Botanical Illustration with Watercolour | Anemone Flower

1. Welcome & Introduction: Hi, everyone. My name is Helen, and I am a botanical artist and teacher. Welcome. Welcome back. I've been painting botanicals for about 14 years now, and in this class, I take you through my entire process to create this gorgeous illustration of Ann and Lena I will talk to you about the materials that you will need and guide you through the whole process step by step to create a beautiful illustration of your own. I really hope that you can join me. 2. Materials & Set Up: Okay, so let's start by talking a little bit about the materials that we are going to use for this neem painting. The first thing you'll need is a piece of watercolor paper. Mine here is a piece of arch, hot pressed watercolor paper at a weight of 300 grams/square meter that I have stretched onto my watercolor board, which is simply just a piece of plyboard. I have then stuck the paper down with a gummed tape. You can find out all about how I do this in my fundamentals of botanical art course, which is the course where we paint the tulip and I demonstrate this process step by step. I have then also transferred my anemone drawing onto my watercolor paper. I use a transfer technique for this, which essentially involves tracing my drawing and then putting pencil on the back of that drawing and then finally going over it once more, like you can see me doing here. I demonstrate this process too in my previous class. You should end up with a lovely pencil imprint on your watercolor paper. For the paints we will be using in this class, I always choose to use Windsor and Newton professional watercolor paints. And the ones that we are going to be using today are Permanent Rose, Windsor Lemon, Pline maroon, and in Danthrene blue. I generally work with a very limited palette, often just six paints because I love the feeling of unity that it brings to a painting. In terms of the brushes we're going to be using, the first here that you can see is the haras short flat from Rosemary and Co. I use this for mixing on my palette, as well as lifting paint off the paper. Using this brush on my palette means that I'm less likely to damage my lovely painting brushes with vigorous mixing. Then we've got the Rosemary and Co Series three oh seven brushes in size four, two and zero. These are synthetic brushes, but hold water really, really well, and I really like them as a great alternative to sable brushes. Then you can see next to me here, I have two water jars, one that I use for cleaning my brush, and the other that I use for putting clean water onto my paper. I've got a few palettes here to play around with. I love these little round stackable ones. They're from a company called Jackson's Art. But honestly, any kind of porcelain palette is fine. You'll find plastic ones harder to use as the paint kind of runs away from you on the palette. Finally, I want to show you my putty rubber in case you haven't seen this before. It's a lovely, lovely soft eraser and perfect for lifting off any pencil that's too dark on our watercolor paper because it's really gentle. I'll always keep a piece of kitchen roll nearby, too, just to dry off my brush as I paint. And then finally, we keep our reference image close to hand so that we can see what we're painting. So that is all the equipment that we're going to need to paint this anon. So if you've gathered those things, then let's get started with painting. 3. Initial Washes: So let's start mixing up some paint and get some initial washers down on our lovely neom. The first thing I'm going to do is just put some of the paint on our palette. And I'm starting off with the Windsor lemon, the permanent rose, and the Perline maroon. So the only paint that I'm not putting down right now is the danthrine blue because we don't need that just yet. So I'm going to mix up two paint mixers. The first will be a mix of the Windsor lemon and some of the permanent rose. And just because that's a little bit bright, I'm also going to add a little bit of the Perlein maroon to that mix, as well. You can see here it's a strong mix. There's a good amount of pigment, so I'm able to mix up a really, really nice amount of it. I always start by mixing quite a lot of paint on my palette, particularly when I'm painting a large piece like this anome. It just means that I don't have to come back to my palette to keep mixing while I'm in the midst of laying down washers. It just makes the process flow better, but also I'm more likely to keep a consistent color balance across the painting. If you run out of paint, you're never going to be able to match the same colors perfectly. And this doesn't matter too much because there's always going to be a natural variation across a flower. But I just find it really helpful to mix up a really good amount when starting off. It is a little bit easier to mix up large amounts of paint when you're working with tubes rather than pans. I've always used tubes just because when I teach, I need to be able to give students paint or be able to mix up large volumes of paint at one time. It doesn't matter if you've got pans. They're great, really versatile and easy to use. You may just find it a little bit harder to mix up, large volumes of paint mixes like I am here. But just do what you can do. Once I've mixed up a really nice amount of the wind the lemon permanent rose with a little bit of the parolin, I'm going to do one more mix as well, just so that we can add some variety across our painting. So here, I'm starting with a nice amount of the permanent rose, again, large volumes. And then I'm adding in the Perlein maroon to bring that sort of extra ready hue to it rather than the really, really bright vibrant pink of the permanent rose. And here we should see that we end up with a really, really lovely, rich red. I always like to test my colors out on my paper before I get started. This process, as well as being able to see what the colors will look like on paper also helps me record the mixes that I've used so I can return to them at a later date. So this is what our first mix looks like with the yellow in it. And then this is what our second mix looks like, which is just the permanent rose and the perylene maroon. I've labeled these as our under washers, because that's essentially what our first layer of washers are. Before I start painting, I'm going to use my putty rubber and just really lighten that pencil on my watercolor paper so it's as light as it can be while still being able to actually see what's on the paper. This isn't so much of an important step in the case of a vibrant, dark flower like this, but it would be really important if you were painting a lighter flower because you're more likely to be able to see the pencil lines in, let's say, a white flower than a bright red flower. And once you've put paint on top of pencil, it's pretty much impossible to lighten that pencil. So it's just a really good habit to get into. We're going to be working with a wet on wet technique for the majority of this painting. If you don't know, a wet on wet watercolor technique is simply the process of laying down clean water first onto the paper. So we're using water from our clean water jar and then laying paint on top of that water layer wash whilst the paper is still wet. If you want to dive into this technique in more depth and do some more practicing, I'd suggest going back and looking at my tip tutorial where I demonstrate this in more depth. I'm using my size four brush here, so I'm really able to cover a good amount of paper at one time. If you use a brush that's too small, it's harder to cover the area that you want to paint, and you're going to end up using more brush strokes, which may start to sort of irritate the surface of the paper a little bit. Also, you might actually find that your paper starts to dry while you're adding the water and you just can't keep up, so it's best to use a nice big brush for this stuff. What we're looking for with a wet on wet technique, just to remind you, is that lovely sort of glistening effect on the surface of the paper that you can see here. We want it to be wet enough that it really shines, but we don't want puddles, really, because when you have puddles on the paper, it can make the watercolor paint sort of sit on the surface of the paper rather than sort of blending into the paper fibers. You'll know if there's too much water on the paper, and you can easily remedy that by just putting a slightly drier brush into that puddle and lifting some of that water back off. But this here with the glimmering paper surface is pretty much exactly the effect we're looking for. Then we can start adding some paint. So I'm using the size two brush now, and I'm just picking up some of the paint that we've already mixed. So this is the mix with a little bit of yellow in. And I'm just looking at the anon flower, keeping an eye on my reference photo, and just adding some of this colour in. I do find it quite helpful just to start with laying some paint down at the edges, first of all, like you can see me doing. But there's no real right or wrong as to where to start. I then start to add a little bit of that color into the middle of the flower, those veins, and you can start building up a little bit of interest and detail within the petal itself. Here I've picked up a little bit of that redder mix to really start to add some lovely bold color. With a flower like this neme, a flower that's really this bright, you can really go quite bold with your first washes. I always say, if you're not sure or you're building up your confidence with watercolor, always start paler with a wash that has more water in it because you can always add more layers. But if you can, be bold and just go for it because ultimately, you know, we're looking to have a really vibrant flower here, and there is going to be quite a lot of paint on the paper to get that vibrancy and color that we're looking for. Be mindful, of course, that we're not taking the color directly into the center of the flower. We want to show how the petal gently graduates into that paler center, and we'll do that in the next stage of the video. So for now, just focus on the reds of the petals. Here, you can see, even when I'm adding these lines, that the paint is still bleeding beautifully into the paper. And you can see that it's still wet, but it is starting to dry a little bit. I don't know if you can see that sort of gleam, that glisten on the paper is lessening. That's something to watch out for, because if your paper starts to dry, you really don't get that bleeding effect across the paper, and you'll start to get sort of quite harsh lines, which we really don't want at this stage of our painting. And then next, essentially what we do is just move on and repeat the same process across different petals. You must remember to make sure that the petal you've painted is completely dry before you move on to the one that's touching it. If you paint with two wet petals next to each other, you'll find that the paint will bleed across the petals and you'll end up with just kind of a really messy look to your painting that's quite hard to remedy. Remember to keep using your different mixes. Hopefully you can see in the petal that we've just done the variation in color that the different mixes give to the petal. It really gives interest and dimension across the painting. Hopefully, you can see, too, that I'm always leaving white highlights when I'm painting, which may not always be visible in the flower that you're painting. Highlights are so important in botanical illustration. If you've watched my previous videos or you've been to one of my workshops, you'll know that I go on about highlights all the time. This is because light and shade is exactly how we demonstrate the form and shape of a flower. Typically in botanical illustration with watercolor, we avoid using white paint, preferring to use the white of the paper as our white. We also typically have the light coming from the top left of our painting because this gives a unified feel across the whole piece by having a consistent light source. If you're painting from life, you can usually set up your painting space with the light landing on your subject in front of you from a certain direction. In reality, though, particularly when painting from photographs like we are here, the light source may be coming from all different directions, and so we have to use our imagination to depict the light source coming from one direction. So think about the way the petals relate to each other and to the light. Where on the petals will be catching the light and where will be in shade. You can then use more color in the areas in shadow, such as where a petal is tucked under an adjacent petal and leave the white paper showing in areas that are really catching the light. I'm going to speed the video up a little bit now, and I'm going to miss out each time the first stage of laying down water because it takes up a lot of time for the video, and I'd rather focus on the painting technique for you. So just don't forget to add your water first. Remember, too, that you can always change the speed of the video at any point if you feel you want to see things a little bit slower and in a little bit more detail. You can change the speed settings at the bottom of the screen. And do just double check too that you have the video playing in high quality two from the settings at the bottom. I'll make such a big difference to your viewing experience. Oh. So well down on finishing those layers of washes on your painting, hopefully you can see now that the neem is really coming to life. We're going to carry on with this technique in the next part of the video, but this time we'll be focusing on building up the depth of color even more and adding some shade to the very center of the flower. 4. Final washes: So the next thing that we're going to do is just start to build up the red colour on the petals, but also start to fill in that center where the petals fade from red to a sort of softer pale gray color. So to do this, we're going to add a little bit of endanthrine blue to our palate and start to mix up what I call a botanical gray. You may have seen me do this before, but to remind you, to make a botanical gray, we simply mix up three primary colors. I always like to use the colors that I'm already using in my painting to again keep that sense of unity. So here I'm taking some of the endanthrine blue, a little bit of the Windsor lemon and permanent rose. By mixing these three colors together, you get this lovely gray. What I love about this technique is that you can vary the color of the gray that you make. So you can have a slightly pinkier gray, a slightly bluer gray, a slightly yellower gray, greener gray, purpler gray, depending on the amount of colors that you mix. This allows you to tailor your gray much more closely to the subject you're painting and adds more interest to the painting rather than using a color such as Payne's gray straight out of a tube. You can see this when I demonstrate it on my swatches, all of the different colors that we can create. Just as a small note, I wouldn't ever mix more than three colors together. This tends to lead to a dull, muddy color that won't be particularly pleasing to the eye. Once you've mixed your botanical gray, we are then going to repeat our wet on wet technique again exactly as you have done in the first layer of washes, adding a lovely, clean layer of water across the whole petal and then adding some color. We're going to use the same two red mixes as you did before. And so this is a great opportunity to build up the depth of red across the petals if you started off a little bit paler than me. Try not to forget to keep leaving those lovely white highlights. As before, don't forget to put your water wash down before you lay paint on the paper each time. And do go bold with the colors where you can, such as where you really think that petal is in shadow. Don't be afraid to put down a really, really good amount of pigment to really make the painting pop off the page and give that contrast between those white highlights that you've left. The difference this time, though, is that we are also going to start to use a bit of the botanical gray to add that shadow and finish off the petal as it disappears into the center of the flower. You can see me doing this here, thinking about where isn't catching the light and where is going to be in shadow. Going quite dark in those areas, particularly where one petal disappears under another petal and where it disappears under the stamens in the center of the anomon. You can see that I'm also adding in some of the lines in those petals as well with the gray. So do have a go with this and see if you can do the same. Once again, we're going to repeat this process over each of the petals. So I'm going to just speed up the video for the purposes of time. Remember, though, that you can slow the video down at the bottom of the screen if you want to watch things at a slower pace. Well done. Wow. We've got this far, and we've got washes down on all the petals. I hope you can really see it coming alive now, and you're pleased with what you've done so far. Next, we're going to add some details into the petals, practicing our dry brush technique. H 5. Adding Details - Part One: So next is a really, really fun part because we get to add some detail onto the painting. So we need to start by mixing up a color that's very similar to the one we've just used in the painting already, the permanent rose and the paroline maroon mix. We're going to keep the mix quite strong, so use quite a good amount of pigment in the mix. We're going to work with two brushes in our hand for this process. One of the brushes is our size zero, which is what we're going to use to add the detail into the petals, and the other is the size two. And this brush is going to be clean with just a little bit of clean water on it. We're going to use this to soften and blend as we paint. This is called a wet on dry technique, and I'll demonstrate it now. So here you can see I'm picking up a little bit of the paint, and I'm just going to ticicle the surface of the paper with my brush. Hopefully, you can see that in order to get a fine line, the tip of my brush hardly bends at all. I'm always trying to follow the shape of the petal. So I'm thinking about the way the veins are transporting water from the inside of the flower right from the stem all the way across the flower radiating out to the edge of the petal. So start to just get a feel for this and add some really delicate lines onto the petal. Over time, we can then start to build up some of the strength of these details and then add some sort of undulations to the petal. This is all just adding interest in depth and complexity to our illustration. You can see me demonstrating this here. I'm adding a little bit more pigment to this petal to this line. And then I'm taking my size two brush that is clean and damp, and I'm just softening the edge and blending it out. So you end up with a little bit more interest and detail. I'll show you that one more time here in real time. So you can see I'm adding a good amount of paint to this little corner and this line that I've already drawn in with my small brush. It's quite dark. That's good. And then I'm blending it out, softening it with the sized toothbrush. We just just got the clean water on it. We can then repeat this process lots and lots over the surface of the petal and it will really bring it to life. And actually, by the sheer volume and number of these little lines that we can add, you always get that texture of the petal that we're looking for. I'm paying particular attention to where the petals actually dip and curve away from the light because the direction of the veins is really going to give you the shape of the petal, and that's really important. So you'll see that as we go. So once again, as I've done before, I'm going to speed up the video just a little bit again for time. But you'll still be able to see me do every petal in case you want to reference that as well as the reference photo. And remember, you can adjust the speed at the bottom if you wish to slow things down. 6. Adding Details - Part Two: Oh. So that's it. That's all of the detail we've added onto our petals now. So now we need to move on to the center. And, oh my goodness, when we get this in, the whole flower is really going to pop off the page. I'm excited for you. 7. The Centre - Part One: So this next part is really fun because we get to mix up some botanical blacks. We've done botanical grays, and botanical black is essentially just a very, very dark color or a very, very dark botanical gray. This is always how I use my paints to mix a black. I never use black out of the tube, just like I don't choose to use pains gray because, again, it's all about giving the painting a feeling of unity. If we can use the same paints that we've already used on our painting to create our black, then that's great. And we can get the subtleties of color that you just can't achieve with black or gray straight from the tube. So here we've got the endowthrnblue, perylene maroon, and the Windsor lemon going onto our palette. We're just going to mix some really strong mixes of these paints together and just have a play with how these come out on your paper because sometimes it's quite hard to see on the palette. So you can see here what I'm trying to do is actually just change the color of the botanical black a little bit. I've got some that are quite blue and then I've got some which are becoming a little bit pinkier and purplier and redder. It's very subtle, but that's exactly what we're looking for. We're going to use these botanical blacks to paint the stamens in the center of the flower. Let me just show you with a little drawing here, the shape of these stamens because it's quite hard to see them in the photograph. Essentially, they're made of a structure that looks very similar to this, the anther at the top with the small stalk, the filament. And the reason I'm showing you this is because understanding how they are formed is going to help us paint them. What we're essentially going to do is we're going to paint the outline of these individual anthers, including the line down the center. And then what that allows us to do is just add a little bit of color later on to the side of the anther that's in shadow. So even though it's a tiny little detail, painting them this way allows us to capture the complexity and the detail and also how they relate to each other. Here you can see me adding another anther behind it, and we can darken the one behind to show how they relate to one another. So let me show you how we actually paint it. We're going to take our size zero brush, our smallest brush, and again, as I said, we're going to simply outline each anther with one of our botanical plaques. Use whichever one you feel is best suited. It's that simple. I'm just drawing in the outline and the center line, and that's all we're going to do at this stage. We're going to repeat this process, almost like we're just drawing in all the anthers across the center. We don't need to add any shadow at this stage. We're going to do that a little bit later. You don't need to worry about replicating the photograph exactly here. The most important thing is that we get a feel for the volume of the stamens and that they're painted cleanly and neatly. Do keep referring to your photograph, but don't feel the pressure to place the anthers exactly where you see them in the photo. Just build them up steadily in a way that works for you. I'm going to speed up the video a little bit now just so that you can see the process as it progresses. Eventually, you will end up with the anthers looking something like this. And then what I'd like us to do is add the filaments, which are the small stalks that connect each anther to the flower. To do this, we're going to mix up a reasonably strong pink color. We don't want it to be too dark, what I like to call a mid tone. So not a pale sort of tea wash, but also not as dark as we've been using already, somewhere in between. Then all we're going to do, keeping it really simple again, is just draw a line in that pink color from every one of those anthers that we've drawn into the center of the flower. Just be really mindful of the direction these filaments are going in. They're sweeping in and underneath that center. So be really careful of that direction and just curve them in underneath. I can understand that it can be a bit daunting and a bit overwhelming when we see a center like this. But if you can break it down as you illustrate it and you can represent it in a way that's both accurate but actually allows you to paint it and tell the story of what's happening in the flower, then hopefully that makes it a little bit easier and more fun to paint. As with the anthers, you don't have to make the lines exactly where you see them on the photograph. Just make sure that they make sense that each anther is connected to the flower with a filament and that you're creating a lovely illustration as you go. M Now, next, once you've got those lines in, even though they're tiny, tiny, tiny, we do want to show where the light is hitting them and where is in shadow. So this is another test of our fine motor skills as we pick up a darker red color, almost like a botanical black but with much more red in it, and we're going to add a little bit of shadow to the right hand side of each filament. Just do your best. It's not easy to get this really, really fine detail, so don't worry too much. If it's really tricky, just do what you can. I think the part that's particularly helpful to do is adding a little bit of shadow where the filaments overlap each other because that will show which one's in front and which one's behind. When you finish that process, you should end up with what is now becoming a very, very complex center with lots of demonstration of lights and darks, which is exactly what the flower would look like in real life. Now we're going to add in a little bit of color to those ans. I would take a botanical black but a bluer version of it and water it down. So it's back essentially to a nice, subtle botanical gray. And then I'd like you to supply that with a dry brush technique over the parts of the stamen that are going to be in shadow. So typically that right hand side, where one is behind another one. When I say a dry brush technique, essentially, we're just putting the paint directly onto dry paper. And then what you should end up with is those really kind of black stamens that we're looking for that really pop off the page. But also, when we look in more closely, we can see their shape and their form and how they relate to one another. Well done. If you've got that far, that's a lot of really, really detailed work involving high, high levels of concentration. So if you want to have a little break, then now's a good point to do so. Go put the kettle on or stretch your legs, whatever you'd like to do. And what we're going to do next is we're going to start to fill in the areas of white space behind the stamens, the areas that are going to be in shadow. Oh 8. The Centre - Part Two: So to fill in these gaps, what we're going to do is we're going to use the same botanical gray that we were using on the petals. We're simply going to, again, use a dry brush technique. So that's the gray paint going directly onto the dry watercolor paper, and we're just going to try and fill in those gaps. Try not to pick up too much of the paint from the anthers and the stamens and keep everything really crisp and really clear. If you want to, you can start to add in some of the more detailed lines in the botanical gray, just to show those inner parts of the petal as well. Do you just think carefully about which parts are going to be really, really, very, very dark gray? And that's typically going to be the bits that are really in shadow, so to the right hand side of the flower center underneath. But also tucking in on that left hand side, as well will be pretty dark where hardly any light is going to be reaching. Once I've got all of the gray in I'll then just go back in and add even more depth of tone, making sure that it really captured sort of the whole tonal spectrum from those white highlights in the petal and the anthers all the way through to the really, really dark black areas where no light is reaching at all. The final part of the painting of the flower is to paint in that fluffy, hairy center. You probably thought, How on Earth do I paint this? Because I had the same thought. But essentially, what we're going to do, we're going to break it down again, and we're going to paint it as it is formed. And what I mean by that is, it's made up of all these really, really fine hairs. And so we're literally just going to paint in the hairs and paint in so many of them that it starts to look dense and formed like it does in real life. The main things to think about here are the color and the shading. So first of all, think about how dark your paint is. You probably want to start off quite light and then add in some darker color on top, making sure that you remember to leave lovely highlights where the light is going to be catching, particularly at the top left. I'm using one of the botanical blacks I created with a bluer hue similar to that of the ans. So you can see me here just slowly, slowly adding in those fine hairs and building up that depth of tone as I go. I'm always thinking of the direction that the hairs are going in. You want to make sure that the hairs are kind of going from the base and then coming upwards towards the top center. Paint them with a lovey curve to them to give that center the domed shape that we're looking for. You'll see as I build up how we can get a really, really dark color that we want by just adding more layers of color. It's lovely if you can also vary the colors a little bit, vary the botanical black in there just to give the painting a little bit more interest. For example, you might want to add a slightly readier hue to the left and a slightly bluer hue to the right where it's in shadow. But you can have a little play and see what works for you. H Uh So there we have it. The center is complete. That's pretty much as dark as we can get it and as dark as we need it to be. What I'm doing here now is I'm just going to go round and do any final little touch ups, tiding the edges. And if there are areas where I think could be just a little bit darker and increase the contrast a little bit, then I'm doing that now. So please do some final little touch ups as you feel are needed. But then that's the flower painted. Next, we're going to move on to our leaves and then our stem. 9. The Leaves: When it comes to the leaves, we need to create some lovely greens using the colors we've already used in the painting. Windsor lemon and endanrineblue. If you find the mix looks a little bit too artificial, then we can add in a tiny bit of permanent rose. This can just knock it back really beautifully and create a much more natural green. See if you feel that's something that you need. Here, I've mixed up two mixers, one that is a little bit more yellow, and one that's got a little bit more of the endanthrine blue in it. I have some variation of color that I can use across the leaves. Now, the way that I tackle these leaves is with a wet on wet technique. So you can see here again, just like we've done before, I've laid down some water, and I am then adding some paint. I'm working on these leaves section by section. So rather than putting colour over the whole leaf, I'm going to paint little bit by little bit in order to sort of build up that pillowy texture that's quite classical of the neem leaf. I'm going to use a slightly yellower hue of paint towards the front of the leaves. And for the leaves that are more behind and more in shadow, I'm going to use a green mix which has a bluer hue to it. So you'll see me do this and change my paint mix over the course of the painting. With these leaves and these different sections, still keep in mind the shadows. Think about where the light is hitting and where we'll be in shadow, even so much as where the center veins run down the middle and the petal surface undulate slightly. Try and capture these subtle variations, if you can, and keep those lovely highlights that we know make the painting glow just as you've done with the petals. Just keep working section by section and building up the color as you go. We'll add a little bit more detail to the leaves once we've got paint over the entire area. You might find that you only need one layer of wash for these leaves, but see how you go. You can always repeat the process just like we did with the petals if you feel you need more color. Once again, as before, I'm going to speed up the video a little bit, just so that you can see me work on all of the leaves in a reasonable amount of time. But do slow it down again as usual, if you wish. UU So here, I'm mixing up now a slightly bluer hued green mix, even more so than the one before, so that I can show these leaves that I'm painting are very much behind the leaves that we've just painted. You know, it's like when you look at mountains in the distance, typically, they look blue, and blue is often subject of things that are further away. So this is just a really, really lovely way of distinguishing the leaves that are further in front and the leaves that are further behind. 10. The Stem & Finishing: So here we are. The final piece of the puzzle is our stem. Now, the stem of the nem has lots of different variations in color. So we want to mix up a nice green, of course, which you can see me doing here, exactly the same as we've done before. So a bit of the yellow, a bit of the blue, and a little bit of the permanent rose as well, just to knock it back just as with the leaves. You can see here again how much of a difference that makes to the color. You've got a lovely green that you're happy with. I'd also like us to mix up a more neutral color. I do that by taking green, but then adding a little bit more of the permanent rose. So you almost end up with a sort of greeny, brownie neutral color, which we can use to add a little bit more interest to our stem, as well as try and match what we actually see on the stem itself. When we add this to the water alongside the green, you'll see what a lovely effect it creates. You can see here when I'm doing these swatches, the different variations in color that can be achieved from just adding these three colors together. When I'm painting stems, the most important thing is the light and shade in order to demonstrate the shape of the stem and the fact that it's cylindrical. I'd recommend that in order to get a lovely blend of color across the stem, that we use a wet on wet technique here again. So exactly as we've been doing the whole way through, lay down that layer of water and then just start to add a little bit of color. Be really careful as you apply your water here. As anywhere you lay water down, paint will follow, and we really want to make sure that we have a stem edge that's really crisp and straight with no wobbles. I'm starting here with my greener color, and I'm running it down the right hand edge of the stem, because this is the side of the stem that's in shadow. I have now picked up a little bit of the neutral color, and I'm going to keep changing this up as I move down the stem. Add a little bit of the green, and then a little bit of the neutral and sort of create that variety and color that we see in the stem. Whilst the paper is still wet, you can increase the tone and increase the depth of color by going over it again. We'll want a little bit of color down that left hand edge, too. So run your brush gently down with quite a pale color just so the stem feels complete. But go really carefully and try and keep that highlight more to the left if you can, as that's where our light source is coming from. You can keep adding paint, as I say, whilst the paper is wet. But always as we've already spoken about, if the paper starts to dry, just stop because you will end up with a harsher line. You can actually see here that my paper is starting to dry. So I'll take that opportunity to pause and move down and we can start to fill in the other areas of the stem like these ones in between the leaves. The most important thing here is to make sure that you've got a little bit of shadow where the leaf is overlapping the stem, just to show what's happening and make it clear to the viewer of the painting. Then we can finish off right down to the end exactly as you've done already with differing amounts of the green and the neutral. Now, it might be that you want to do another layer of wash on your stem if the stem is quite pale, and this is absolutely fine. Just repeat the process with a layer of water and then layer of paint. I'm actually choosing not to do another layer on my painting, as I like the fact that the stem is quite pale in my own illustration. But if you feel you need to do a bit more colour than by all means do. And there you have it. Our neem painting is complete. I really hope that you've enjoyed this and have a really fun and beautiful illustration that you're really pleased with. I hope you've learned lots, and maybe this is another piece that you can display in your home or gift to someone that you love. If you've enjoyed the class and you feel comfortable, please do share your project in the project section below because I know that other people would love to be inspired by what you've created. Do also come and hang out with me on Instagram. I'm at Helen Cousins Botanics and I show lots of shorter clips of me painting and tips and tricks and things that will hopefully keep you inspired on your painting journey. I've also got some other tutorials on skill share that you might enjoy, such as this rose, this tree of pansies. Then we go right back to the fundamentals of botanical art in my class where we paint a lovely purple tulip. Thank you so much for being here, and I will see you again soon.