Watercolor Succulents

1. Trailer: Hello, my name is Sandra Bowers. I'm a freelance Illustrator and surface pattern designer. Join me in this class where I will show you how I paint watercolors succulents. There are many types of succulents, but I have selected two of my favorite ones. I will show you how to paint the base layers and how to add the shadows and final details. By the end of the class, you will be able to create one or two prints, including your succulent. Join me. 2. Class Project: For the class project, you will select one or two of your favorite succulents and paint them to make a print or two. This will look great as tiny paintings to decorate a space in your house or as a gif. These are the colors that I use to paint succulents. You can use the same colors or the ones you prefer. For this class, you will need watercolors they can be pans, tubes, or liquid water colors. For these type of projects, I prefer using watercolors that can be blended easily even after they have dried, because that will make the shadows look better. So in this case, I am using pan watercolors. You will also need watercolor paper, either hot press or cold press, watercolor brushes. Since my semicolons are small, I use number zero and number four, epileptic layer water colors in. It can be plastic or a porcelain plate, some paper towels, water, and a pencil and eraser. Be sure to share your projects in the project gallery so that we can all see them and we can all learn from each other. 3. Basic Technique: First I'm going to show you how we're going to paint each petal. We're going to work wet on wet, but with very little water so that it doesn't puddle too much. First, choose a base color. In this case, a yellow, and paint the whole petal. Make sure everything is slightly wet. Now, pick a bit of a darker color. In this case, I'm using a green, and laid down on the top and bottom edges. Then do the same with the darker green. You can try the color, and if it's too dark, dry your brush, and blend it. Now, go around the edges to smooth them out. This succulents have a slightly dark petals, so we're going to make the top part of some of them like these. Grab a bit of the yellow paint, and test it on your scrap paper to see that it's not too dark, and make a thin line around the top of the petal. If it's still yellow or light, go over it with a bit of green. Now, fill up bit of the sides with very light paints so it creates a bit of a shadow. Make sure to leave some areas totally white. The technique for this other one is the same. For the second succulent, I chose one with very big petals, so that the tops are going to be wider. Start filling it in like the first one with a light bluish purple. Now, we're going to use some more contrasting color, a pink, and we'll also use a dark purple. Add a bit more water to the paint if you want the colors to mix more. You can make the mix as dramatic as you want. Just make sure to leave some wider areas because it will give the succulent that pastel look that they have. We'll paint the top the same way as we did with the first one. 4. Painting - Succulent #1: Now we're going to paint the succulent by following the technique I just showed you. I have sketched the succulent lightly on the paper. If you find that it's very hard to draw freehand, I have provided a picture of a succulent that I took and you can use to either trace over it or to guide you. You can also use this as an excuse to buy a pretty succulent for your house. Let's start by painting the middle petals. Cover the whole petal and if it's still wet, dry your brush in a paper towel. Now, we will add green to the top of the petal. I'll do the same thing with the next petal, but make sure they don't touch so that they don't blend together. Add at least three different colors to each petal, so you get a variety of shades. I'm adding all shades of green, but you can add different contrasting colors too. Let's grab some of this red with a tiny brush to add it to the tip of the petals. Do this one while it's still a bit wet so that the red paint runs a little into the green. Remember to make the base of the petals darker. Try to make each petal different by adding different amounts of each color to each one. Make sure that the paint is absolutely dry before you start painting the other petals that touch. Don't be scared to add a lot of color because when it dries, it will be lighter. Make the bottom petals a bit darker than the rest. 5. Final details - Succulent #1: Now we're going to accentuate the shadows and smoothen the edges that need to be perfected. With a thin brush add some medium green to the edges and then outline through the thick part of the petals that we left white. This will give the sakhalin more definition and depth. When you're done outlining everything, go in with some yellow paint or some water on the brush and blend lines in so that we don't end up with very defined outlines. Finally, fill in the white parts with the very light yellow and remember to leave pure white areas so that they pop. 6. Painting - Succulent #2: For our second succulent, since there are a lot of dark in the middle, I'm going to start by aligning them with some dark-purple. Now we'll follow the same technique as in the first one. I'm running a lot of color to the edges and bases, because I want the pinks to really show, and because I'll end up drawing later. Keep darkening the center shadows that we painted first. Add more pink to some petals and more purples to outer ones. If you put too much water down, just use a paper towel to absorb it by lightly touching the water plop. Unwrap the paper or you'll ruin you water color paper. Use a thin brush to smooth the borders and add more shadows. 7. Final details - Succulent #2: I'll make some much darker purple to create shadows on these one. Add color to the basis of the petals and the top of the petals too. Now create some of shadows with pink to give them variety. Finally, use a very light purple to fill in parts of the white areas that we have left unpainted. Now you can use these techniques to paint any succulent you want and in the colors that you prefer. I'm looking forward to seeing your projects and remember to follow me and check out my other classes here on Skillshare. Bye.