Easy Painted Flowers

1. Intro: flowers. They've been inspiring artists for centuries all over the world, and there are endless techniques to portray them. But that doesn't mean they have to be difficult in this class. I'm going to share with you three very easy ways to paint flowers. In fact, this class is perfect for beginners. You can use this art to decorate your space, sure as a gift, or uses an image for a design for your business. You may even already have the materials at home you need. So join me and creating a little floral bliss. Easy way ready, Let's get started. 2. Tools & Materials: I'm using very basic tools of materials like pencil eraser, ruler colored pencils and ECT, inexpensive watercolor set and some tube acrylic paints for some more vivid color. I've also picked out a cup and trey for my recycle bin to hold paint and water. Why Sharpies came in super handy and regarding paper, I'm kind of all over the map, from printing paper to watercolor paper to sketching paper. My sketching paper is a textured 90 gram weight. Um, I've painted on this, but it doesn't hold much water, so you'll have to flatten it with the book and paper towel. If you don't want to mess with that, you can always use watercolor paper. I'm using a cancer in 290 gram weight. Regarding brushes, I'm using one medium flat brush, one very large round brush with a flat tip and one small round brush with a fine tip for more intricate detail regarding your workspace, everything should be within arm's reach, but not in your way while you're working, that's a little different for everyone, so you'll just have to discover that as you go along, I think it's time to get started on some projects. Now I'll see in the next video 3. Using Different Brushes: So for certain flowers, certain pressures just won't work at all. Unless, of course, you're using a much larger canvas, Um, than what I have here. But on this scale, the round brush and the flat brush medium size will work very, very nicely. And I'm going to show you an example of a an abstract version of the Bird of Paradise just so you can see it done another way. Now I'm going to lay down the brush the wide way first and then twist it so that each pedal ends up with the side, creating the point twist. You can see how quick and easy that can be. Now I've rinsed my brush and I'm loading my paint up with green, and I'm going to do the same thing for the bottom. But starting with the point first and then ending up with the chunky side of the brush. So I'm starting out with a side of the brush than twisting it again. I start with the side of the brush and then twist it to be on the flat to create the whiter section. Just gonna add some more paint in there dark and adds with watercolor you can add pain to your wet areas, and it will stay within those areas. So that's a really cool feature about watercolor painting. Now I'm going to rinse my brush and get the blue, load it up in there, and we're going to do the same thing with the smaller cornflower blue colored petals. And I've let this dry a little bit so that the blue doesn't fade into the orange you can't have the same level of detail is a small round brush, but definitely it's got a great bird of paradise. Look, it's got a chunkier started. Gauguin look so very classic in that way. It also has a more abstract feel. Then the small round brush can give you so again, just another look would look great. Hanging on the wall will look great as a greeting card. Lots of options to use your flowers just want a little more color to that, so when it dries, it's gonna dry lighter. So I wanted to be sure there's plenty of pain on their looks, vibrant and beautiful, and I'm happy with that. All right, so that was the bird of paradise with the medium brush and you can compare the two projects between the small round brush. Ah, and more detail look. And the chunkier look. They have a very different feel, but they're both quite attractive and represent the bird of paradise quite well. 4. Tulips- Abract Method : the first project I'm going over with you is the easy painted tulips. And this is the photograph I used that I have provided for you in the resource is under right projects. I have drawn a square because I want to keep this particular project a certain size. But that is totally optional. And that is not something that you have to dio. So I'm going to load up my brush with water, then with paint once I have it filled with water and I'm going to be using red. Um, I really want this vibrant, so I'm gonna be actually mixing both red paints here. That's not something you have to do. I just want it super vibrant. But one red is is plenty enough. You can see I've loaded the tip of the brush really well, and I'm just going to start by making and oval shape. Um, I'm going to mostly be going from top to bottom with the paint and letting the rough strokes of the brush create the pedal tips at the bottom. My two lives air drooping downward, and I know in the photograph they're going a little more sideways. If you're a beginner, I would stick with the photo exactly. If you're a little more experienced, you can kind of play around with the placement of your flowers. So the whole idea of this project is to paint an abstract shape of a flower. In this case, it's a tulip. But this technique can be done with many, many different types of flowers. I think four is a little bit too predictable looking, so I'm gonna paint a partial to lip at the top, and it's gonna be partially hidden by the cut off line there. When you're finished painting, always, always rinse your brushes because the paint will damage them. Otherwise, in the meantime, you can see that I've picked up my small round brush and I'm loading it up with water and green paint. And I wanted to be really full because I'm going to be painting stems, which is gonna be some quick lines. I don't want to over think them because I want them toe toe look like they're flowing. I have a slight curve to them so that you can see the flower is bowing, and I've hidden the second step behind that flower. The third stem is up to the corner, and then here's the final stem right up to the line. The other flower won't have a step because there's not enough flour there, but that that concludes our project. Please reach out to me if you have any questions on how to translate this technique to another type of flour, and you can see when I turn the picture around, the tulips look very natural, going in several different directions. Now, as I mentioned in the tools and materials video, this paper is not very absorbent, so you'll want to take a paper towel and put it over your flowers and put a heavy book on it overnight so that it dries flat. Otherwise, you'll want to use watercolor paper instead if you don't want to mess with all that. So if you compare this to the photo, it's not going to be exact. But it's going to be a really fair representation of tulips, and that's what abstract is all about. I'll see you in the next video 5. Tulips- Multi Method: Now I'm going to show you the colored pencil and paint project with the tulips as the subject matter, just to show it to you in a different way. I'm just going to start by sketching out my flowers and just just the same way we painted them before. And the reason I'm showing it to you on printer paper and sketch paper, sketchbook, paper and so forth Ah, is to show you that this project can literally be done with with any medium. And so if you don't have, you know, nice watercolor paper or nice heavy sketching paper, you can still do this project. It's also great to do this with your kids if you have Children. So I'm just going to start in by starting to color in the the red tulips first outlining my area that I'm going to be filling in with my colored pencil. And, um, I am gonna have a lot more options to be detailed with colored pencils. So I'm going to be actually having a little bit more detail ing options with the pedals. So I'm just going to overlap like an overlapping curving the upside down. Why shape um to show the pedals, and I'm just going to color in one layer throughout the entire flower. I'm going to keep this the center of it lighter just to kind of show some contrast and, uh, to show, you know, it just shows the pedals where they're located a lot more easily if they're not all the same exact tone and it adds more interest. Uh, then I'm going to go through and dark and this with a second layer of colored pencil, and I'm going to make it much more dark on the bottom of the flour and a little lighter on the top. Some tulips have kind of a lighter white sort of, um, contrast ing, uh, markings on them. And I'm gonna kind of replicate that, uh, with not filling in the red on the second layer all the way again, creating interest and then showing contrast a swell between the pedals. I'm gonna leave the line a little bit light in the center of the flower just to show the separation of the pedals. And I'm gonna dark in the backside pedal so you can see there's a separation there and kind of add some interest. I couldn't really do this with watercolor as much. Um, so colored pencil has some fun features to them we can enjoy, Um, with this project. So you've noticed I changed up how the pedals are, You know, um, formed on this Florida Want them to be all identical. I've done my first layer, and I'm just speeding this up, Um, for you. So you don't have to sit through all of my shading. But I've, uh, dark end both outside pedals, and I'm gonna leave the backside pedal lighter on this one. On the next one. I'm going, going right up the middle and then just going ahead with the shading. I just want all each of these two look slightly different cause we have that option. Um, with this medium, might as well make the most of it and enjoy it. Okay. Just finishing up the fourth and on my way to the fifth flour and last one. And on this one, I made it a bit small, so I'm gonna add some volume to both sides by making the center a pedal, just facing us full on and the two sides being, uh, two pedals from a side view. Give us a little bit different outlook to the flower, and I will dark in the sides so that the front pedal kind of pops. And then the last step is to paint the stems. And I'm using ah to water color paint with barely any water in it. I mean, this water has zero absorbency, so I have to keep it a stick as possible and just do it in several layers because with thicker paint you, it doesn't flow. It's not fluid, as when the pain is really wet, but it won't buckle the paper. So that's that's a good thing. Ah, if you have acrylic, that's wonderful. If you have some kind of craft paint that's fantastic to works with. Just somethin stems very simple, and he could leave it as is. But I'm going to go ahead and outline my flowers just like we did in the Roses project, just to keep it exact, Um, and to give the tulips a little pop of outline outline will really accentuate where the pedals air located and be a contrast against the red. Give it a little more dimension and all I have left to do now is to erase a few pencil lines that are showing and we've got this and you can see now are finished project against the watercolor version, a very lovely representation. 6. Roses- Multi Method: So I'm going to be showing you how to paint easy roses now. And this is gonna be a fund multimedia project with gel pens, colored pencils, sharpies and acrylic paint. But we're starting out with a simple sketch of spirals, and I'm going to keep going until I have, like, a pyramid of roses piled up, like in the image. And I'm just drawing some circles because we're going to be able to finish the detail up with our other materials here shortly. All right, so now I'm taking a gel pen, and I am kind of spiraling, just creating kind of, Ah, an outline for as a guide for me, Teoh put the colored pencil, uh, inside. It's just a little bit of a game of patients, and we're getting really close. I think I like that. It's a nice pile of roses there, so I'm going to erase if we wanna wait till your gel pen dries and then erase your pencil lines. So now we only have the gel pin left over, and we're going to start in with our pink. I'm using a pink colored pencil and I'm just gonna keep spiraling. I'm going to color using spirals because that's the shape of the flower. And that's what we want this story to be here. Roses are really when you look at them as an abstract, they are a bunch of spirals, one pedal going inside the other. And so this is a great way to represent them. So now that we have that all finished, we're ready. Teoh, get some green acrylic paint on there for the leaves in the stem. And I'm going to keep this really basic. I'm using a flat brush, and I'm gonna use very, very little water because laser printer paper has no absorbency whatsoever. I just want a little bit of paint on here. It's, um, gonna have to be very non watery. I'm gonna put a paper tell underneath my paper to protect my table surface, and I'm just gonna literally take the flat brush and fan out here and fan out there in curves. We just want to represent the shape of leaves. But this should be very quick and flowy and abstract. When I look at the leaves in this photograph, I see foliage going in every direction and I want to capture that in this painting right now, I'm just drawing the stems going into the background, Just one straight line going smaller. And that's gonna be it for us with the painting. So if you take a look at that what we've done here, you cannot see that I have specifically painted one single leaf. It's just a bunch of crazy curves and shapes, but they do look like leaves. And that's the whole idea of abstract is too. Let it flow and let it remind you of something. And then the I sort of completes the picture for you. So now I'm just outlining just to reinforce these shapes, I'm outlining all of them in the gel pen, but very loosely. I'm not following the lines exactly. I wanted to look very, very loose and haphazard and fun. And I'm doing this so that the gel pen in the roses makes sense with the gel pen inthe e leaves, and it really ties together. And I like that. I'd like to make a little ribbon band right at the about the middle of the stem area so that it looks more like a wedding bouquet in this case and I'm going to get these Sharpie pen out and start some detail ing with it of starting with the ribbon band. But I also want to give the roses a little more pop of color. Right now, the leaves air so dark they kind of take over. And I'm just gonna add some very quick spirals in the center of these roses. Just accent them and give them a little pop of color that will make them really stand out because they are really this star of this show. Here you can see this is very quick, very haphazard, very loose. And that's it. Once again, you can look at the photograph again and see that the sketch is not an exact representation , but it's a really fun and whimsical version of it. I really hope you enjoyed that. 7. Roses- Detailed Method: I'm calling this project detailed roses because it's a lot more detailed than the multi um , the mixed use of the medium's in the previous one with colored pencils. But it's really not detailed. I find roses are very difficulty to detail because of all the shading. So it's going to be kind of a combination. And you could see I'm just starting with my initial sketch of all the little rose buds and the leaves in the back that stems just kind of placing everything on my paper. And, um, I'm just gonna start in with some pastel. I've mixed some pink watercolor with some white and I'm just gonna start filling in these ovals that I've sketched. And I'm just going to kind of, um, speed this up for you here as soon as I'm done with this first row. So I don't torchy with all the repetition, but I'm just making sure to covering all the white spaces in ah, within these ovals, you can see that one's quite a bit darker than the other three rose buds, so I'm gonna lighten it up. I'm gonna add some white to this paint. This page is getting too dark cause I've got a a dark blob of paint in the center and I just got a little bit too concentrated, so I'm just gonna lighten it up and keep on going. You could see it's a little different tone, but that's OK. I mean, all you're rose buds don't have to be the same color. And you could see I'm swirling. Why new color into the old. So it kind of blends and, uh, makes sense. Visually, it's gonna look a lot more even when it dries, too. So that's another factor almost there. These roses are a lot more fuller than the ones in the first project. That's okay. You know, all your projects don't have a look alike, and I'm just giving you example. I'm just starting in with the the green leaves. Careful not to paint over the the Rose, but so the least one. I want them to look like they're behind. The rose buds have to be careful to go all around the shape of the flowers, and I'm gonna do a little better job of defining the leaves on this project. Since it's a more detailed project, there's our stems. That's about enough stems to show for the amount of flowers just going to keep going on these leaves. And I wanted to paint this stems before finishing the leaves, because now, when my strokes of leaves kind of overlap over the stems, it looks a lot more realistic and creates, um, a depth of field as well that leaf is going to be kind of curved over. Give it a little bit of character. Now I'm going to erase all my pencil marks. Um, but you can see I've painted over, and I'm careful not to use the dirty part of the eraser because that could really botch up your project. But you can see some of my pencil lines end up ended up under the paint. So that's a boo boo on my part. I know better. I should have made much more lighter, um, pencil strokes, but because of the what we're going to be doing with this swirling, which I'm showing you right now with the darker color to show the detail of the Rose, it's going to hide pretty much all of that. I'm just laying a little more color in my water path, so it's more defined, but, um, I kind of want my pain to be a little, little more pastel e looking than that. So I'm gonna try this again with the next, but and that's a little too light. So I'm gonna darken it up with a little more dark paint and, uh, gonna roll some of the paint out of. Sometimes your brush gets too full of paint and you can't make a fine line. So if you just roll your brush on the side, you kind of roll the paint right out of it. And so it's back to creating your sharper lines again with the point, and I'm just creating spirals in every rose and I'm just going to go through each one of them. They're all gonna turn out a little bit different. But that's part of the magic. And ah, realistic nous. Really? Because every rose is not a gen ical, even though it seems like it is. And I'm just going to speed this up for you so we can get through this portion of the project again. I'm rolling some more paint out so I don't make blobs instead of lines. Mm. And I'm really liking this color turned out just the way I wanted. It really pops now, and the leaves don't take over the whole project. I'm just going through and just defining the outside of the roses now, just not all the way around, but just enough to hint at where one rose ends and another one begins to give them a little more volume. I think it's a nice way to finish them off that one. You can see I left little white space on that one, so I'm just adding a little water and thickening that bottom line. And I think that finishes it quite nicely. And I'm just gonna add the ribbon where the flowers are tied and I want it to be just slightly thicker than the stems it's themselves. So it kind of gives the illusion that it's wrapping around the stems and reversing out or brush, and you can see the comparison of the two projects. The 1st 1 came out a little more realistic to the picture. The 2nd 1 came out more of a full bouquet, but I think it's quite nice 8. Bird of Paradise- Defined Method: I'm going to be showing you now how to pay the easy bird of paradise. And you can see from the photograph that I used. It looks like a very complex flower, but I'm actually gonna break it down. So it's much more simple and easy to paint this one. You're gonna want to be a little more precise. So you're gonna want to sketch to guide you. And I'm just drawing triangles, uh, evenly, um, to portray the orange pedals and then the same shape for the pod in the stem at the bottom . No, I'm just putting a dab of paint in each corner of my tray for each color that I'm gonna be using. I'm going to start with the orange and I'm mixing a yellow mustard yellow and in orange, but you can use straight orange. This is a little more of an advanced technique. Eso plain orange will look just a lovely If you're a little more advanced, you can certainly mix your colors. And I'm just going to start with the shape of the triangle and I draw one side and then paint the other side and then fill in the the center is the technique that I'm using for this. It keeps it pretty easy to make sure you're your pain is loaded up in your brush before you start the next stroke so you can finish this stroke and there you go one side, the other side, and then the center. And the tip on that brush really helps to make for a nice pointed and on each pedal next, 11 side, the other side, and in the center, you just go back up to the top and even that out a little bit and one more pedal to go load up my brush one side, other side and the center and it's done. The next step is going to be to do the pot in the stem at the bottom, and we're gonna use exactly the same technique. You're gonna take the tip of your brush, fill in the corner, do one side the other side, and then you're going to fill in the center. Now, this is a little thicker. So I wanted to load up my brush with paint or did that all right. And now we're going to do it again, going down the stem one side I just want even that out a little bit, the other side and the center and it's that simple. And I know you can see the little blue petal look like they've already been painted, but I want to show you how to do that right now. So I've taken my blue paint. I've loaded my brush with water, and now I'm loading my brush with the blue and we just want an accent with these pedals. So I'm just going to paint just a little curve coming down and then a little longer, one in between the green and the orange. All we need is a hint. And to add that that lovely color and I'm liking that accent and we have completed the project, you can see it's quite different from the photograph because we've simplified it. If you compare them, you still see two birds of paradise, and they're both very much a fair representation. I hope you've enjoyed this project. I will see you in the next video 9. Bird of Paradise- Abstract Method : So for certain flowers, certain pressures just won't work at all. Unless, of course, you're using a much larger canvas, Um, than what I have here. But on this scale, the round brush and the flat brush medium size will work very, very nicely. And I'm going to show you an example of a an abstract version of the Bird of Paradise just so you can see it done another way. Now I'm going to lay down the brush the wide way first and then twist it so that each pedal ends up with the side, creating the point twist. You can see how quick and easy that can be. Now I've rinsed my brush and I'm loading my paint up with green, and I'm going to do the same thing for the bottom. But starting with the point first and then ending up with the chunky side of the brush. So I'm starting out with a side of the brush than twisting it again. I start with the side of the brush and then twist it to be on the flat to create the whiter section. Just gonna add some more paint in there dark and adds with watercolor you can add pain to your wet areas, and it will stay within those areas. So that's a really cool feature about watercolor painting. Now I'm going to rinse my brush and get the blue, load it up in there, and we're going to do the same thing with the smaller cornflower blue colored petals. And I've let this dry a little bit so that the blue doesn't fade into the orange you can't have the same level of detail is a small round brush, but definitely it's got a great bird of paradise. Look, it's got a chunkier started. Gauguin look so very classic in that way. It also has a more abstract feel. Then the small round brush can give you so again, just another look would look great. Hanging on the wall will look great as a greeting card. Lots of options to use your flowers just want a little more color to that, so when it dries, it's gonna dry lighter. So I wanted to be sure there's plenty of pain on their looks, vibrant and beautiful, and I'm happy with that. All right, so that was the bird of paradise with the medium brush and you can compare the two projects between the small round brush. Ah, and more detail look. And the chunkier look. They have a very different feel, but they're both quite attractive and represent the bird of paradise quite well. 10. Bird of Paradise- Multi Method: So I'm gonna go over with you with you. The multi medium project with the bird of paradise Flower. It's really perfect for this technique. And I'm just quickly sketching out my bird of paradise again. Just keeping the pedals even even though in the actual photo, they're kind of wonky. We're just keeping it super simple. Um, since this is easy flowers and have drawn a line for the bottom, I'm just gonna make an indication where the blue pedals are answers one there and one above . And now I can start filling in with the colored pencil and just like the tulips, I'm just gonna go through and outline and then do if the first layer of coloring so that, um, I have full coverage and then go back and, uh, dark, innit? After words, I'm just gonna quickly go through and do my first layer of all the pedals home. And I'm doing this all the pedals together. Uh, just so I end up with a nice, even looking amount of color everywhere, So I'm just speeding this up for you. So you don't have Teoh Wade through all of the coloring. Okay, so now I'm going to go back and start my second layer darker on the bottom, lighter on the top, mostly even on this flower. And again, I'm just being this upset. You can get to the next stage of the project, and you've already seen this in detail. So Okay, so now that the last petal is finished, just kind of cleaning up the bottom. And now I'm going to go ahead and do the corn flour blue colored pedal, even if your color is a little bit off, Um, it's not going to really matter. It's art. And you could portray any way you'd like, So it's it's totally up to you, um, trying to keep it as realistic as possible. But if you don't have that color blue, you can use a different color or purple would look really beautiful. You know, not every bird of paradise is the same color either. So doesn't mean it won't look realistic. Okay, And again, with two layers of shading on that and now we're ready for to paint thestreet m. And I'm gonna keep the greenery painted just like I did in the other two projects, just to keep it consistent just to show you how you can just, you know, multiply this project across so many different types of flowers. And I'm just gonna go in with very thick paint again. This is non absorbent paper. So just keeping the paint super chunky, thick, and I'm creating the outline of the stem follow following way my pencil line and what I know about the shape of the flower. And then now I'm just gonna fill in the middle. Um, slightly more watered down just to move the paint a little easier, but again, just keeping it super thick, filling everything in because this flower is so vivid. I'm going to skip the, um, the gel pin outline, and we're going to call this one completed. 11. Conclusion: I really hope you've enjoyed easy painted flowers. I sure enjoyed sharing my processes with you. And I really hope that you have found a technique that you can use for many projects to come. Please do share your easy flowers with us, no matter what technique you decide to use. You can do that by going to the your project section of the class and in the community section you can ask questions or post comments. I'm here to help every step of the way, and I'd sure appreciate your reviews. So I know how I'm doing Well, that's it, for now, until next time. 12. Bonus Video- Calendula Flower 3 Ways: