media marketing photos. I have a whole stack of them that I'm gonna use to stylized my photos for Instagram. Here's an example of one image, but I'll be using the more throughout this class. 6. Simple Brushstroke Leaves: We're going to start with brush strokes and we're going to be using the rail and brush because, honestly, it's the brush I use the most. I really do a simple one stroke leaf exercise. I'd like to keep my shape simple and let the effects of the materials make things interesting. This is something we'll talk about throughout the class. This is a great exercise to get acquainted with your round brush. For a start with a tick, we're gonna press down and lift up and try to maintain a thin stem. Try not to lose contact with the paper, but if you do it's OK. Let's go ahead and paint your whole line. The hard part about this isn't so much when you press down, it's when you pull up and try to maintain that thin stem. So we're just gonna fill this up with lines. We're gonna do some shadow green, which is a dark green. You can stagger your lines, start reverie any to and again, just press down and lift up, press down and lift up, and then we're gonna do a line of the pressure in green and just fill up your whole sheet So this is a great exercise for warming up, and it also makes a really great pattern. You're gonna move well into the next step and just make some really simple single strike leaves. We're not gonna be spending a lot of time here. So with this Princeton brush, it holds a lot of water. So you can see that when you press Dale the paint pools in this area and it'll dry with this really cool hartline. So if we were to use the white sable brush, you can see that it's thinner and so it doesn't hold this much water. We're gonna fill it up the same. Yeah, we're gonna go ahead and point press down, pull upped, then Stan, and you can see the difference already where it didn't pull us much. And so it will probably leave a line, but it won't be as harsh of a line. It's just more subtle. So this is a personal preference. It's up to you. I would experiment with both brushes. Okay, so let's just practice a few more. You can see how that one is pulling a lot this fun up a lot of water in there, so That's something to that you want to learn throughout this process is really getting to know your brush. How much water is on it? How much pigments in it? Okay, just a few more. It's Prussian green, and then I'm gonna go up in. I'm gonna grab the light green without even taken the Prussian green off of my brush and you could see them mixing together. I'm gonna do the same thing and see how they're all mixing together on that leaf. That's what I mean when I talk about letting the materials do the work for you and we'll be covering that a lot in this class. Such a simple technique that can produce such beautiful effects. Let's move on to the next lesson. 7. Two Stroke Leaves: Now we're going to a two stroke lead and I think this is leave that I probably use the most throughout my practice. It's a really simple point. Press to the left, pull up into your stem and then press to the right and Paula to another one point left. Pull up into the right. Pull up this first line. We're just gonna to single colors. But I want you to resist. Is holding up really tight on your brush and trying to draw out the shape. I don't want you to try and make this perfect little leaf and then go ahead and paint it in because you're never going to get the beautiful effects of just letting the brush do what it needs to dio. Okay, let's do some shadow green to the left, to the right or stem. So it's a really simple technique. None of these air perfect. And that's what makes them interesting. It's now we're gonna mix it up a little bit and we're gonna put a line in suppression green in some of this shadow green and left, and you can see there. Those colors are mixing together in the leaf. Now I'm going to get some of the pressure green and just put a line, put another line and see how it's pulling. You may think that's a mistake, but just leave it cause it's gonna dry in a really beautiful way. Okay, no one's really light play with color play with how light and dark it is. You'll see the subtle differences that different ways they dry. You can just drip color in, see how it just reacts to the water, and it just keeps moving and drying. We're just allowing the materials to do what they need to dio and you can see, like how they're all drying differently and that they're still in the process of becoming experiment. Try different things on each one of these leaves. We're gonna load up with this dark shadow green, and we're just going to drip it in, and it's going to continue to react. And then you see, we have the stark leaf with shadow green, and what you can dio is remove the water from your brush and then pull paint up. This will give you another really cool effect. Don't be afraid to experiment with lights and darks. See how I put in that dark color and it's just bleeding out. You want to just leave that and let it go? You can start to see how cool some of these things are starting to dry. Okay, let's keep going. Left, right, stem in your line, drip in some pain. See how cool that reacted to the water and we're just gonna leave it. We're gonna let it dry. However it needs to dry. They're really the beautiful moments that happen in this process. I can even try just dripping in some plain water and see how that reacts. Just dripping A little color is the tip. This is what we did with the swatches. Remember? We were dripping in color. We were working, went on wet. We were planting colors together, dripping in water. It's the same thing. Let's go ahead. Keep practicing. Here's another cool thing. You can try to half the leaf in one color. Then I'm gonna get a lot of the dark green on there and do the other side and just leave it and let them run together. You know, pretty that IHS, Let's go ahead and finish out the rest of the page. This is a fun project. You can just get lost in my love how None of these leaves are perfect, but they're all so beautiful. With their different effects. Let's move on to our next lesson. 8. Leaves + Stems: in this lesson. We're going to take those single leaves and add stems to them. We're gonna fill up the page. We're gonna move them around a little bit. We're not gonna over let the stems, but we are going to practice overlapping. Some believes again. Pushed the left. Push the right and pulled on your stunt in a dripping color had contrast all the same things. Play with your color. Had some lights and darks. Move around the page. Don't stick with one color for two ball. Keep bouncing back and forth. Just watch as the colors do what they need to dio and the leaves take shape on their own. This is all about experimenting and playing. We're gonna practice overlapping the leaves a little bit and see how the colors bleed into each other. Stripping color practice. Getting your thin stems Practice overlapping the leaves and letting the colors bleed together. Just don't let the two different branches touch. See how that's just continuing to spread. So go ahead and fill up your page. Remember, you want to dance around. You don't want to stay with one color for too long. You want to work wet on wet. You want to try different techniques, adding water dripping in pain, overlapping a little bit, letting colors bleed into each other. Experiment? Yeah, Look at all the beautiful effects were able to get. Okay, let's move onto the next lesson. 9. Overlapping Leaves: in this lesson. We're going to practice overlapping, and we're going to do it with a really simple palm leaf sheet. So again it's a single stroke. Leave. Well, uh, just them on there. You can pull out or pull in your leaves. It took to you. You can have some of leaves touching each other. It's just do one more and then we're gonna move on. Press down, pull up. This is where that first exercise helps you so much can see where they're touching there, and everything's bleeding together. Okay, let's start with a new sheet of paper. Okay, so we're going to keep the leaves Single color. It's practice getting good at the brush. Strokes vary the size of your leaves, and then we're just going to overlap are shapes. And we're just gonna leave it there and we're going to let those colors bleed together. See how they're starting to plead out. Really pretty effects. Just go through experiment and play. I just want you to get used to overlapping and working fast and working. Kind of with the wedding went, you have to work fast because you don't want it to dry. You wanna work that went on with. Just stick to these three colors. See how it's all blending together. That's what we want. So keep going. I want you to feel a pool sheet. Remember a play experiment. See what happens when you overlap the colors. See how they blend into each other. Also notice when your brush goes through one color and picks up that color and starts to paint it onto your new leaf. That's a really beautiful thing. They're the kind of things that you want to happen. You can get so many beautiful effects with this one simple technique. So that's if relieves. We're gonna move on to flowers next, you know? 10. Simple Flower Shapes: you're going to begin by painting simple flower shapes. We're going to let the techniques and the materials do the work for us way. We're going to use all the techniques that we use when painting the leaves and apply them to the flowers. When I paint flowers, I like to keep my shapes very simple. He's the side of my brush to paint the pedals, so you used the site of the brush and I pull in, keep the shape simple and pull everything to the center. Then I like to pull in some little spoke shapes, and as I'm doing that, you can see that the colors air bleeding out just like the dripping techniques with the leaves. The trip in some water. Remove some of the water for my brush and grab the purple, and then just make some marks in the center of the flower. For me, I'm not trying to create the perfect flower. I'm trying to just use my imagination and paint the flower the way that I wanted to look so you can see how the colors are still bleeding. They're still moving. The flower isn't finished yet. It's still becoming so that simple. Let's move on to the next flower again. The side of my brush pulling in the pedals. Bring everything to the center. I'm going to switch things up a little bit. And maybe half of the flower is the Venetian right color number. There's no rules. This is whatever you want it to be. Just follow your intuition, create what you want to create. We're gonna pull the little spokes in everything into the center, can see that the colors air blending. You don't have to do anything. They're going to do the work for you. A little bit of purple again. Just making some marks on the inside of the flower. I'm not concerned with exactly what the inside of flowers supposed to look like. I think the important thing with my style is that I keep the shape simple, and I let the technique and the materials make it look beautiful. Starting some leaves add in some side flowers really simple shapes. I'm using the side of my brush in the point to make the different pedals, takes on the Venetian red and just drop it in and just let it to its thing. Watch it move watch it spread. I'm gonna switch my brush up so I can get a good point for my stems Again, This is a personal preference you can use either brush well down some stems, making this up as I go displaying filling the page, the leaf techniques that we already covered, dropping in color, any contrast in a fit of flour. And over here. And this is like this single stroke leaf that we practiced just point, push tail, Come back up using the point of the round brush play with color dripping paint. Well, your spokes to the center. Remember, it doesn't have to be perfect drip in some water and get some of the purple and at a little contrast, the center making works, not overthinking it Well, do you? It's gonna drip some color into the tips. Just gonna move around the page, fit in some more flowers. This one is just a quick stroke pulling to the center. Sometimes the faster I move, the less control I have and the prettier the shapes, turnout. That's something that will practice later. So just put in little stem fill the space long single stroke leaves had some contrast drips , um, color. It's to another one. See, trying to move a little bit faster, pulling the petals into the center, varying my strokes a little bit, adding color in while I work, pulling that center, dropping in water. So the more you get used to the brush and use the techniques, the faster you'll be able to go and the more proficient you'll get. Grab some purple, but in my center, just making marks drop in some pink, just feeling my way through. That's leaves. It's been another little flower down here and pulling to center, varying my shape but keeping it simple, adding in some color and pulling into the center, letting it please try not to control it too much. It's little green center on that one. Do you think we're pretty much done? Just gonna go in and ads and leaves? Those are the techniques they used to make my flowers. Let's move on to the next lesson where we're going to paint some simple flower and leaf combinations 11. Flower + Leaves I: Now that we've learned all the techniques were going to use our intuition and let ourselves get lost in the process, we're going to allow the materials and simple shapes to work in harmony with each other. Let's make our first flower with leaves. So let's just start by pulling in the pedals. It was We're gonna drip in some color. We're gonna get some of the Venetian red, and we're just gonna drip it in and see what happens. Let it react to the water. Let it spread out, drip in some water. Something as simple is dripping. Water can have the most beautiful effects. I just feel your way through gonna put some pink in here, But he's a lot of water and I'm just gonna let it sit there and dry naturally. Gonna try not to fuss with it have been more pink. This is everything you learned when we were doing the leaves and the single flowers. We're just pulling it all together. Now look at all the beautiful reactions that are happening already. It's gonna take some of the water off my brush. I'm gonna double up the water right there a little bit and then, with a dry brushing, I get some purple. I'm doing this because I don't want to plead too much one of making the center. These are the things that with practice you'll start to learn and feel just gonna tap it in . I'm not trying to re create the perfect flower. I'm just making marks at some of the green in for contrast. Just keep diving in color. You can see everything is still blending together. Has a life of its own. It's making its way to where it needs to pay Pulis stem. Remember, I don't have a plan, just kind of making it up as I go, letting my intuition guide me. We're just playing. Take some of the Prussian green, let it overlap a little bit. There, split those colors, blend together, but in my lines get a lot of pigment on my brush. Just put it right down. We'll let those colors played together. It could be until a little stem. Look here. I'm going to touch that bit of water and let them blend in together. I don't want you to see things like that is mistakes. I want you to see them as opportunities to make something really pretty. And take that Prussian green. I'm just gonna put it right down. See how they all just blended with each other. That's where they're really pretty. Stuff happens, really. This is what I mean about letting the materials do the work for you. If you were to try to create that look or effect on your own, it wouldn't be the same. You have to trust materials, trust the process. Let's paint another flower. 12. Flower + Leaves II: before we begin Let's take a deep breath Clear your mind and get grounded Open yourself up and allow the process to happen through You feel Don't think everything you need is within you Let's begin. We're gonna start out with the simple shade Could make this one blue When the pedals shorter on one side pull into the center Gonna grab some this like green pulling it in It's some of the dark shadow green Just dip it in the center Keep it simple. Gonna trip in some water You can see as it starts to change and react We're gonna get some of the Prussian green We're just gonna take that in the middle. Just watch as it spreads. Now we're just gonna take some of this nation red and I'm gonna water down and I'm just gonna trip a little bit in there. Maybe we just leave it in this one spot. Just a beautiful little hint of color. You know, it's pulled down the stem. Sprechen has a really nice point on it, so it makes it a lot easier. So start up here, we'll make our leave. It was gonna overlap it. I'm not gonna worry. No. Just all blend together as it should. A little contrast. The shadow cream. Let it bleed. Opponents and lines Oppression green. Just let it go and watch as that color starts to spread Drop ins. More contrast. I just feel your way throughout. You know what you're painting needs. You have to trust yourself. See you. The top part of the flower where the water we dripped in just keeps bleeding. It's gonna be really beautiful. Mark there. See how beautiful that looks. I'm just gonna take the pressure green. I'm just gonna smush it right in there and let it go. I still depression green in my brush. And now I'm just gonna take some of this light green. I'm just gonna put in another leaf, and then you'll see those colors combining on the page. Put another one down here. You can see the colors in there. You'll get so much more of a beautiful effect by just letting it be and letting the materials do the work for you than trying to create that on your own. Do you remember? I have no plan. I'm just feeling my way through this, letting my intuition do the work. I had a little dark in here. You can see how it's still reacting. The water is still kind of doing its thing and drying and really pretty ways. The less you try to control this process, the happier you're going to be with results. It's put in a little side flower because peace is almost done. Bring that light green and you can see how it's reacting and bleeding and moving well. Stem Male saddens some leaves. It's kind of making it up. As I count, you can see where that little bit of the Venetian red that we popped in. It's just such a subtle, pretty little effect. It's still kind of moving, growing, and let's move on to our next flower. 13. Flowers + Leaves III: you've come so far together. We've learned so many new techniques. Now let's paint our last flower With this last flower, we're just gonna paint a side view. Gonna keep it simple. Usar press strokes. Pull into the center tip in her permission read and just let it go. Let it do its thing. Get some Violet. Yeah, Just make these little marks. Well, said anything I was planning on doing, it just happened. I'm gonna let it sit there and let it bleed into the other colors. I'm gonna drip in some water. You can see my brush wasn't totally clean. When I dripped in the water, there's a little bit of other color. And there I'm just gonna leave it because I know that that will dry in a really beautiful way. You may see that as a mistake, and I look at it as an opportunity. We haven't used a lot of the Paynes grey, So manganese it in this flower. Remember, there's no rules. If you want a blue leaf, you can have a fully It's up to you. It's whatever you want to come out. It's whatever you're painting, wants it to pay, just feeling my way through this. I don't have a plan. There's pressure in green on. I get some of the shadow green. And remember, I still have both of the colors on my brush, and now they're gonna mix together and you can see here it's gonna let them go. Gonna let the extra water, that's all my brush pool and make marks with around. You can see how much pain is on my brush right now, too. These are all things that with practice you'll get used to and you'll know exactly what you have in your brush and the kind of marks it's going to make. So I think I'll make another flower. So Dale is on the make one side of it, this pretty blush color, and then just to mix it up a little, I'm gonna grab some of my Venetian red, and I'm gonna make the other pedals this dark, cool color, unexpected, different. It's gonna get some violet that in the center I love what's happening here. It's all blending together. Those are the moments that I love. Those are the moments that feel magical to may put in this leaf. I'm gonna put it right over that stem. Don't care. In this leaf is gonna kiss the side of the flower and those colors we're gonna mix together . It's moments like that where you may think it's a mistake and it's not okay, e think that's it for this flower. 14. Paper Comparison: in this lesson, I'm going to show you the difference between the cancer and watercolor paper that we've been using and the Fabbiano artistic Oh paper. So this paper is extra white. It's hot press. It's £140. It's on a block, which makes it easier to use. It's just fast you don't tape it down. I especially love that. It's hot press, and it has the smooth surface because the paint dry, so smooth and beautifully on it. And also it's great for photo shopping. It makes it a lot easier to remove the backgrounds, so let's see the difference. I'm just gonna quickly paint this flower here, and then I'm going to fast forward through painting. But you can already see that it sits on top of the paper a little bit differently, and I think because of that, it drives in a more subtle and smooth way. I'm just gonna go through still a little bit of this so you can see the way the paper takes the paint. It takes a little bit of getting used to. I remember when I first started painting with it, I wasn't sure about it until I started to see the way that it tried. And then when I started to photo, shop it and see how much easier it was to remove my backgrounds, I was sold. I'm just gonna fast forward through this, and then when it's done, we're gonna do a little comparison. - So here they are, side by side. The one on the left is the cancer on paper, and then one on the right is the Fabbiano hot press. And here's a close up. So on the left is the Kansan, and you can see the cold press background. On the right is the fab Rhianna with the hot press, and you can barely see it so you can see how much easier it is to photo shop and remember the backgrounds. The only other difference to me is the way that it dries the fabric. Yano dries in a smoother, more subtle way, with prettier transitions, the Kansan on the left, there just some rough spots in the way that it dries. And other than that, I don't notice that big of a difference for my licensing work. I used the Fabbiano I love the ease of photo shopping at the backgrounds, and I love the subtle salt transitions, and it's archival. I do find myself using the cancer and war or more. I like to experiment on it and play. I love using it for my workshops and classes, and I love painting my sacred circles and my mantra flags on loan, and it's becoming more and more a part of my daily practice. But here's the thing. You may not like either one of these papers, and that's okay. Give them a try, see what you think. And if they don't work for you, then find something that does. This isn't about what I use and what I like. It's about what's going to work for. You remember that in all of your practices. 15. Class Project: with a class project, I'd like to give you a few things to work on. First, I would love for you to share your leaf exercises as you were creating them for the class. This is a fun project and a great exercise for you to work on to increase your skills and get used to the techniques for the second project. When the quest is finished, I would love for you to paint one of the florals with leaves from the lessons. Then I would like for you to give the grounding meditation to try. And once you're in a relaxed, meditative state, create your own intuitive floral. As you're working through this process, pay attention to how you're feeling learning to connect to your feelings, and Expressen through your art is a beautiful form of intuitive painting. Get ground it, find your flow and let go. Share your projects as you finish them in the project section below. That way I can see them and comment on them. This is also a great opportunity to create a supportive community, an intuitive painting tribe. Share your class experiences and comment on other class members posts. We are all on this journey together 16. Final Thoughts and Class Previews: Well, we did it. We made it through all the lessons we learned so many great foundational techniques to help you to achieve this style. I am so beyond grateful that you guys allow me to guide you through this process. I learned so much as well and I can't wait to see your project. So please post them in the project section and I will comment on them. And again, thank you so much. Next class in the intuitive watercolor floral Siri's is find your flow in class to you will learn the techniques I used to blur and blind my florals to create my washy, soulful style. Our goal will be to take this new technique and build onto the skills you learned in class one and become comfortable with the style so that you can start to find your flow. We will also add to our spiritual creative toolbox in Class three. Let go. I will guide you through my intuitive painting process. You will combine all the techniques you've learned, connect to your intuition and allow the process to happen through you. We will fill up your spiritual creative toolbox that you have plenty of tools to help you along your path to making artistic or practice. You will learn my favorite way to paint florals. You will fill up your paper with washy florals and beautiful marks and then use templates to cut out one of a kind abstract florals. So this is my absolute favorite way of creating. We're gonna fill up the sheet of paper with the florals and marks and all the things that we've learned, and then you're gonna look at it and you're gonna be like, That was fun. It was it was cool. But then we're gonna take these templates and we're going to search around your painting and you're going to see these most amazing abstract florals just appear before you. So, um, I love it. It's a great technique, and I can't wait to share it with you. Don't forget to select the follow button and be the first to know when I launched new classes or have special announcements. Also, follow me on instagram at Stephanie dot Ryan dot artist. If you share your projects on instagram, be sure to hash tagged, um, make art a sacred practice. That way, I'll be sure to see them and be able to support you in your secret practice