Botanical Brush Marker Painting: Loose & Layered Florals

1. Welcome!: Brush markers are one of the easiest ways to achieve a painterly look without a lot of setup. With just pressure, strokes, direction, and a bit of layering, you can build a lot of depth and texture much faster than you might expect. When you use them for botanical paintings is especially satisfying. Or at least I find. In just a few layers, petals and leaves start to feel full of light and volume, and the process itself can be very relaxing. I am Silvia Spina, I'm an artist designer and educator based in Barcelona. I worked for years as a surface pattern designer, and botanicals have always been a big part of my creative practice. I have painted them in murals, worked with watercolors, and I have used my assets to create repeating patterns, decorate designs, and in general, create graphics for different visual projects. In this class, we will paint botanical flowers together, and I will teach you how to achieve depth with just a few layers and a limited color palette. We will start with simple warm up exercises so that you feel confident using pressure, stroke direction, and layering. And I will also show you how I work with a limited color palette so that your illustrations feel cohesive and intentional. Then we'll start painting. We'll begin with Natalia to put the brush marker exercises into practice, pressure, stroke direction, and leaving light spaces for volume. Then we'll move on to smaller and more complex flowers, where I'll show you how to draw and paint blooms from different angles and build confidence through warm ups, small tests and gentle layering. Then you will see me apply the same concepts in three painting demos where you can watch the full process and paint alongside me if you want. Although the paintings in this class may look advanced, this class is beginner friendly, and I've designed it to feel calm and practical. It's great for artists and hobbyists who want to paint botanicals with less pressure, designers creating hand painted assays for digital products, patterns, and compositions and anyone craving a bit of painting time away from screens. All you need to take this class is a few brush markers of different tones. Ideally, a couple of light and dark tones, a pencil, an eraser, and any paper that you want. Hopefully, something quite affordable so that you can practice as much as you want and willingness to experiment and have fun. I have added a printable coloring book with my hand drawn florals that you can print at home and color with brush markers for a little bit of extra practice and inspiration. If you want to stay in touch, make sure you follow me here in Skillshare. I like to connect with my followers to announce new giveaways, occasional freebies, and tutorials. And if you like more creative resources and tutorials, you can also find me through the links in my profile, including a website, YouTube channel, Instagram, newsletter, sign up, and all those things. All right, get your materials ready and see it in class. 2. Your Project: You project for this class is to create one, two, or as many botanical illustrations as you want using brush markers. The goal of this project is not to create something perfect, but rather understand the technique. And I want to invite you to work from enjoyment and not just focusing on the results. My goal is to help you feel more confident creating volume and depth, using just a few colors, layering and using expressive brush strokes. Throughout the class, I'll show you my botanical references directly on screen. I won't provide downloadable references, as many of these ones are corporated. But any flowers that inspire you are more than welcome. For this class, I recommend working on a sketchbook or sketchpad that you don't mind using free. It is much better to use more paper than less. Once you feel comfortable with the technique and have practiced the exercises, you can always move on to a better paper for your final pieces. Your final project, I would love to see photos of your brush exercises along with one or more finished floral illustrations. If you used a specific color palette and you want to show me how you designed it, you are welcome to upload that page as well. Also, if you did any pencil sketches to explore flower shapes or positions, feel free to include those two. I really enjoy seeing all the parts of the process. As a bonus for this class, I have included three painting demos where I simply record the process of me painting different flowers without explaining every step. These are meant for you to observe how I apply the concepts from this class in a more intuitive, real time way. If there's a specific flower you would love to see painted in the future, feel free to leave a comment. I would love to record more demos and possibly add them to the class. You will find a downloadable workbook in the project and resources section with a few coloring pages and photographs I've taken myself. Overall, this class is designed to feel calm, approachable, and relaxing. The setup is intentionally simple, so you can focus on building confidence and enjoying the process. Once you finish your project, please upload it to the project gallery of this class as I can't wait to see what you create. In the next lesson, I'm going to show you the tools that you will need for this class. 3. Tools & Materials : Now, let's talk about the materials that you will need for this class. Let's start with the type of paper that you will need. I really want you to be able to use whatever you have at home. White printer paper is absolutely fine. And if you have a sketchbook you love, use that, too. I have used cold press watercolor paper in the past, and it has worked well for me. But for this class, I'm actually going to paint in this recycled paper sketchbook. If you know me already, you know how much I love using affordable tools, especially when learning a new technique. So by using this sketchpad of recycled paper, I won't mind using as many pages as I need for color studies, color palettes, and brush marker exercises. Even if I think many papers can work with this technique, there is something I want to share with you. While recording one of the demos, I realized something important. Some papers work better with brush markers than others. When I added this dark brown line to this little flower, the ink started bleeding into the lighter colors next to it, which was so annoying. That happened because I already had applied two or three layers underneath, so that area was a bit wet and the darker ink blurred and spread. So here's a quick test you can do before you commit to painting a full piece. Different papers have different fibers, and they absorb pigment in different ways. Paint two color blocks, one horizontal, and one vertical, so you can create a little square in the middle where the layers overlap. That center area will be more opaque and a bit wetter. Then take a darker marker and draw a diagonal line across it. You can do this over three or four types of papers that you find at home. Here I'm using watercolor paper, regular printing paper, recycled paper, and this fourth one, which is part of a sketchbook I had where I painted my flower. The colors I'm using here are very contrasting. You wouldn't normally paint like this, but it's a great test to see how your paper behaves. On this first paper, the dark line seems pretty clean. This second one is called press watercolor paper, and it also holds the ink nicely. This third one is regular printer paper, and surprisingly, the color is mostly contained. And on this fourth sample where the paper is wetter, the dark ink starts to bleed into the light areas quite a lot. Don't overthink it. This is just a quick test for you to choose the paper that feels easier to control. Now let's talk about markers. I'm not going to mention specific colors yet because we'll do that in the next lesson. But in general, any brush markers or lettering brush pens can work really well. The main thing to look for is a soft, flexible tip, one that lets you create thicker marks when you apply more pressure and thin lines when you apply less pressure. Some markers have a harder tip, and even if you press, you can't really get thick lines. You can achieve some variety, but for this class, we want markers that can behave as a brush. So as long as your markers have a soft brush tip, you're good to go. The brand doesn't matter. Having said that, there's a few brands that are better than others. For example, these are tumbo markers. I used them a lot when I was working as a surface pattern designer in London, and I still have many colors left. They're not the cheapest, but they're very durable. They also come with a dual tip, a thicker brush tip on one end, and a fine tip on the other. The brush tip is great for covering larger areas, and the fine tip can be used for details, even though I personally don't use it that often. This one here is a faber castle. The tip looks thin, but it's very soft. So if I press, I can create thicker strokes or use a light touch for fine lines. A lot of lettering brush pens are like this, so if you already have any at home, I think they will work beautifully. And this one is a brand from Colombia called Pelican. Even if they're really good, I have to say that they are not that durable as a tumbo, but I still love them. Once more, depending on the amount of pressure I can achieve thick or thin lines. You will also need a pencil for your initial sketches. I recommend using a soft pencil. Here's why. A harder pencil like this H stays very light, so you end up pressing harder to see it, and that can dent the paper. A softer pencil like HB or two B gives you darker lines with less pressure, so it's easier to sketch and easier to erase later. HB or to B is perfect. Anything softer than that is fine, too, but if you go very soft like four B and above, it can start staining the paper. So HB or two B is a great sweet spot. You will also want a clean eraser. Mine is a bit dirty because it's been lying in my pencil case for ages, but it works really well. One is a Stetler. Some erasers are honestly terrible. They smug, leave color behind, and barely erase at all. So a quick tip, test your eraser before you start. A sharpener is handy, too. In the next lesson, we're going to talk about color palettes and the type of tones you'll want for this class, so you can choose your colors with confidence. 4. Gathering Inspiration: In this lesson, I'm going to show you my main two or three sources of inspiration when it comes to painting botanical artworks. I'm going to start with the most accessible one, and it's nature. Nature is everywhere. You can step outside in pretty much any season. And when you see a flower or any plant that captures your attention, remember to take your phone out and take a photograph. Over the years, I have been building for myself a folder in my phone camera gallery. I keep photographs of flowers, leaves, pounds. Some of these photographs have been taken in botanical gardens. This is a day that we went to visit a beautiful botanical garden whilst traveling. I haven't updated that folder in ages, though. So sometimes I just search for the word flowers, and then my iPad or phone gathers all the photographs and artworks containing any flowers. Currently, I have more than 1,300 floral photos in my gallery, which is pretty funny. Probably there are some paintings there as well. I'm in a rush, I usually just snap a photograph and then go. But when I have a bit of time, this is usually what I like to do. I start by taking a more frontal photograph where I can clearly see all the details, the center of the flower, the shape of the petals, and how everything is structured. If I see another frontal flower, I like to photograph it too so that I have a bit more of variety. Then I like to take a few more photos of the same plant from different angles. Especially interested in seeing how the flower looks in different positions, some facing forward, others from the side, and also a few flower buds, if there are any. Having that variety gives me much more information to work with later. For example, I took these rose photographs in London because I found them so beautiful. I photographed the bud the flower fully open, the flower from the side, and also the leaves. I even took a few shots of the same rose from different angles. That way, if I ever want to paint or design something with these roses, I already have references showing how the plant looks from multiple perspectives. This is basically what I do when gathering inspiration. Just grab your phone, and whenever you see a flower you like, take a few photos from different directions, save them together in a folder, and over time, you will build a really beautiful library of references. And often they will also bring back some memories of where you took them. Okay, I'm going to put my iPad aside and move on to my second favorite source of inspiration, which are books. When preparing this class, I actually realized how many books I have. I think whilst I was living in London, I was working a lot in the surface pattern design industry, and I got pretty addicted to buying floral books. I once treated myself to this beautiful set of postcards curated and illustrated by Katie Scott and Kathy Willis, and I used to decorate my studio with these postcards and sometimes use them as inspiration when it came to representing certain flowers. And then I have all of these books. I collected quite a few of them whilst living in London, and I love coming back to them for inspiration. Most of these illustrations were made before photography was really a thing. So artists and botanists were literally sitting with the plants, observing them carefully, and then painting them by hand. What I really find interesting is that these drawings weren't meant to be decorative in the way we think COVI illustration today. They were a way of studying and understanding plants. Even with that purpose, they still feel really expressive and beautiful. When I use books like this, I'm not trying to copy a plant exactly. I'm more interested in looking at the shapes, the way things are composed on the page, and how color is used. It's more about letting these references inform my eye rather than feeling like I want to reproduce what I see exactly. Actually, when I'm looking for inspiration, I prefer focusing on the smaller plates or thumbnail size illustrations. Seeing the artwork at a smaller scale helps me step back and just take in the overall composition and the main shapes without getting too caught up in the tiny details. It also makes it easier for me not to copy things exactly as they're represented. Instead, I can absorb the structure and the feeling of the illustration, the composition, and the colors, and then translate that into my own style in a much more natural way. And of course, the Internet is also a great place to look for inspiration, especially for plants I don't have in my own photo library or in my books. I often use sites like Pinterest or Pexels to quickly find references, and I've put together a small inspiration board that you can download and use as a starting point for this class if you want. 5. Defining a Colour Palette: Okay, now let's talk about the tones. To create shadings on your flowers, it is very important to have a few tones of the same color. So some lighter ones and some darker ones. A lot of these packages come with very saturated and strong colors, but it's key to have a variety in between a very light shade and a darker shade of the same color. So, for example, I'm going to grab this mint color, this light green, and applying some pressure to the tip, paint this area. So that would be the light color, the light shade, and then I'm going to grab this green, and this would be the color that I would use to start giving volume and shadows to my botanical elements. The color is actually quite contrasting, so I'm going to test another green, which is also dark, but might be a little bit lighter. I think I prefer this one. So, for example, if you're going to be drawing a leaf, you use the lighter color for the base, and then use a darker tone to create some shadows and volume on top. Now let's move on to talking about the color palette. You don't need 1 million colors for this glass. If you have two or three colors for your flowers and one for your leaves, then you'll be good to go. In my case, I want to have to hand a light yellow, a light pink, and a light blue for my flowers, and I'm going to use this mint color for my leaves. To select the darker tones, I'm going to use a new page and show you a good exercise that you can do to start testing if you like the color combinations. I'm going to start by creating four rectangles using the four light colors that I want to use for this class. As you can see, it's very easy to cover large areas when you apply pressure to the tip of this type of brush markers. At home, you can start by selecting four light colors and four darker shades of the same color. So I'm going to start with the yellow, testing this one. It is a little bit more saturated, but it is not dark enough to create shadings or volume. So I'm going to go ahead and test this ochre superposing a line on top of the rectangle. This color, despite being quite dark, will work much better to greet shadings and volume. I also have this peach tone, which also looks nice when I layer it to the yellow one. I think any of these two colors could work very well for shading, and I'm going to put them right here and move on to testing the pink. I'm going to see how the peach color overlays with this pink. I don't think it's contrasting enough, and it changes the tone of the pink. So I'm going to discard it. I have this other darker pink here, which I think could work really well. And I also grabbed this darker red from my tumbo pack, but I feel that this one is too dark, is a little bit cold, and it creates way too much contrast. I also have this dark orange, which is a little bit warmer, not as cold as this red, and I think it works really nicely with the rest of the tone. So save it as well. Moving on to the blue, I have this dark, desaturated shade, which is really nice, or I have this more saturated and brighter blue. It's also really nice, but for my taste, today is a little bit saturated, and I'm leaning more towards desaturated colors. So I'm going to use the first blue. Okay, lastly, I'm going to move to the green and see what I've got. This green one is nice, but I feel that it's once more a bit too dark. So I'm going to test this other one and see if I like it. It is also very dark, but I feel that it has some warmth to it that could combine really nicely with the rest of the tones. So I'm going to select this second one without overthinking it. Okay, now, finally, here on the bottom of my page, I'm going to create four swatches using the lighter colors and put the darker ones below. When it comes to choosing colors, I really encourage you to follow your intuition. There is no right or wrong combinations here and no need to overthink it. Take a moment to look at your markers and pencils and notice which colors you feel naturally drawn to. Which tones catch your eye first. Which combinations feel pleasant or exciting to try out. Trust that response, it is already part of your visual language. Only thing I recommend is having at least one lighter tone and a darker tone for each colors you choose. This will give you enough range to a depth, layering and contrast without needing many materials. And remember that nothing is fixed. If halfway through the class, you realize a color doesn't feel right, you can always swap it for another one. This flexibility is part of the process. By making these small intuitive choices and allowing yourself to change your mind, you're not only learning the technique you're also slowly developing your own style. In the next lesson, we're going to start making some exercises so that you start getting used to the technique of shading and giving volume. 6. Warm-Up: Pressure, Speed & Layering: Before we start painting flowers, we're going to do a few quick exercises to get comfortable with the brush markers. Think of these exercises as a relaxing warmup. You'll explore pressure, speed, and layering. We're going to start with a few simple exercises to help you get familiar with how brush markers work. First, let's look at how to hold the brush. To create thicker marks, try holding the marker a bit further away from the tip and applying gentle pressure. Usually apply pressure by resting my hand on the table and pressing slightly downward. This helps release the tension from my fingers and elbow and gives me much more control. Instead of drawing one thick line from start to finish, try this. Apply pressure at the beginning of the stroke and then lift the pen as you move forward. This creates a natural variation in thickness. I'm going to change color now just to keep things playful and repeat the same exercise. This time, starting from the bottom and moving upward, again, apply pressure at the beginning of the stroke and then lift the pen as you move up. It is really important that your hand stays supported on the table whilst you do this. I'm not drawing with my hand in the air because that would make it much harder to control the brush. Rest your hand on the paper, apply pressure, and then lift as you move. For the next row, we'll start adding some curves. Try making curve strokes in one direction and then switch directions. The principle stays the same. Pressure at the beginning, lift the brush as you go. You can repeat this exercise starting from the bottom and moving upwards as well. You don't need many strokes. Even three or four at a time is enough. All right. Now let's move on to layering. I will introduce a second color and repeat the same type of strokes. But this time, I will vary the direction and thickness a little more. Some strokes can be wider, other thinner. With this darker color, try not to completely cover the first layer. Let the initial color show through. This is how we start creating shading and volume, especially when painting petals and leaves. For a third color, you can mix directions even more. So strokes from top to bottom, others from bottom to top and keep them slightly lighter. For the last set, try applying less pressure overall. Still start the stroke thicker and lift the pen bat gently. This exercise is really about testing how much pressure and seeing how different layers interact. You can already see how much volume you can create by using just two colors. Hold on. Now let's try something slightly different. This time, hold the marker closer to the tip. Again, rest your hand on the table to keep it relaxed. Instead of using pressure, focus more on speed. Quick light strokes to create thinner lines and subtle texture. You can experiment with different colors here or even introduce a third color like this orange. The goal is simply to explore how different grips, pressure, and speeds affect your marks. Notice how different it feels when you hold the pen closer to the tip versus further back and how that changes the texture and tone you create. Before we move on, remember you can practice these exercises as much as you want. There's no limit, and honestly, this is one of those things that gets easier and more able than more you repeat it. I personally really love doing this kind of warm up. I try to stay present whilst I'm doing it, feeling the texture of the paper, listening to the sound of the brush strokes, and noticing how the marker behaves when I change the pressure or speed. It's a very simple practice, but it can be surprisingly relaxing. And it's also a great place to test colors. Even if two markers look similar in the box, they can feel completely different on paper. So these little swatches teach you a lot very quickly. In the next lesson, we'll take everything we've practice here and apply it directly to the petals and leaves so you can start using these strokes in a more botanical way. 7. Practice: Painting Petals & Leaves.mp4: Et's practice painting some petals and leaves. We're going to start by sketching a few things to use as guides. I'm going to draw an oval inverted drop or this could be already a petal. And for the third one, we're only going to be using a line as a guide. For the leaves, let's draw a long leaf. And then maybe three lines that join below. And then we can draw a stem on the bottom. Remember this is an exercise. It doesn't have to be perfect and there's no right or wrong. For the first petal, we're going to basically repeat this exercise but stay within this oval. So I'm going to start by applying pressure to my marker and then lifting the marker as I go down. It doesn't matter if you surpass the pencil mark, and then go up. For the second one, I'm going to start by applying pressure at the beginning. Try to vary the pressure and stay within the pencil marks. And then from the bottom, just draw some lines going to the top. And then for this one, I'm only going to be taking this as a reference. So I'm going to try to emulate what I did here, but without pencil marks. Before doing the shading, I'm going to erase this first mark. So this is to show you that even if I have used a soft pencil for this, I can still erase it once I have painted with my brush markers. And now I'm going to use the second color to refine the petal shape. I'm going to start from the top. I'm not going to cover the layer below, but rather apply some shadings on the top and on the bottom and define the petal shape. I'm going to do the same with this one. I'm going to start by erasing the pencil mark and start using the contrasting color to add some shadings. This color has much more contrast and it might make you more nervous. But this is just a practice exercise, and it's good to start testing how things look. Usually, when the colors are darker, I tend to use them a little bit less, and I'm a little bit more careful as well when applying the second layer. You can also start playing with different textures to soften the transitions from one color to the other. I don't do this very often, the dots thing, but it's nice to try. And now for this third one, I'm going to start doing the same. Before moving on to the leaves, I just want to show you how you can use the pencil to also start adding some shadings to your botanical elements. When using light colors and my flowers, sometimes I use the pencil to give some shadings. If you're curious later on, you can test these too. And if you do it softly, the best thing is that if you don't like it, you can just erase it. Okay, let's move on to the leaves. This leaf, we're going to use some thinner and longer strokes that will go from the top of the leaf to the bottom. And I'm going to make them thinner at the top and the bottom and try to thicken the line towards the middle of the leaf. You can see that with these brush exercises, we're not only practicing how to use the brush pen, but also how to start achieving volume. You start thin by applying less pressure and towards the middle, you start applying more pressure. Let's move on to the second leaf. In this case, we're going to start on the side and move on to the center using curves. Applying little pressure at the beginning and thickening the brush as I move to the center and then repeat the same exercise on the other side. Now, I always find one side harder than the other one for some reason. I think it's because of the position of my hand. You will see me rotating my paper when I paint my plants. With these brush markers, you can start creating a bit of shading by giving second layers. You can see that when I superpose these new strokes, I'm instantly creating some volume by darkening some of the areas of the leaf. Okay, let's move on to practicing how to add volume using a darker tone. We're going to do something similar to the petals, but using the brush in different directions, following what we have already done on the first layer. So for this first leaf, I'm going to start moving from the bottom, going up, applying very little pressure at the beginning, and then trying to lift my pen as I go up. I'll do one side of the leaf first and then move to the other side. It's very important to not cover the first layer completely. Try to vary the way you use your brush marker with each leaf. Use more speed, less pressure. Lift your pen. You can darken some leaves more than other ones. For the second one, I'm going to start with the center. I applied very little pressure into that central vein and grabbing my brush marker nearer to the tip because I want to have more control. So I am applying pressure on my hand towards the table so that my fingers can handle the brush in a more controlled way. To add some visual interest and achieve even more volume, you can darken some areas of the leaf more than others. And lastly, we're going to be using these lines as guides. I'm going to redraw this second one to see it better and imagine that it was a central vein of my leaf. I really like doing these exercises without drawing the whole thing with a pencil first because that will give you confidence to really paint with your brush pen instead of always coloring pre drawn shapes. Since these leaves are quite long, I'm going to go back to the shading from the top and the bottom and not from the sides. And lastly, I'm going to practice drawing this stem. With these longer lines, you will have to practice using your wrist and your whole arm to be able to draw them in one go. I'm going to erase the pencil marks. I know that this is an exercise, so it is not necessary to doing so. But sometimes I like to scan these petals and leaves and manipulate them digitally to create compositions either on Procrit or using Photoshop. Take your time with these exercises as they will really help you understand how to use your brush markers. And once you're feeling confident, meet me in the next lesson where we're going to start sketching the composition over first flower. 8. Dahlia: Sketching the Composition: For this first flower, I'm going to use one of my beautiful books, and without overthinking it, I'm going to choose one of these flowers to paint. In terms of simplicity and composition, I feel that this could be a good choice because it's only one flower. This one here is also capturing my eye. I'm going to go ahead with this reference. It's a big flower, and then it has a few leaves on different positions. This rectangle has a bit of a different ratio to this page of mine, but it doesn't matter. Going to start by drawing a few lines, leaving a similar distance on each of the sides. I can add a few on these corners as well, and this will help me respect this border and create a more balanced composition. Okay, now I'm going to start creating some basic shapes to determine the size of each of my elements, starting by drawing a circle for the yellow flower. At the moment, I'm drawing super softly on my paper to avoid leaving any marks because I'm only working on where my elements will be. So there's a big flower up here. Then there's a stem that comes as a curve. There's a second stem because one of these stems goes behind the flower, but I'm not going to have much space here to put this flower. But because of the ratio of the paper I'm using, I have less space in there. It's important to not get too obsessed with copying the composition, but use it as a guide to place the main elements. I can see that there is a big leaf in here, so I'm going to place it on my paper, and then there is this other branch coming to the other side with a few smaller leaves that come out of this main stem. And then there's another stem here, so I'm going to do this much smaller and have fewer leaves. So as you can see, I'm already changing a lot, the size of each element and adapting the whole thing to my paper. This composition is good as it is, but I wanted to try different things and ended up overcomplicating it a little bit. You can keep it as simple as you want, but since it's your composition, then you're allowed to test things as much as you want. I'm going to place the rest of the video at a higher speed so that you can see the transition from one composition to the other. I was basically trying to fit in the flower bed, which I didn't even paint in the end. But this is part of the creative process, and that is why it's good to start by placing your elements with the pencil first before moving on to the brush markers. Okay, now I'm going to show you how I develop the flower. So I start by drawing a larger circle, which I already have, and then I place the flower center, which in this case, is in the middle of the outter circle. And then I draw some marks using these curvy lines that will help me place each of the petals. Then I will use my brush markers to complete them. I understand that this requires a little bit more of practice and confidence. So if you feel better, you can draw the whole petal. In the next lesson, we're going to start painting our flower. 9. Dahlia: Painting the Base Color Layer: I don't have a very detailed drawing underneath, and I'm doing this on purpose. I like to keep the sketch quite loose because it gives me more freedom to adjust shapes as I work with the brush markers. I'm going to start with the flower, and before painting, I'm introducing a few different yellow tones into my palette. This gives me more variety between the center and the petals. Petals will stay more yellow and the center will lean a bit more towards the ochre tone. Having this small color range prepared in advanced can really help when making decisions as you develop your paintings. I'll begin by painting the petals. Just like we practice in the exercise lesson, I'm starting from the outer edge of the petal and then lifting my pen as I move inwards. You can still see some of my pencil lines here. So before continuing with the rest of the flower, I'm gently going to clean those up. I like to barely see the sketch underneath. It gives me enough structure to follow, but also leaves room for the brush markers to do its thing. I'm keeping the reference photo quite small on purpose. I don't want you to get to focus on copying the flor exactly as it appears. Instead, I want you to have it as a loose guide, mainly for overall shape and color. As I paint, notice how I'm leaving small white spaces between my strokes. This is really important. Those white areas create light and volume, and once they're covered, it's almost impossible to bring them back. So it's always better to be a bit conservative in this first layer. I'm also making the petals slightly more pointing than the reference. This is one of those moments where you can start making the flour your own, adjusting shapes in a way that feels natural to you. Now I'll move on to the center of the flour. I'm tapping the paper with the marker rather than using long strokes, which helps suggest texture and volume. I'm switching to a pitch tone so that there is a clear contrast between the petals and the center. Again, I'm leaving plenty of white space in here. In the second layer, I will decide how much darker I want to go. But for now, I prefer to keep things late. It's always easier to add a bit more depth later than to remove it. That's it for the first layer of the flour. Next, I'll move on to building the base color for the leaves and the stem, keeping everything soft and flexible at this stage. Since we've already done the brush marker exercises earlier in this class, I hope you're starting to feel more confident when it comes to painting the different parts of this dahlia. Remember, this first layer is just a foundation. It doesn't need to be perfect. Remember to rotate your paper if you find creating these curves difficult. As I said, I always find painting one of the sides of the leaves easier than the other for some reason. You'll notice that I'm also not following the pencil drawing exactly as I sketched it first. I'm really just using it as a loose reference. This gives me the freedom to adjust shapes as I go and respond to the brush marker instead of trying to control it too much. If at any point you feel like you're struggling, don't hesitate to pause and move to another page. You can always create a few extra exercises, for example, filling one page just with leaves and another one with petals in different shapes. This kind of repetition is incredibly helpful and takes a lot of pressure off the final drawing. Another option is to keep going and finish the flour you're working on now, trusting that the second layer will give you the chance of refining the shapes, adding depth, and improving what's already there. The base layer doesn't need to be perfect. It's just a starting point. And if in the end, you don't love the result, that's completely okay. What really matters is that you've practiced. You've finished the piece, and you've spent time getting to know how these brush markers behave. Every page you complete helps you find confidence and improve overall. Lastly, I'm going to move on to painting the stem. Funny how I ended up changing the whole composition to fit in a flower bud that I'm not going to be painting in the end. But you know what? That's right. The best thing about painting for practice or for fun is that we get to choose these things. So choose whatever feels right to you. In the next lesson, we're going to develop the volume and contrast by adding a second layer with darker colors. 10. Dahlia: Adding Volume and Depth: I just realized that I didn't press record when doing the second layer for my flower, which is very annoying. But I'm going to walk you through what I did so that you can catch up with me. I basically darkened a little bit the center using the initial yellow because I had left too many white areas here. So I just darkened that area. Always making sure to leave some white lines in between the petals because that light really gives a lot of volume. Then I developed the center using the ocher tone. I analyzed a little bit the reference, observing the center, for example, that has a darker area towards the middle, and then it has a ring of darker spots towards the outer part of the circle. So I just started tapping these areas, being careful with how much pressure I apply onto my brush. Okay, I'm going to grab another page to show you exactly what I did with the petals. So I had the base in this yellow color. And then I used this peach color that I had tested in here because I realized that by shading just with the ochre, the flour would have gotten way too dark. So by superposing another light color, I can achieve much softer shadings. As I showed you when doing the exercises, I started from the top to the bottom and then did a few lines from the bottom to the top. And lastly, I use the ochre color to draw some very, very thin lines. If you want, you can practice this petal before painting your flower. This is one of the reasons why I love this very affordable sketching pad because I don't mind using various pages to practice when learning a new technique. So now I'm going to go back to the flower and finish applying this third layer with the ochre color. See that I am only using this color to add a few little lines on the center, on the sides of the petal, and on the end of the petal, very thin lines. And now, I'm going to start developing the green parts of my plant. When looking at the reference, I see that there's only a few darker areas and they tend to go towards the center of the leaves. Some stems are darker than others, and that really gives a lot of volume to the plant. But in general, the leaves are very soft and they don't have a lot of contrast. So with that in mind, I'm going to go ahead and try to interpret those things my own way. I'm going to be developing this second layer very, very softly. Very softly. Instead of thick lines, I'm going to be using very thin ones, grabbing the brush marker nearer the tip, putting pressure my hand on the table so that I can develop this type of speed movement. So I'm not putting pressure to the pen, but just freeing my fingers to do this type of hand gesture. I'm going to leave the reference photo here in case you want to look at it as well. So I'm going to darken that part of the leaf a little bit more than the other one. You will see me developing the darker areas sometimes from the center, but sometimes I will be drawing more from the sides towards the center. And if you feel uncomfortable, just rotate your paper. Okay, that is enough for this leaf. Going to darken the area that goes behind the flower so that will allow me to create some volume there, and then maybe decide which of these stems is gonna go on top. I find developing the leaves a little bit harder than the petals, and I don't know why, but there's always a direction that feels easier. So going up feels a bit more difficult for me than going down. Sometimes I do go up, but the gesture of going down feels more natural. And that's why I rotate my paper so much. In this case, for example, if I was developing the shadows of the leaves, starting from the central vein outwards, this rotation of the paper would feel comfortable. But in this case, for example, that I want to be developing the shadows, starting from the outer part, moving inwards, then this position would be much more comfortable because I am shading from the top to the bottom of the paper. I don't know if you're getting what I'm trying to say, but that's kind of the logic of rotating my paper so much. And there are leaves that I will naturally make darker than others. If you have a tumbo or one of these markers that have two tips, towards the end, you can use the thinner tip to add a few more details like lateral veins without overdoing it. So just a few. And same with the flower, you can add just a few final details if you want. Take your time developing your flower and don't rush it. If you've finished one floor already, this is a really nice moment to pause and upload it to your class project. You don't need to wait until everything is finished or perfect. Your project can grow over time, and you can update it anytime. You can always come back later and update it with new flowers as you create them. By sharing early, I can start giving you feedback as you go, and you can also look back and see how your confidence and brush drugs evolve. Think of your project as a place to document your process, your progress, and not just your final results. So whenever you're ready, upload what you've got onto the project and after that, come back to the class so we can keep on painting. Mm. 11. Practice: Sketching Flowers the Simple Way: The flower we're using as a reference here is called num grandi pleum, which is a bit of a long and difficult name. And since we're not aiming to copy it exactly as it appears, I'm going to refer them simply as small flowers. We're going to be looking at them in a very approachable and simple way. We'll start by sketching them using basic shapes and then we'll add a bit of color keeping everything loose and flexible. Going to start by showing you the flower which is frontal. Let's start by drawing two circles. If the flower was fully frontal, the center would be in the exact center. This flower, though, is not exactly frontal and its center is somewhere here. So it's a little bit lower than the center of the frontal flower. It has five petals. In this case, because the flower is slightly angled, I can do these lines, but a little bit curvy. These lines would be the center of our petals. If I mark the middle, this is where the petal will start. And once you have those marks in place, then drawing the petals becomes really easy. And For the second flower, the outer circle can help a lot, especially with these petals which are on each side. See how I'm respecting the border of the circle and using it as a guide to draw my angled petal, equally for the one here on the bottom. Now let's draw a flower which is even more angled. To make these exercises varied, I'm going to draw this oval in a diagonal way. It might be easier if you start by drawing the diagonal line and then drawing the oval on top. Now, I'm not going to be placing the center straight in the middle, but below the line. So it is going to be in the center of this distance. It's going to be an angled oval below below the line that is separating the larger oval into two halves. And now I'm going to mark the guides for the five petals. Marking the middle of each of these spaces. And from there, I will use the outer circle to complete the petals. Since this petal is on the bottom, it's probably going to be a little bit surpassing the center. Now let's go ahead and draw one of these flowers which are looking up. I'm going to start by doing a line that is going to mark the direction of this flower. The center would be here hidden, and then the petals are going to go towards this circle. I'm not going to draw the whole circle, but rather the portion that is marking where the flower ends. This flower has a very large receptacle, and then I'm going to mark a few petals. And then from there, it's going to be really easy to keep defining the shape of this flower. And lastly, let's practice drawing a few flower buds. The ones from these flowers could be represented as cups. And then one which is completely closed and has the leaves on top. O these are exercises that you can create or not, but I like to teach them because they will allow you to start getting used to representing flowers in different positions. And the best thing is that if you clean a bit these drawings, you can keep practicing your brush marker skills and even choose colors for your next painting. I was drawing quite hard on purpose so that you could see the lines clearly, but I usually make my drawings much softer so that I'm not marking the paper. After creating the exercise, you can go ahead and color these flowers as a way of putting your brush marker skills into practice and even use different colors. It is with these exercises that you will get better and gain more confidence. You can try different base colors for your flowers and then superpose other colors that maybe you didn't choose in your initial color palette. Maybe you find a really cool color combination that makes you feel very confident and happy, and you can apply that for our next painting. My aim for this class is for you to play with different colors, different shapes, and learn how to represent different types of flowers. We're not aiming for a realistic flower or to copy a specific specimen, but rather take it as inspiration. So use this lesson to experiment and play as much as you want, test different colors, layer three or four at a time if that's what you want. And if you discover that you like more a certain color combination, bring it to the lesson where we'll paint our next flower. 12. Small Flowers: Sketching the Composition: In this lesson, we're going to focus on sketching the composition using the reference as guide rather than something to reproduce perfectly. We'll look at how the flowers sit on the stem, how they're spaced, and focus on the flower directions. I'm hoping that after the practice we did in the last session, you're starting to feel a bit more confident approaching these smother floral shapes. As we did when starting our previous composition, I'm going to draw these marks to make sure that I leave a border as a way of ensuring a balanced composition from the beginning. Going to start by drawing a few very soft simple shapes of where each flower is going to go. You can see that I'm using ovals and circles, putting into practice what we saw in the previous lesson. Now I'm going to draw a few lines for the stems. I'm using the reference as inspiration for the direction and length of the stems, but I'm trying not to get too obsessed with copying them exactly. I can see that there is a long flower bud here, which I really like, and then I'm going to draw this branch. I'm not going to draw the leaves because I will do them directly with the brush markers. With that composition in mind, I can erase my marks and start defining the flower directions in a more defined way. So I'm going to start with this one on the corner and keep thinking about these flowers in terms of very simple shapes. It is very useful to know where they're going to be placed, and then I don't care erasing the initial shape to develop the flower in a more defined way. I can draw a line for where the stem is going to go and then draw a perpendicular horizontal line to define where the center is going to go. From there, I can start marking where the petals are going to go with these lines and follow what we did in the exercise lesson. I'm going to move on to this one here that has the receptacle quite long. I hope that I'm saying that word right. I'm generally trying to keep the shapes very simple at this stage. For this one, I'm also going to start by marking the stem, then draw the receptacle, and then mark the circle where the petals are going to be placed. You can see that as I'm developing my flowers, I'm also trying to erase the guides that I'm no longer using to keep the composition clean. Now I'm going to develop this frontal flower, which is slightly angled. I'm going to start by marking where the stem is going to go, draw the oval for the center of the flower and mark where the petals are going to go with slightly curved lines. From there, I can complete the flower. Okay, now that all my flowers are well placed and defined, I'm going to keep cleaning and tidying this composition so that it looks a little bit more defined and finished. Take your time developing your composition and drawing your flowers. And when you're done, meet me in the next lesson. We are going to start adding the first layer of color to them. 13. Small Flowers: Colour Studies: Okay, so now I have worked on my composition, but to be honest, looking at these red flowers has made me a little insecure into which colors to use. I wasn't really expecting that because we have already created a color palette earlier, but honestly, this is a very normal part of the creative process. So instead of forcing it, I'm going to pause here and do a quick extra color test. This is usually what I do in my own work when I feel uncertain before committing to color. And also, I thought I only had one red, but looking at my marker box, it turns out I actually have quite a few red tones. So I'm going to test a couple of combinations and see which ones give me the richness and depth I want before we move on. One of the things I love about using this very affordable sketch pad is that I don't mind using another page to keep making these color studies. Sometimes the best thing we can do before starting a final piece is just test. Doing these little color studies with affordable tools like these markers, pencils and sketching pad, takes so much pressure off. It reminds you that you're allowed to experiment and that nothing is permanent yet. And the truth is that the more you practice with one tool, the more you understand it. In this case, how to grab your brush pens, how much pressure or speed to use and which colors you're drawn to the most. This is also how you slowly start defining your style. You notice which color combinations you keep coming back to, what contrasts you like, and what feels more natural to you. So even if it looks like a simple warmup, this is actually a really important part of getting better. After making this color study, I have decided that I'm going to use the darker red for the base of my flowers, and I'm going to keep the center blue. Take your time defining your colors, and once you're sure about what you want to use, meet me in the next lesson where we're going to start painting the base layer over small flowers. 14. Small Flowers: Painting the Base Layer: If you did a color study, I hope you're ready to start the base layer. Doing one has definitely helped me to feel much more confident and relaxed about starting my plant. This layer is all about placing light and structure. We're not trying to finish anything yet. We're just creating a soft foundation that we can work on later. So if you struggle, try to trust that when applying the second and third layer, you'll be able to refine what you apply in this lesson. I'll start with this mid red and paint each little flower using the same motion we practiced earlier. I begin at the outer edge of the petal, apply a bit more pressure at the start and then lift the pen as I move towards the center. I'm keeping my strokes quite light and leaving small white gaps in between. Those white spaces are important. They automatically create the feeling of volume and light, and they give us room to build the values later from light to dark without the flour turning flat or overworked. We can always add more color, but once the whites are gone, it's very hard to bring them back. As you work, try to keep this base layer light. And if you're unsure, leave more white than you think you need. We'll have plenty of chances to deepen shadows and add richness in the next layer. Once this base layer is done, we'll have a really solid foundation, and the second layer becomes so much easier because all the structure is already there. At this point, I'm going to go in with an eraser and soften the pencil marks. I like keeping the sketch barely visible just enough to guide me, but not so much that I feel like I have to follow it perfectly. For me, removing some of those lines makes the painting feel much more relaxed and it helps me stay in a more intuitive flow as I continue layering with the markers. You will notice I didn't sketch all the leaves in detail, and that's intentional. These leaves are short, curved, and a bit scattered around the stem. So I prefer to keep that part loose and draw them directly with the brush markers. It gives me more freedom to adjust the direction, spacing, and movement as I go. Another thing I really like about having an extra page like this one is that at anytime I feel a little bit unsure, I can come back to it and practice before I commit to the final piece. It takes the pressure off because it reminds me that I can always warm up again. In this case, I'm using it to practice the brush gestures for little leaves, painting one side first, then the other and testing how it feels to pull the stroke in different directions. I didn't sketch the leaves. What I did sketch are the main stems because having that structure helps me place everything. If you feel unsure, what you can do is draw a few curvy lines and use them as guides to paint your leaves. When painting with brush markers, it really helps to think about order what elements sit in the front and which ones belong in the back. In this case, most of the leaves sit in front of the stems, so I like to paint the leaves first. Once the leaves are in place, I go back and paint the parts of the stems that sit behind them using the pencil sketch as a reference. The reason for this is that brush markers are transparent. If I were to paint the stems first and then paint the leaves on top, the stems would show through the leaves, and that usually doesn't look very natural. By painting the leaves first, I can focus on getting their shape right and then carefully at the stems only where they're visible. It's a small shift in order, but it makes a big difference in the final result. I was tempted to spit this part of the video up, but I decided not to. This class isn't about rushing. It's about enjoying the process, slowing down, and staying with what you're doing. I also think it's important to show you the real timing. How long it takes me to paint these flowers and the time I actually take to draw each stroke. I genuinely like taking my time when painting these type of artworks, and that's part of what makes it so relaxing. The nice thing about this technique is that even when you work slowly, you can still create something that looks finished quite quickly without much effort and without getting messy. As we have already mentioned, brush markers are naturally transparent. Because of that, once you have finished your first layer, you can start painting over specific areas to start building depth. This usually means darkening the parts that sit behind other elements, like stems that disappear behind leaves or other flowers or the center of some leaves and petals. By layering the same color again, you'll notice that volume starts to appear almost immediately. This is a really effective way to create depth before introducing a more contrasting color. The gradual buildup helps to keep the illustration soft and cohesive while still giving it dimension. Lastly, I'm going to paint the center of the flowers using this light blue color. The original reference look a bit different, but that's part of the beauty of painting our own flowers. We're free to make our own choices. Since I've already done a color study, I have made some of these decisions in advance. This gives me the confidence to trust them now and move forward without overthinking. Once you're done painting your first layer, meet me in the next lesson. 15. Small Flowers: Adding Volume and Depth: Oh. Now it's time to start developing our second layer. Once again, if at any point you feel unsure, I really recommend using your practice sheet to test your colors first. You can also use it to practice shading petals before moving onto your main piece. Starting with a deeper red, I'm going to build volume slowly and carefully. The key here is not to cover the first layer completely. It's important to leave a few small white or lighter areas, even if they're minimal, because they bring light into the petals and help them feel alive. For this layer, I'm holding my brush marker closer to the tip and applying less pressure. I'm also working with more speed than pressure, pressing slightly at the beginning of each stroke and then lifting as I go. You'll notice that the petals that sit behind others, in this case, the lateral petals tend to be darker. By keeping the central petal lighter, it naturally feels like it's coming forward. I usually darken the areas that are closer to the center of the flower and slightly towards the edges. As I paint, I'm also following the natural curve of the petals with my strokes. This helps me create volume, not just through color, but through movement and direction. One thing I love about painting with brush markers is that somehow you're encouraged to start using a limited color palette. You're working with a small set of tones, and that limitation instantly makes your piece feel more cohesive. It also creates a slightly vintage look, in my opinion. And by spending some time doing color studies, then the colors naturally feel a little bit more curated and timeless. Now I'm going to move on to adding a few darker touches using this burgundy tone. Even though I want these flowers to feel more red than pink, I need to be careful here. Red is a very intense color. And if I layer too much too quickly, the flowers will darken fast and lose their interest. When using stronger colors, adding your second and third layers slowly is key. See how I'm mostly adding this third, darker color towards the inner and outer edge of each petal. Okay, once you're done with your petal, let's go ahead and move on to our stems and leaves. Using a darker green, I'm going to focus on darkening only the areas that sit behind other elements. For example, in this flower bud, just darkening the lower section instantly adds depth and volume. Because these stems are quite thin and the painting is medium sized, I am switching to the smaller tip of my brush marker here. I don't use it often. I love the looseness of the thicker tip, but in this case, it gives me more control. Again, notice how darkening, only the parts of the stem that sit behind the leaves immediately pushes the leaves forward. Now I'm going to develop the leaves using the thick tip of my brush. When developing the leaves, I usually darken only half of each leaf, starting from the central vein. I don't cover the whole surface, just the middle area. This simple choice already creates a strong sense of depth and structure. I'm not strictly following where the light source is and working more intuitively. Darkening just one side of the center of the leaf is often enough to make it feel dimensional. With the finer tip, you can also add a bit of extra texture like refining the central vein or draw the lateral veins to suggest where the leaf is facing. Lastly, I'll test a few blue tones to decide how I want to darken the flower centers. I am following a similar approach to the previous flower, darkening the center and then adding a soft ring of dots around it to suggest pollen. To finish, I'll use this darker brown to add a few very fine details to the petals and the flower centers, bringing everything together gently. At. This class isn't about rushing. It's about enjoying the process, slowing down, and staying with what you're doing. I also think it's important to show you the real timing how long it takes me to paint these flowers and how slowly I build each stroke. I genuinely like taking my time when painting this type of artworks, and that's part of what makes it so relaxing. The nice thing about this technique is that even when you work slowly, you can still create something that looks finished quite quickly without much effort and without getting messy. Brush markers are very clean and direct, so you can get that satisfying painting feeling, but with much less setup and clean up than other mediums. When I finish a painting that has been done from reference, I sometimes like to place the two side by side and observe how similar or different they've become. In this case, my plant has clearly been inspired by this illustration, but I have made several conscious choices along the way. For example, I changed the floral center, and I also used a different technique to develop the piece. Some decisions alone already give the final result a very different look and feeling. As I mentioned in the gathering inspiration lesson, this reference illustration was created a long time ago because of that and because I've infused my own style, color decisions, and technique into this piece, I feel comfortable using it as inspiration without concerns about copyright. In my own practice, I'm careful not to copy illustrations from contemporary artists. When working from references, I prefer either older illustrations, photographs or multiple sources combined together. Helps me learn from what I see while still developing work that feels personal, original, and true to my own visual language. Take your time finishing your plant. If you've finished one floor already, this is a really nice moment to pause and upload it to your class project. Your project can grow over time and you can update it anytime. Think of your project as a place to document your process, your progress, and not just your final results. So whenever you're ready, upload what you've got onto the project and after that, come back to the class so we can keep on painting. 16. Introduction to the Painting Demos: Okay. Before we move on into the painting demos, I want to share a quick note about why I included them in this class and why they're a little bit different from the other lessons. Up until now, we have focused on understanding the tools and getting comfortable with layering and color choices. That structure is very important because it gives you confidence and clarity. But when it comes to painting, especially botanicals, there's also a lot of value in simply watching the painting process. So in the next lessons, I'm not going to be explaining every step. You can think of these demos as an invitation to observe and notice how layers built, how I represent lights and shadows. How I use the white of the paper to create volume. In these painting demos, I have challenged myself to only use three or four colors. These markers are a little bit transparent. So by layering them, you can achieve new tones with the ones that you already have. I'm going to speed up my videos so that they don't take as long, but just so you know, I cannot paint that fast. You're welcome to paint along with me, pause the video, rewind, or simply watch it at a slower speed. There's no right way of using these demos, and you can watch them or not watch them at all and move on to the final thoughts lesson. Okay, so with that in mind, let's move on to the painting demos. I hope that you enjoy them. 17. Painting Demo: Cosmos Flower: [No Speech] 18. Painting Demo: African Lilac Daisy: [No Speech] 19. Painting Demo: Tulip: Co. No. 20. Final Thoughts: Thank you so much for joining me in this class. I really hope that you enjoyed slowing down, working with brush markers, and exploring how with just a few layers and a limited color palette, you can create so much depth and beautiful flowers. If after watching the class, you enjoyed it and learn something new, please review it. It would mean a lot to me as reviews help me know what I'm doing well, what I can do better in the future, and also what my students enjoy the most. You're looking for even more resources to keep learning, be sure to check out my YouTube channel. I like to post shorter tutorials, art blogs, behind the scenes, and snippets to my creative process that might inspire you on experimenting with more ideas and techniques. If you want to stay in touch, make sure you follow me here in Skillshare to stay updated on new classes, giveaways a host and stuff like that. And I love to keep in touch with people through emails. I love sharing news behind the scenes of projects I'm working on. You will hear about new classes, get access to discounts on my digital products, hear about giveaways and what comes next. If you want to check my other personal projects, which include patterns, murals, paintings on different techniques or just behind the scenes, I would love you to follow me on Instagram at ilspina dot art. It's been a real pleasure painting with you. I can't wait to see your botanical illustrations and what you build your confidence using brush markers. Have a lovely day wherever you are and see you in my next class.