Transcripts
1. Class Introduction: Peonies are my favorite flower in the whole world. It's no surprise
that they're also my favorite flower to paint. Hi, I'm Caitlin Sheffer, artist, designer, and
Skillshare teacher. Today, we are going
to learn how to paint peonies in 15 minutes or less, because sometimes it's
just nice to have a bite-size class that you can fit into your busy schedule.
2. Class Overview + Project: In this course, we will go over three
basic principles for painting our paintings. The first is color. In this section, we will do a quick color swatch activity in our sketchbooks or
a scrap piece of paper to help us choose
the perfect palette. I'll be providing
some reference photos for you to look at. Second, our floral shapes. We will practice painting
different shapes to help us paint the
peonies from the side, the top and as a
tight round bud. Third, and finally, we
will cover greenery. We'll practice adding
greenery by painting stems and a number of
different types of leaves. You will need basic watercolor
supplies such as paints, a brush, a sketchbook, or watercolor paper,
as well as water. Our final class project, we'll combine
everything we learn into a cohesive composition. Follow along with me as we
paint the perfect peonies. This is a fast-paced course. If at any point the class
feels overwhelming, feel free to pause and practice until you feel
comfortable moving on. You can also slow down the playback speed using
the controls below. Let's get started.
3. Color Swatch: Before we get started painting our
coral charm peonies, we're going to do a quick
color swatch exercise. You'll just need a
scrap piece of paper, your paints, some
water, and a brush. I'm providing a reference photo of a coral charm peony
that you can look at to see the
different shades and colors that are in
this beautiful flower. I'm starting by getting my brush wet and dipping it into
my quinacridone red, adding a little bit of water
as I go so that I can see the transition from more opaque to transparent
as I add more water. Now I'm testing out
quinacridone pink, which is really similar, just a little more
on the pink side. The more water you add, the more transparent
your color will be. Next step is opera pink. This is a really vibrant, almost neon pink color. Once I get my brush clean, I'm going to go ahead and
grab some cadmium orange. You can see in the center
of the flower there's just a hint of orange
right in the middle. Now I'm grabbing some
lemon yellow deep. Because I want something in-between the
orange and yellow, I'm going to mix my own. I'm mixing together the
cadmium orange and the yellow to create my
own in-between color. Now I'm going to
test out my greens. This first green
is sap green and one of my most used colors. Next, we have undersea green, which is my favorite green that comes straight
out of the tube that I don't really have to mix other colors into to make
it look more natural. It's just a really good
straight out of the tube color. Now we have cascade green, which is a really nice bluish-green that
granulates as it dries. Lastly, we have jaded genuine, which is my favorite,
deep, bluish-green. I like to use this a
lot when I'm painting my peony leaves. There we go. I've tested all the colors
that I wanted to include in my painting so I can use this as a reference as I'm going along.
4. Shapes: Part One: Now that we've had a chance to explore
our color palette, we're going to jump
in the deep end, so to speak, and start tackling those tricky
floral petal shapes. Peonies are really roughly, and I like to break
them down into individual petals by creating C shapes like the
one you see here. It's a gentle curve upwards in the shape of a C. You can do it the traditional way or you can flip it so that
it's backwards. I like to go from side to side and then fill
in the middle. I also like to start from
the bottom and drag my brush upwards and fill in as I go. That creates a really
nice organic petal shape. You can also start dragging
from top to bottom, and you can see how they're just these really
gentle C shapes. Do the edges and then fill
in the centers as you go. For this next one,
I'm going to add a little more paint so
it's more pigmented, and I have a backwards C-shape, and I'm just creating
a nice crescent. This would be ideal for
the outside of the peony. Now that we've had a
quick introduction into petal shapes and painting
individual petals, I want you to look at
this reference photo. It can be a little
intimidating to see that many petals and we're going
to really simplify it. I like to think of it
as painting on a clock. Pick a number around
the clock and start there and then work
your way around the clock. I'm starting around 10 or 11, just creating a
really gentle petal just like we did earlier, and then going to the right, going to the left, just creating these nice
soft C-shaped petals. Start with the sides and
then fill in the middle. You can add more paint
as you go along. Because you're doing wet on wet, the colors will bleed really
nicely into each other. As I reach the bottom, I'm creating a much
bigger petal shape because it is in the foreground and you'll be able
to see more of it. Now I'm going back to
the top and creating the same petal shape with these nice C motions so that my whole
circle is filled in. Now you can see how we've
used the exact same method on every petal with just
slight variations and it's turned into the most
beautiful looking peony. As we go closer to the center, our petal shapes are going
to get smaller and darker. We're just doing the same
method, just smaller movements. As we get even closer
to the center, use the tip of your brush
to create very fine lines. I'm just going to spread out this paint just a little bit. It bled too much, I'm
just spreading it around. But I want to show you a more up-close look at how
I create the center lines. I just put barely any
pressure on the tip of my brush to create
these nice fine lines. Barely any pressure. If you push down
with your brush, you'll get a thicker, more broad line just like this. But if you gently just barely
touch the tip to the paper, you'll get a nice fine line, and that creates the
illusion of the really, really tight petals towards
the center of the flower. To finish it off, I'm going to add in some cadmium, orange, and yellow and just
dab it in the center. You can see in the
reference photo, there's just a hint
of orange and yellow. I threw you in the deep end
there. It's a little tricky. Just take your time, press "Pause" and practice this until you're ready
to move on to part 2.
5. Shapes: Part Two: The last time I
purchased peonies, I took a ton of photos, views from the side, from the bottom, from the top and all of the different
variations in between. We've already tackled the
most difficult perspective, which is the one we just
completed in Part 1. Now we're going to
simplify things a bit and just do a side view. I'm using these nice
C shapes working my way outward towards the center, dragging my brush
as I go along so I have a nice base layer. I'm getting more paint, so it's more pigmented. Doing these C shapes again, this time I'm only
covering about half of the flower to create
this nice 3D look. The darker petals in the
front tell me there are in the foreground and
the lighter petals in the back show me there
are in the background. I like to leave the petals jagged so that it looks roughly. Now, I'm making a big C-shape, almost looks like a U. Going from top to
bottom this time, just dragging my brush. This peony that
I'm painting right now would be a more closed bud. It's not very open. You get the illusion that
it's a peony just barely from the top where there's
some ruffles showing, but it's really tight, it's not too open. Lastly, we're going to paint a really tight bud. Super easy. We're basically just
painting a circle, but adding a few lines on the edges so that it's
not a perfect circle. We want it to look organic and have a little
bit of variation. To summarize, we're just making
gentle C shapes just like this and then you can reverse the C-shapes
so it's backwards. That is essentially
the basic motion for painting peonies, top to bottom on the outsides, working my way
towards the center. Once you've practiced
this a few times, it becomes second nature. Now that we've got
these really simple shapes under our belt, we're going to go
back and practice the frontal side view
that we did in Part 1. On the clock, picture your clock starting at 10:00 or 11:00, then working your way
from side to side. I like to do a nice broad
C stroke at the top, another one right next to it and that gives it a
really beautiful curve. You can drag your paint as you go so that it doesn't
dry too splotchy. I'm going back down
to the bottom and creating my really large petals. These are the ones
that are hanging down in the foreground. Nice big petals
towards the bottom. Adding more paint as I go so
that they're more vibrant. Then once I've filled in
my clock or my circle, I start adding petals
in the center and I get more and more fine lines as I get closer to the center. Just to review, the less
you push on your brush, the finer your lines will be. So take a minute just
to practice painting these fine lines in a nice circle just like
I'm doing right now. It's a really good
way to practice, getting those really
nice sharp, fine lines. When you push down
on your brush, you get this fatter,
more broad line. Once you've mastered
these principles, it becomes really easy
to paint peonies. I used to be so
intimidated by them, but now it's just second nature. Now I'm mixing up
some orange and yellow to paint the
center of my peony. Just a little hint of
orange for my center. Then we are ready to
move on to greenery. See, it's not that bad. If you're feeling
overwhelmed, it's okay. Just pause and keep practicing. i think I'll add just a
little bit more color. Needs a little pop
towards the center. Just drag it around until you
feel like it looks perfect. Good job. We're
ready to move on. Let's hit greenery next.
6. Leaves + Greenery: Painting leaves and greenery is one of my very
favorite things to paint. We're just going
to dive right in. If you need a more
advanced tutorial, check out my class on
painting watercolor greenery. I'm mixing undersea green with a little bit of
quinacridone pink. Adding pink or red makes
it look more natural. I'm just going to create
these nice simple stems by dragging my brush
from bottom to top, creating a medium thickness. I'm using a round brush size 12. Just dragging from
top to bottom, and then I'm going
to just barely put any pressure and use the tip of my brush to create another stem, but this time it's going to
be very thin, very skinny. Each one I do, I'm curving
just a slightly different way. Now I'm pushing and
putting a lot of pressure on my brush to create
a very thick stem. This is a really good
exercise in brush control. Just getting a little
more undersea green, mixing in a little bit of pink before I start
my next exercise, by dragging my brush upward
creating a nice thin stem, and this time I'm going to add a little tiny leaf
up towards the top. Just a little stem dragging from the
center of the stem out, and adding these
tiny little marks. These are those little leaves
that you see on a stem. They're not the really big ones, they're just the
little tiny ones. Now I'm going to
add a bigger leaf, and I have a longer
stem that branches off. Making a mark like we did
with the petal shapes, dragging from the
center outward, just creating these nice lines. Now peony leaves are usually grouped in sets
of three or five. This leaf right now has
three little leaf sections. I'm just going to
dab in a tiny bit of a darker green
towards the bottom. This creates more
realistic shading. Dragging it and just
dotting it in as I go along to give it some
visual interests. Just barely touching my
brush to create a fine line, and doing the same thing again, creating three distinct
separations of my leaf, and then moving the paint
around as it puddles, so that it doesn't
get too splotchy. It helps to drag your brush just slightly along the edges so that it doesn't
look too perfect. I'm mixing another green, and adding a little more pink, and I come down to this
section of the paper, push down with my brush, and create a nice broad stroke. Using some Jadeite Genuine, get a nice rich dark green, fill in that space. Dragging my brush along the
edge to create some ridges. Then creating this partition in a leaf and another
one on the top. Coming over to the
side of my paper, we're going to do it again
with a nice fine line. Drop down the little curve. This leaf is from
a different angle. Instead of it being head on, it's drooping to the side. We're just going to have
the leaves drooping down, give it a nice change
in perspective. Continue to spread the paint around so that it doesn't
become too blotchy. I add a little bit here
using the same method, pulling my brush from the
center outward to create this nice feathered
effect on the leaves. Adding a little bit more of the Jadeite Genuine
to the third leaf, gives it the illusion that
it's in the foreground. For our last example, we're going to work quickly. We're going to pull upward
to create a nice stem, and create two branches
off of the main stem. When I have these branches, I like to drop in some darker paint where
the two stems meet, and then have one of
those little tiny baby leaves shooting off
from that section. There's usually like a
little knob on the stem, where the branches meet. This gives it a nice effect. Then at the top of the stem, I'm creating some leaves
that shoot downward, and this is where the
peony will attach. I'm going to add one more, a little one right there. Come up and see if
I can get one of these droopy leaves to help balance out the weight
of this larger stem. Perfect. We are ready to get started on our
final class project. Good job guys. You're
doing awesome.
7. Project: Peonies in Under 15 Minutes: We've covered all of
the instruction for this class and it's now
time for our final project. Get your timers out. This is the portion of the class where we see if we can paint a beautiful composition
in 15 minutes or less. I think I can do it,
and I know you can too. I'm going to start
with my greenery. I'm adding in three stems, one down the middle, one off to the right, and one off to the left. Once I get the
thickness that I want, I'm going to go in and
add a few small leaves, just like we practiced. Tiny little branch that
hangs down and fans out just like so. Come over here to the right
and do the same thing. This time I'll have
it reaching upwards, and now I'll start to
add the bigger leaves. The great thing about forcing
yourself to work quickly is that it gives your work a really nice gestural
fluid look and feel to it. When you give yourself a time limit and put yourself under a little
bit of pressure, it prevents you from
overworking a project. I'm just moving from
piece to piece really quickly and letting
the composition flow freely from my hands. I'm feeling really good
about the greenery. I'm going to go in and
add my pink flowers now. I've mixed up a really strong
pink and I'm just adding a little bit of water so that it's a lighter
shade of pink. Just like we've practiced, I'm going to use my
little c-shape trick, work my way around
the clock so to speak until I get the perfect peony shape. Using the tip of my brush to
make those nice fine lines. Again, for the center flower, I'm going to do a
really similar flower to the one I just did, but make it even bigger. Then finally I'm going
to come over here and paint a more closed off peony. Not quite a bud, but it's not quite open either. You can see some ruffles
towards the end. It's opening just a tiny bit, but definitely not as open
as the other two flowers. We are just flying. The last thing is to add in
more detail in the centers, the orange and yellow. Then we will be done
and we are crushing it. We are definitely under
the 15-minute mark. Now, if you take longer
than 15 minutes, don't worry, keep practicing
you'll get there. I'm so grateful I was able
to paint this with you. Once you've finished, go ahead and take a picture
of your project and go into the project section
of the class and upload an image
of your painting. You can then adjust
the thumbnail, you can add a project title, and you can fill out a
project description. Then hit "Publish" and I will be able to see your project
and leave a comment.
8. Conclusion: Thank you so much for
joining me today as we painted these beautiful
coral term peonies. I hope that you find
the confidence you need to paint these gorgeous
flowers in 15 minutes or less. It doesn't have to
be too complicated. Just in case you need a little
reminder, you're amazing. You're an incredible artist
and you've got this. Thanks and I'll
see you next time.
Caitlin Sheffer, Watercolor Artist & Designer
