Build Brush Confidence: A Beginner’s Guide to Watercolor Floral Strokes

1. About the Class: Have you ever felt like your brush has a mind of its own? Maybe your petals feel stiff or the strokes don't flow the way you want them to. Well, you're not alone. In this class, I will show you how to truly connect with your brush and build that confidence in painting those strokes. Hi, I'm Jolly, and I'm a watercolor artist, content creator, and a skillshare top teacher with over a decade of painting experience. My passion lies in painting loose expressive watercolor florals, and I just love that feeling of dancing with my brush. My goal as a teacher is to make watercolor feel approachable by breaking down challenging techniques into simple step by step lessons. We'll start by getting to know our brushes, how size, softness, and bristle type affect your strokes. Next, we'll talk about how you hold your brush. A relaxed crip allows for smooth and natural strokes. I'll show you how different hand positions can change the way your strokes flow. We'll also explore water control, how to achieve the right amount of water in your brush and why blotting is important. Brush control comes with practice and play. So the more you paid, the more natural and effortless it will feel. That's why we will go through different exercises. So we'll practice pressure, movement, gestural strokes to build the muscle memory in your hand. To put everything into practice, we will pay three different floral projects ranging from simple to more expressive designs. This way, you can start where you feel comfortable and challenge yourself as you go. By the end of the class, you will feel more in control of your brush while still allowing that beautiful and organic looseness. Whether you're a beginner or looking to refine your florals, this class will help you build confidence in painting your strokes. So grab your brushes, and let's get started. 2. Class Overview: Welcome to the class overview. So this is a fun class all about brush strokes. My goal is to help you understand how to be in control of your brush so that you can paint your desired floral strokes. So I often include brush exercises in my classes, but I wanted to compile them into one place, so you can always go back to a refresher whenever you need it. For our class project, we will be painting gestural five petal florals to focus on just the brush control and the movement of armor hand. So there will be three paintings ranging from easy to intermediate. So let's check them out. The first project, this is going to be the easiest. It's a simple orange flower. It looks like a poppy flower. So we are going to focus on just one flower and create some movement within the petals. For the second project, we are going to paint this beautiful composition. So we have more flowers now, and I love the looseness in this arrangement. We're also going to work a little bit fast here because we want the wet petals to touch the leaves, so we have a nice bleeding there. I also like the color combination. I think it's quite unique. It's not the usual combination that we do, not the pinks and yellow, so we're going to do blue and burnt sienna here. Now, for the last project, we're going to do midnight blue florals, that's what I call it. I love this composition. It has different elements, and we're going to also add some white gouache. This is optional, but I think it elevates the painting. So aside from practicing those brushstrokes, we are also adding a little bit of texture and a bit more character to this painting. So we will put in a little bit more effort, but you can definitely do this. It's a very, very approachable way to paint florals. Alright, so now let's move on to the next video as we discuss the materials for the class. 3. Materials: Okay, so let's first talk about the materials that we need. For the brushes, we are going to focus on round brushes. So this is the silver brush black velvet, and I'm going to be using mostly size eight for this class. So what we want is a brush that can hold a lot of water and still keep its point. And I will be discussing a lot more about brushes in the next videos. So size eight is really perfect for medium size paintings, and we'll also be using size six. But of course, you can definitely use whatever brush you have at home. So our goal in this class is for you to really build your brush confidence with the brushes that you have at home. So next let's talk about the paper. For the paper, I'm using different kinds of paper here. I have here the Bao Hong Academy, it's 200 GSM, and I got this in a large sheet and just cut it into smaller sheets like this. And you can see that it's quite thin. That's something that I would recommend if you want to save money, get the thinner paper because it's usually cheaper as well. For the exercises, you can use student grade paper or any cheap watercolor paper, we're just going to practice the strokes. Next, what I'm going to show you is this Bajo Academy, but this is in a watercolor block form. So you can see all the sides are glued so that the paper will stay in place and will not warp or become wrinkly when you paint on it. This is also 300 GSM. You can see it's thicker compared to the first one that I showed you. So I'm going to be using this for one of our projects. I'm just going to also show you the texture. This is cold press. So cold press paper is really, really nice for loose florals. So if you see hot press paper, that is a smoother paper. That's perfect for more realistic paintings. Alright, so here I'm going to show you the Bao hung artist grade paper. So this is the artist's quality, and it's 100% cotton paper. The thickness is 300 GSM. And I really love painting on this paper because I feel like the florals have more depth, and the blending of the colors looks really better than student grade paper. Here I'm just going to show you the comparison on the left is the artists grade. Paper on the right is the Bao Hong Academy. If you are on a budget, I would suggest getting the Bao Hong Academy, which is their student grade line. It's really a good quality paper. So other grade brands of paper are arches, Fabrian Artistico, Saunders Waterford. And then for the paints, I am using Shinhan PWC, and they come in tubes, but I just pour them into small half pans like this. So it's like a customized set for myself. And a lot of people have been asking about my palette here. It's actually just the lid of this core watercolor tin. I just changed the paints inside this tin. You can definitely use any watercolor brand you have at home, since we are really focusing more on the brush strokes. Alright, so for the next material, I'm going to be using the whole in gouache. This is the white gouache. You can definitely skip this part if you don't have white gouache. I just love adding some highlights in my paintings or just some white flowers like this. I do feel like it just elevates the painting even more. So if you don't have this, it's okay. You can skip it. Lastly, we need paper towel to blot out the excess moisture in our brush, and we are going to discuss more about that later and also a water jar for rinsing our brush. Alright, so that's it for this lesson. Now let's move on to the next video. 4. Get to Know Your Brush: To build our brush confidence, we need to first understand and get to know our brush. So this is my favorite brush. This is the silver black velvet in size eight. It is a round brush, it's very versatile, and you can paint so many things using this brush. So now let's talk about the parts first. Okay, so here you have the handle. And then you have the ferrule. So you can see this part is black, so you cannot really visualize what the ferrule is. But this is another brush, and you can see that silver part. That's the ferrule holding the bristles. Okay, now we have the bristles itself, and the thickest part is called the belly. And then, of course, at the tip, you have this nice pointy tip of the brush. So I will be giving you some tips throughout the lessons. Tip number one, the brush size matters. So when you want to paint some nice loose petals, it's best to use some bigger brushes. So this is a size eight and a size six. So when you're using the size eight, it will be easier for you to create some broad strokes. I will be giving you a quick demo. This is my size eight round brush, and you'll notice that it's just easier to glide on the paper and create these broad strokes because the bristles will fan out more compared to a smaller brush. Now, let me give you the demo of this size six round brush. So when you're using a smaller brush, it just takes a little bit more effort to create these strokes, and sometimes it can get quite frustrating, and then you will overwork your florals. Okay, so you can see that if you are also using a smaller brush, it can hold less amount of water and paint. If you're painting a smaller size painting, then you can use smaller brushes as well. But if you're painting briger size or medium paintings, you might want to use at least a size eight round brush. So you'll notice that the stroke of the size six round brush is definitely smaller, or the thickness, it's not as fat as the size eight round brush, right? So you can see the comparison here on the left, it's a size eight on the right, it's size six. Let's go to tip number two, we are going to talk about soft brush versus a dense brush. So throughout the years that I have been painting loose watercolor florals, I find it easier to paint a loose style using a soft brush, or I end up getting better results using a soft brush. So this silver black velvet is a mix of squirrel hair and synthetic hair. And what I love about this is that when you press it on the paper, it really spreads. The bristles really spreads and creates a broad stroke. I also love how the bristles just follows my flow, and you can see it right here. It's easier to just create some nice expressive strokes. Okay, so now let me show you another brush. This is a student grade brush. You know, the one that comes in sets or like value sets, they are also good, but I think if you're a beginner, it might take some time for you to get used to it. So here I'm just going to show you guys when you dip your brush in the palette, you'll see that bead of water towards the tip of the brush. I guess that's okay if you're painting loose florals, but if you're painting something with more detail, it's probably going to ruin your painting because you'll end up with a big puddle of paint on your first stroke. So usually with these types of brushes, they don't hold water that well. It usually releases abruptly, which is something that you don't like when you're painting with watercolor. You want the water to be controlled as it is released on the paper. And also, if you use a dense brush, there's more friction on the paper. So if you press your brush onto the paper, you'll end up with a stiffer stroke or a more rounded stroke like this. I think if you're going for that kind of floral, that's okay, something that has a more perfectly shaped petal. But if you wanted something looser or with, like, a jagged edge, I would suggest that you use a softer brush. Usually with dense brushes, it also the bristles doesn't spread as wide compared to a soft brush. And that means you might not be able to achieve that nice expressive petal. So this is how you know if the brush is soft. So you can see the black velvet. If I press it onto the bristles, it's going to follow the direction. And then if you're going to do that on the other brush, you can see it just snaps back to its original form. So that's how you know if a brush is quite dense or if a brush is soft. Let's go to tip number three. This is sort of an overlap with tip number two. So a good brush releases water evenly, and we've already discussed a little bit about that in the previous tip. So I'm going to show you guys again how a good brush releases water evenly. So this is my silver black velvet, and going to just put a lot of water in this paint. You can see that even if I dip my brush in that puddle, it's just going to coat the brush evenly, but you won't see any puddle towards the end. It's not beading up towards the end, and I'm just going to paint some strokes on the paper. So you'll notice that the way the water or the paint releases on the paper, it's quite even. It's not a lot of puddle. Alright, let's try out the other brush. So there are definitely good cheap brushes. Even if they are synthetic, there are now very, very good synthetic brushes compared to before. So here, I'm just going to show you guys if you end up choosing not so good brush, it's going to look like this. Alright, so sometimes it's just not your fault. It's really how the brush works on the paper. So let's just grab some paint. And then if you put a small dot, it's going to create just a small beading. Alright. So let's just try to paint some strokes. All right, so you'll notice that because this brush doesn't release the water evenly, on the left side, there's more water. And on the right side, you can see that it's a bit drier compared to the left side. So it's definitely not even. Now, let's try painting the center of a rose. It's usually filled with smaller details. And if you're using a brush that doesn't release water evenly, then you'll end up with some beading in your first stroke. So it's going to end up like a small puddle in the middle. Okay, so if your brush is acting this way, it's not releasing water evenly, don't worry. We can still troubleshoot it. You can just grab a small piece of tissue paper. Let me just demo it for you. So grab some paint. So this brush has too much paint. I'm going to dab the side of the brush onto the tissue paper, and that's going to absorb the excess water or paint that we don't need. So here I just painted a small dot, and you can see that it released just a tiny amount of paint onto the paper. I think it's just the right amount. All right, so don't be scared to dab your brush on the tissue paper if you feel like it's too wet. Alright, I hope these tips help you in getting to know your brush. Now let's move on to the next video. 5. How to Hold Your Brush: In this lesson, we are going to learn how to hold the brush so that you'll feel more confident in painting those strokes. So tip number one is to find a comfortable way to hold your brush. So typically, I would say to hold it like a pen first like this, then you slowly move your grip towards somewhere in the middle. I think that's the most comfortable way to hold the brush. You can adjust, of course, along the way. So you want to be able to easily move your brush using your wrist. Tip number two is don't grip your handle too tight. That's because holding it too tight will show in your brush strokes. It's going to look stiff and really heavy. If you grip it too tight, you will put a lot of weight into your stroke. So let me just show you what will happen if you try to grip it too tight and then try to paint. All right, so right here, you'll notice that you will have stiff strokes. It will look heavy, and the tendency is for you to just push down your brush, just add unnecessary weight. It's also a lot harder to move your brush if you're gripping too tight. Okay, so I'm doing a couple more strokes so you can really observe what will happen if you grip your brush too tight. And after this, I'm going to show you what it looks like if you hold your brush more comfortably and it's usually towards the middle of the brush handle. So holding it in a relaxed manner helps you create these flowy strokes. It's just easier to move your brush. Okay, so if you're holding it in a relaxed grip, it's quite evident in your strokes, you'll see a lot more flowy petals. So you still have control over your strokes, but it doesn't feel heavy or stiff. So this is an exercise that you can also try to do at home. Try to grip your brush too tight and try to observe what will happen. And after which, try to loosen your grip in your brush and start painting, and you'll notice a huge, huge difference. Another observation is that when you're holding your brush too tightly, you end up pressing the side of your pum onto the paper, making your strokes even heavier. Whereas if you loosen your grip, you will most likely lift your wrist and try to move making your strokes look softer. Tip number three, where you hold the brush handle matters. I'm going to discuss how you can fully utilize your brush. So when you're holding it near the bristles, there's a purpose for that, and that is to create the small details. So I am using my size eight round brush and just using the tip of the brush, I will be just creating some thin lines. If you need to add some small details to your florals, you try to hold the brush near the bristles because that will give you more control. So you can paint some small dots, create some short strokes. So it's basically for adding some small details. So now let's try to hold it just roughly in the middle of the brush handle, and then we can use this to paint some petals. You can see how it's easy to maneuver your brush if you're holding it in the middle of the brush handle. I typically hold my brush in the middle of the brush handle for my usual florals. But if I want it to be even looser, then I hold it towards the end of the brush handle just like this. So when you're holding it this way, you still have some sort of grip to it, but you also let your brush flow, and you sort of let it go on the paper. So I'm going to paint another flower here, so it's easy to really move your brush up and down and create these organic strokes. It does take a while to get used to this way of holding a brush. Sometimes it feels a little bit awkward. But this is one of my favorite ways to do it if I want some really loose expressive flowers. For tip number four, try to rest on your pinky finger when painting, and I know this is an overlap with the previous tip, but I wanted to reiterate it. So when you're painting loose florals, try to rest on your pinky finger only so that it doesn't feel heavy on the paper as you're painting the strokes. So if you rest your entire hand on the paper, laying down your hand on the table might put more weight on your strokes. So just resting on your pinky finger also helps you give that sense of balance when you're painting smaller strokes. Let me give you a demo. So right here, I'm going to paint a four petal flower and going to rest my hand on the pinky finger. So this is just going to help me give that balance as I'm painting these flowy strokes. So when you're painting these tiny strokes like this, you can also rest your hand on the pinky finger. So by keeping these tips in mind, you'll have more control over your brush whilsti allowing your strokes to feel loose and natural. So just try to experiment with different grips and hand positions to see what feels best for you. The more you practice, the more confident you will be with your brush stroke. Alright, so that's it for this lesson. Now let's move on to the next video. 6. Master Water Control: Okay, in this lesson, we're going to learn about the water control in our brush. So this is very important when you're painting loose florals because you don't want to end up with blobs of paint on the paper. And it's also one of the most asked questions online. It's about how do you how much water do you need in your brush or how do I control the water? These are all very practical tips, but it's definitely going to help you in the long run. So tip number one, you can tap the excess water on the rim of the jar. You can see this brush is really bloated. It's filled with a lot of water that you don't need. So you want it to be more controlled by tapping the excess water onto the rim of the jar. So now you have just the right amount of water in your brush. Okay, so let's go to tip number two. Don't be afraid to blot out the excess moisture in your tissue paper. I used to be afraid to do this because I feel like I'm wasting paint when I'm doing this, but it's definitely very, very helpful. And something to watch out for when you're painting is these small droplets on the ferrule of the brush. You can see that droplet here. If you don't blot out that part, it's going to go to your brush. It's going to add more water to your brush. And when you're about to paint, you end up having a blob of stroke. It's not going to look that nice. So make sure to blot out that excess water. So I usually just tap the side of the brush or let it roll on the tissue paper to just absorb that excess paint. Help you better understand how to control water. We're going to do a quick demo. So I'm just going to grab some paint. This is permit rose. You can use any color, or you can just simply watch this video. So I'm just adding some water onto my paint and making it softer, so I can grab some more pigment. Then next, just going to add some more water. So what we're going to do is we're going to paint on the paper with more water or more paint than usual in our brush. I'm going to make sure that this brush is absorbing a lot of paint. I'm not going to tap the excess, so it's literally just grab that paint and put it on the paper. So once you put it on the paper, you'll definitely see just some puddles, and it's definitely a lot of paint mixture on the paper. Alright, so it looks like this if it's too wet. So if you tilt your brush, you see that puddle building up towards the bottom, and it's not going to look good if it dries up. So you might end up with some hard edges. Not unless that's the look that you're going for with the petals. But if you want some soft petals, you want to avoid some puddles. Okay, now let's do something that's more controlled. So I tap my brush onto the side of my palette and also on the rim of the jar. So let's just try to paint. And you'll see that the strokes are more even. Alright, so you can see the difference here. You have puddles on the left side because it's too wet, and on the right side, it's more controlled. The stroke is more even. So what if you painted an area with too much paint mixture? So let me just show you how you can troubleshoot it. So this is too wet. So what you can do is you can grab you can rinse your brush first. Make sure it's clean, tab the excess water in the brush, and then we are going to absorb the excess moisture on the paper. I'm lightly just tapping my brush onto the paper, just letting my brush absorb the excess paint mixture. You can also try to tilt your brush and let your brush absorb that puddle of water. Alright, so I think it looks good, and you can see the even stroke. Now, this part is still wet and you still have that puddle. So that's the difference between too wet and also controlled stroke. Definitely, over time, you can try to practice this. Next time, you don't even need to tap your brush onto the rim of the jar anymore because you've already mastered how to control the water in your brush. Okay, let's go to dry brush. So with the dry brush, I'm going to intentionally blot out the moisture in my brush to show you what dry brush looks like. So you can see that I cannot really paint an opaque stroke. You can see a lot of whites in there, and my brush also doesn't spread. It doesn't expand as I press it onto the paper because it's quite dry. Dry brush is good for adding texture, but if you want some loose petals, you definitely want your brush to be a bit more wet. Now, this brings me to tip number four. Wet brush helps create flowy strokes. So using a wet brush will help you create those beautiful expressive strokes because you can easily move on the paper without a lot of friction. And you can see the bristles really expanding as you put pressure on it. Let me show you what it looks like if it's not too wet. So here I just blotted out my brush to intentionally blot out or take the excess moisture away. So you can see the brush is not expanding. The bristles are not expanding. And we're not able to easily move on the paper. So this can be one of the reasons why beginners have a hard time controlling their brush because the brush is not that wet. Okay, now let's move on to tip number five that that's the importance of water to paint ratio. Order to activate the watercolor paints, you need to either wet the paint or you need a wet brush. So here I have a dry brush, and if I try to pick up some paint, nothing is really happening. Now, let me grab a little bit of water, and let's see what will happen. So most beginners are scared to grab some water and dip it in the paints. And this is usually what happens. So they get a little bit of water and dip it into the paints, and they don't really get the full color or the full potential of the pigments. But if you get enough water, you can try to really swish or brush onto the paints, and you can get that nice, rich color. Alright, so now you see the difference. If you just add some more water to your paints, you can definitely get the most out of it. You can get a really rich color. So it's also important to learn how to mix your paints with water because when you add more water to your mixture, you get a lighter value. If you put more paint into your mixture, then you get a darker value. So right here, I am just grabbing this paint straight from the pan. I have a wet brush, and let me just show you some brush strokes. So you can see how opaque that looks. It's a technique that you can do when you want to paint some second layers. Okay, so you can also try to paint the strokes onto the palette first. You can add a little bit of water to lighten the value. So just remember if you want a darker color to show up on the paper, you need more paint in your mixture. So it's going to be a little bit thicker. Now, if you want it to be a lighter color, then you add more water to your mixture. So right here, I'm going to show you where I do these strokes, these dark stroves. So I added here in the second layer, you can see the dark values in the flour. Water control is also important when you're doing a second layer or when you want to adapt to a flower using the wet on wet technique. So let me just show you how we do this. Go to paint a five petal flower first, and I want this to remain wet as we do this technique. Alright, so this flour is already good. We're going to grab some permanent rose, and I want it to be a little bit thick. Now, if I grab this paint straight from the pan going into the petal, you will see that the paint looks feathery or the strokes look feathery, and you don't really have a lot of control over it. So what we need to do is to dab our brush on a tissue paper, just draw out the excess moisture and start painting those strokes. So we sometimes do this if we want to add some veins or texture on the petals. You can see that the strokes are quite visible. You can see the shape of the strokes without it being blurred too much. Okay, so let me show you another example. So this time, I'm going to grab some water and just add it to the mixture. You can see it's now more diluted. And if I paint it on this wet petal, you can't even see any strokes. It's just blending in with the petal. So there is no visible lines or strokes. So it's really important to plot out the excess moisture in our brush and also to make sure that your paint mixture is quite thick. Right, let me just show you another demo. So I just painted these two petals and going to create a thicker mixture of permanent rose, going to blot out the excess paint in my brush. Again, don't be afraid to blot out that excess moisture, and we're going to paint some strokes. The strokes are soft and yet still defined, and I know it takes a lot of practice to do this, but I wanted to show you that you can do it by controlling the moisture in your brush. Okay, so now let's do the other petal. And then this time, I'm not going to blot out my brush. Gonna dip it straight from that palette and just try to paint on the petal. Okay, so you can see that the strokes are sort of blending in with the background or with the pedal and it's not really as defined as the one on the right. So I'm showing you these examples because it's a technique that you can apply to so many florals and also even different subjects. I hope these tips were able to help you understand how your brush works and how you can control the amount of fer in your brush because I understand we are all using different kinds of brushes. Let's now move on to the next video as you learn more about brushstroke exercises to hone the muscle memory in your hand. 7. Practice Brush Stroke Exercises: In this lesson, we're going to play around with the brush stroke exercises and also explore some brush pressure, create some thin to thick strokes, some petal and leaf strokes as well. Now, this is going to really help build your brush confidence. So let's start. So my first tip for you is to explore the brush pressure, and it is very important to really maximize or utilize the entire bristles, the entire belly of the brush. Don't be afraid to apply pressure onto your brush to create varied strokes. So usually with beginners, they are scared of pressing their brush onto the paper. So they usually use just the tip or up to half of the bristles, and they cannot get the full potential of their brushes. What we want to do in this lesson is to learn how to dance with your brush by being more familiar with the strokes and how you can switch from more pressure to light pressure in one single stroke. But, of course, first you have to practice. And I know you've probably seen these exercises in my previous classes, but it's going to be a good refresher for you if you have been painting for a while. So when you use just a tip of the brush, you can create some nice thin strokes just like this. Just apply a light pressure. Now I'm going to apply a bit more pressure, and you can now see the lines are thicker. Okay, now let's just add a bit more pressure. I'm pressing about three fourths way off the bristles, and now I'm going to really press the entire brush, and you can see those wide strokes, and the bristles are really fanning out. Now, this is the classic thin to thick stroke exercise. So we're going to start with the tip of the brush, lightly press, and then live towards the end and then press again until you form kind of like a leaf shape. Alright, so there's another one. You can grab any color that you want, and you can also stop halfway. All right, so you can see that the bristles are fanning out when you press it really hard on the paper. Now, this is a really good exercise to create or hone the muscle memory in your hand so that every time you paint a petal stroke, you automatically know when to apply pressure and when to lift your brush to create a thinner stroke. And as you're painting this, make sure that your brush is also wet so that your brush can easily expand on the paper. You can definitely use student grade paper for this exercise. I'm using the Bao Hong Academy in 200 GSM. Alright, let's do some leaf strokes. Right here, I'm going to start at the bottom part of the leaf. I'm going to press my brush towards the middle and then live and just drag it towards the end, create that pointy tip. Now, if I live right away, I will get these rounded edges. So it's also a technique if you want to vary the shapes of the petals or the leaves. So you can see the difference. On the left side, you have pointy tips because we dragged our brush and lifted it towards the end. But here on the right, you have rounded edges because we lifted our brush right away. Now, feel free to do a couple more leaf exercises to observe how your brush moves on the paper. Let's practice some elongated leaves. I'm just going to lightly press my brush and live towards the end. So I'm not really putting a lot of pressure onto the bristles. I want this to be thin, long petals. Roughly just one third of the brush is really touching the paper. So you can do an S movement. So you have these curvy strokes if you want to add some movement to your leaves. So when you're painting leaves, you want to add some movement to make the leaves look more organic. So you can also try to wiggle it a little bit and then live towards the end. And you'll notice that the leaf is facing down. Let's do it again. Just wiggle a little bit, then lf and make the pointy tip face downwards. Now you can do this in different angles. You can experiment with this. I'm going to start right here at the bottom. I'm going to lightly press my brush and then move it up, going to the left. So what I love about painting leaves is that every time you paint this technique or use this technique, it's going to look slightly different. So I'm going to start right here at the top and wiggle my brush going down. So you can do this in different angles, and you'll be able to create leaves that face different directions. We'll start from the right, going to the left. So it feels like I'm pushing my brush to the other direction and also remembering to wiggle my brush to create that jagged edge. I'm just going to show you the direction of the leave so that it's easier for you to follow. For tip number four, we're going to do some petal strokes using the tip of the brush. And this is an example. You can see those bits and pieces of strokes. It's really a good way to add some character to your loose florals. So let's just try to practice that. I'm going to be using the tip of this pointy brush, and we're going to stipple our brush, create some small dots. And you can see I'm resting my hand on my pinky finger. All right. So now let's try to create some letter C curves. So using the thin part of the brush, just try to press towards the middle of the stroke and then drag and live towards the end. Now, it doesn't have to be perfect. What you want is to learn how to bend that tip of the brush to create these wispy strokes. So I'm just going to do a straight line. And what you want is that in one single stroke, you have a thin and a thick part. This is another way to really hone that muscle memory in your hand. So try to do this a couple more times. You can do a leaf stroke like this. So start with a thin stroke and then press and then lf. So it looks like tiny leaves. You can also switch to a smaller brush if you're more comfortable with that. Usually, if I want to really practice that muscle memory, I try to use a bigger brush and paint these tiny strokes. So I'm holding my brush near the bristles because I want a little bit more control when it comes to painting these strokes. So just notice how only the tip part of this brush really bends or touches the paper's surface. You can paint some letter C curves. This is a stroke that I used often for adding some embellishments on the loose florals. And you'll see more of that later on as we practice our florals. So I also like to do this in different directions. So here I'm going to start from the bottom going up. Okay, so let's do this from afar so you can see how my hand moves. So we're going to add these small pieces of stroke from the florals. Alright, so I'm resting my hand on my pinky finger, and we're doing these small letter C curves, just using the tip of the brush and really lightly bending it on the paper. And again, I'm holding near the bristles because I want a little bit more control when I'm doing these wispy strokes. So I am going to do some broader petals. We're going to hold our brush in the middle. So now we are going to start from the bottom and just press or brush, go up, and then down. So you can see that we're using or utilizing the side of the brush to create a broad stroke. So we want to do this in a curve manner to add some shape to your petal. You can see we are using the side of the brush to create a broad stroke. So what I love about painting loose florals is that no petals are alike. You can see we have two different petals here, even though we painted using the side of the brush. So that's really, really unique about painting loose florals. Okay, let me just do it another time. Going to start here at the top, and then another one on the right. And you can see those white dots there. It means that my brush is not too wet. So that's why it produced this texture, which looks like a little bit, like dry brush technique. And I think it looks great. It adds some character. So if you want a really opaque brush stroke, make sure your brush is loaded with a lot of paint. Okay, so now we're going to use just half of the brush to paint a petal. Then you'll see that the stroke is definitely thinner compared to pressing your brush really hard on the paper. Let's do another one. So this is just half. And I'm going to show you again, if you really press your brush onto the paper, you get a wide stroke like this. It's really important to understand how your brush works. For petals, it's a combination of strokes for me. So you mix broad strokes and also thin strokes to create some nice wispy petals, right? So I just loaded up my brush with some more paint. Let's do another petal so you can just move your brush up and down if you want a bigger petal. So these are some brush stroke techniques that you can apply to painting loose florals. We will get more into some gestural flower exercises in the next video. 8. Explore Gestural Floral Exercises: In this lesson, let's practice some gestural flower exercises. So we are going to do some quick flowing marks to build confidence when it comes to painting petals. Now, I am going to use this reference photo because it has some nice angles for the petals that we can try to mimic. And I'm also going to change the color. I know this is a white flower, but I'm going to use orange color. I'm also using a size eight round brush. So what we want to do is lay our brush flat like this and then pull it and then lift towards the end. Then you'll get a nice pointed tip. You can also add some gestural marks, some thin lines just like this. And that's my tip number one for you. You need to combine different strokes to form a petal, and I feel like it looks more organic this way. You can definitely use other colors for these exercises. Alright, let's practice another petal. So just grab some paint, and we start at the side of the first petal. Just press and then pull it down towards the center of the flour. So you can also go back to the other petals, add some thinner curve lines using the tip of the brush. So this is also all about trying to figure out different angles that will work for you. I'm going to start at the bottom left and then push my brush up, going to the center. I'm also trying to lift my brush so that I have a nice pointy tip. Then you can use the tip of the brush, add some thin curve lines in between the petals. Now I'm going to rinse my brush and just add some short strokes. So because this is at an angle, the length of the petals are going to be varied. So some will be longer and some will be shorter. So when you're painting the flower, you always go back to the center of the flower. Okay? So I'm just using the tip of the brush to create these quick marks, and it's going to add some character to the flower. Okay, so now we are going to try out this flower that is top facing. And I'm going to start in the middle. You can put a small dot just as a guide for you. And then we are going to start painting the petals. I'm going to use this brilliant pink color. It's a pastel pink color. So we need this flower to look like a circle. So I'm going to start in the center, push my brush up and down to create the shape of the petal, and I'm going to add some thin strokes beside it, just to add some character so that it doesn't look too chunky. Okay, so now I'm going to start from the outer part of the petal going into the center of the flower. So I'm just really pushing my brush, adding a lot of pressure, and then lifting it towards the end. Sometimes we can try to also tilt our brush and paint the petals from a different angle, and that will produce some varied strokes. Sometimes it's unique and it will be a nice addition to the petals. And try to notice that whenever we're painting these petals, I do it in a curved manner, just like this. You have that nice curve edge. So that's going to add some movement to your flowers. Let me show you this again. So just press, and then you're going to lift. It's like a check mark. So you lift towards the end and make sure that you have a lighter pressure towards the end so that you have that nice pointy tip. Now we can just use the tip of the brush just to add some thin lines, add some character. Alright, so now we have learned some basic petal strokes, and that will be the foundation of painting flowers. So this time, let's create the same flower, but I will be adding some contrast and depth, and I will be showing that to you. So let's just paint the same petals. So I can also rinse my brush and just really press my brush and move up and down, create some sweeping strokes, and then add some gestural marks using the tip of the brush. All right, let's paint the shorter strokes. I'm just going to really press my brush lightly to create this short stroke. Now, coming from the center, again, press your brush and move it to the left and we like a loop and then use the tip of the brush to add some thin marks. And that's something that will help you create petals that are more organic or more loose. Okay, so let's just grab some red orange. We want a deeper color. Gonna dab it in the tissue paper and add some dark spots in the center of the flower just to add some depth. Okay? We can also add it in between the petals. So you'll notice that we are also creating these gestural marks. We're doing some really quick, thin strokes. And I'm using just the tip of the brush to create these gestural markings. You can also add it in the white spaces outside the petal. Just to add some movement, we want our strokes to have that curve line. So negative space and loose florals help define the shape of the flowers without directly painting them. So instead of, like, painting the petals, you're painting around it to let the unpainted areas form the shape. So that's why we you'll notice when we're painting these loose five petal flowers, I do leave some white spaces in between my strokes. Alright, so let's just form a five petal flour here and I'm going to add the last petal with more white space. All right. So let's do one more petal here. I'm doing a loop to create this nice shape and using the tip of the brush to create some thin strokes. Let's do another one on the left and just press and then pull in a curved manner. Always go to the center of the flour. And then right here, we're just going to form small marks using the tip of the brush, just like this. So instead of painting broad strokes, we're going to do smaller ones like this to create a more negative space. So we're painting all these bits and pieces just to let the unpainted areas look like it's a petal. Okay, so I'm just fading away some marks because it looks too dark. So in order for that negative space to pop up even more, you need a high contrast. So you want the strokes to be more pigmented, so grab a more pigmented paint, and you want to have some nice crisp edges. So just like what I'm adding here. Don't worry, we will be practicing more about this later on. Now let's just practice some more gestural marks using this flower that is facing at an angle. So you'll notice you have longer petals at the pack and almost, like, flat lines in front because the petals are folded. So now we can start with some small yellow dots as the center of the flower. Then we'll grab some paint. I'm just using brilliant pink. You can use other colors as well. Okay. Okay, so let's do the petal on the side first because it's a thinner petal, I'm going to use just half of the bristles. You see, I'm not really pressing my brush so much. Then we need to lift towards the end and then add some gestural marks. So I'm also leaving some white space. So let's do another petal, press and then lift. Alright, so adding that white space really helps in creating the mood of the flower. It looks more airy and feel free to rotate your paper if it feels more comfortable that way. So in front of this flower, I just painted a side stroke, like a thin line. Okay, so what we did here was to add as less stumber of strokes as possible. So we need minimal strokes, and sometimes that works a lot better and creating loose florals because it's not too crowded, not too chunky. Okay. Let's practice one more time. I'm going to do another five petal flour. So we are just going to focus on the strokes, use any color with the press, and then push it down, then live towards the end, and then make sure that you use the tip of the brush, can tilt your brush up, then create these thin organic strokes. You can see I'm leaving some white spaces in between my strokes and rinse your brush so we can create a lighter value, then just really press your brush, create some sweeping motion. Just going to grab a little bit more paint. Let's do one more from the right. Okay. You can see that I started from the center there. It's up to you whether you want to start from the center or from the outer part of the petal. Here, from the bottom, just push going up as you lift, make sure that you put lighter pressure so that you have some nice pointed tip. Right here, I'm going to be leaving this negative space. I intentionally left that big white space to just play around with the brush pressure like what we practice. Okay, so I'm just using the tip of the brush now to add some gestural strokes. Everything that I'm teaching here in the class are all just guides for you. I still want you to be able to create your own unique strokes. So what's great about playing around with brush pressure and all these factors is that when you're painting flowers, they don't all look alike, and that's the beauty of painting loose florals. So I would say that just have fun when it comes to practicing painting these gestural markings. So another advantage of adding gestural marks is that you can use this to add as a second layer just to add more depth to your florals, right here, I'm showing you a darker color, a darker pink, and a lighter pink. So when you're painting gestural marks as a second layer, you want it to be darker than the base flower. So make sure that the flour is already dry when you're adding a second layer. Okay, so I'm using a size eight round brush. And for these markings, we're going to use roughly just the tip of the brush. Just let it bend slightly and create these little sea curves in between the flowers. So I always imagine these strokes as the folds in the petals, and they can also be the shadows in the petals. Sometimes I add these markings outside the petal, so it's a bit similar to negative space. A lot of our lessons here are overlapping. It just means that they are all interconnected with each other, right? So I do love to combine my strokes. Sometimes I want to add some small dots and combine that with short strokes. All right, so I think we can add a darker color. I've just added a little bit of that violet to my mixture, and then we're going to add that. So with the second layer, you can add another color. So these are the sample strops that we just did. It's actually similar to what we have practiced in different lessons. So it looks like an elongated C curve. So you just use the tip of the brush to do, like, a check mark and make sure that you have nice pointy tips. Alright, so that's it for this lesson. Now let's move on to the next video as we try out our first project. 9. Project 1; Orange Poppy Flower: Before we start, here are the colors that you need. So for the first project, we're going to do this simple orange poppy. So the first project in my classes is always the easiest because I want this to be a warm up for you guys. Okay, so let's start. So we are going to be using the same reference photo that we used in the earlier lesson. But I know this is not a poppy flower, I think the way the petals move, it looks really nice. And I think we can apply that to painting this flower. Need to prepare our colors first. So I'm going to grab permanent yellow light yellow orange and also vermilion. When it comes to being more confident in doing your brush strokes, I do believe in repetition. So usually I paint the same flowers again and again, and it always turns out different or I always learn something new from every project that I paint. Let's start with a ring of yellow dots. I am using a size six brush for this part. And then for the petals, I'm going to switch to my size eight round brush because it's just easier to move on the paper with a larger brush. Let's grab some yellow orange. I'm going to start here at the middle or the center of the flower. Just press my brush and move up and down, and you can see I'm really using the belly of the brush to create these broad strokes. Now you can grab a little bit of that vermilion, or you can use a darker yellow orange or a more pigmented color to add those thin lines. Alright, so now let's add another petal. I'm going to use vermilion. And I'm going to start from the tip of the petal going into the center. Just press and then push it towards the center. You'll see I intentionally left a white space there as a negative space. Now let's do another one on the left. Just press your brush and then move in a curved manner. Towards the end, you have to lift your brush so that you have that nice pointed tip. Okay, so I just rinse my brush now and tried to soften this part. So we have this invisible anchor in the middle of the flower. All the petals are going to go to the center or come from the center. So now let's just do some shorter strokes. And I can also do a thin line that will mimic the petals that are folded. Alright, so we're doing different lengths for the petals because this is a flower that is facing at an angle. Okay, just press your brush and you can do a loop. Alright? And then now we can start adding some character by putting some thin lines. So this flour is still wet, and we're going to grab some vermilion. Just going to add some thin lines beside or in between the petals. So it's going to give this more depth. Alright, so it's looking really good. Now let's just grab some permanent red. Going to dab it in my tissue paper and add this very pigmented color in the center, add a ring of dots. Okay, so now let's grab some green. I am using olive green, but if you don't have this, you can simply use sap green and add a little bit of brown just to create an earthy green color. The brush is too wet, so I dab it in the tissue paper first, and then I'm going to just add a small.in the center of this flour. Okay, so now let's add a stem, and I'm adding this while the flower is still wet so that I can connect the stem seamlessly towards the base of this flower. Now, this is optional. If you want some character to your stem, you can drop in some darker green color. I just added some sepia to my green mixture. Alright, so let's wait for this to dry up. I'm using a fan, but you can also use a blower or simply wait for it to dry on its own. Okay, so I am switching to my size four round brush for the layering. Now let's use vermilion and going to look at the reference photo, you'll see these lines within the petals. So they are the folds in the petals and also shadows. Now we're going to try to mimic that, but we're not going to add all the details. We just have to add a few thin lines using the tip of the brush. Again, just lightly touch your brush onto the paper to create these thin strokes. I usually start at the top, and then just move it down. It doesn't have to be one straight line. Sometimes I do broken lines or add some dots in between my strokes. You can use the pinky finger to help you balance your hand as you add these small details. And you'll notice I'm holding my brush near the bristles so that I have more control. So we're playing with pressure as well. You can see that some strokes are a little bit thicker, some are very, very thin, like hairline thin. Okay, so that part was still a little bit wet, and I'm just going to leave it as is for now. Okay, so we're going to grab permanent red. This is going to be a deeper color, and we can add some small markings outside the petal to create a negative space. So my tip is to do as few strokes as you can so that you don't overwork a flower. Alright, so it's looking good. I'm going to grab some permanent yellow light and just tap it around this green center just to make this flower even livelier and add some pop of color. And that's it. Congratulations for finishing your first project. You can also do this in other colors. So now let's move on to the next project. 10. Project 2: Loose Florals in Prussian Blue and Sienna: Before we start here, the colors that we need. For our second project, we're going to explore a different composition. So we're going to paint different stalks of flowers and combine them into one floral painting. We're also going to explore painting with blue and print sienna. All right, let me give you a brief overview before we start painting. So we're going to start with the two main flowers which are the blue flowers, and we're going to explore some negative space there, and then we're going to add some stalks. While the flowers are still wet, we're going to work fast and add those leaves so that they will blend in with each other. It will look very flowy and ethereal. And then next, we're going to add these smaller flowers that are a mix of royal blue and burnt sienna. I think it's just fun to work on a wet on wet flower like this. And then we're going to add some fillers. So you can play around with this and add your own embellishments on the florals. You'll notice I'm also adding some blue colored leaves. And then when the flowers are already dry, we can add a second layer and add those tiny bits of strokes that will give character to the flowers. Okay, so that's it. Let's start painting. Let's start with preparing our color. So this will be a full minute of just mixing colors. I'm just grabbing some Prussian blue for the main flowers. So we just want it to be ready and going to watch it just for you guys to see the color. And then next, we're going to grab some burnt sienna. You can use other browns in your palette or other blues. Now, because we're working a little bit faster to add some bleeding, we also want to prepare our greens so that we can immediately add our leaves after painting the flowers. So this is perline green. And then if you don't have that, you can mix sap green with indigo. It's not exactly the same, but you'll get a deeper shade of green. You can also do sap green and bunt umber to get that earthy green color. So for our paper, we're using seven by 10 ", and my brush is a size eight round brush. Let's start with the color Brushian blue and going to paint with the bottom flower first. You can put a small dot right there, just as a guide that it's the center of the flower. We're going to use the side of the brush and just push and pull our brush to create a petal. Alright, let's rinse our brush to create a lighter value and I'm also made sure that my brush is a little bit wet so that I can easily glide on the paper. All right. So I'm just grabbing a little bit more of that brushian blue. You can see it's a darker color now. I made it more pigmented. Let's do one more petal. You can see I'm really pressing my brush to create this beautiful petal, and I have that dry brush area right there, and I'm going to take advantage of that and add some thinner strokes beside it to create a negative space. So sometimes we have some happy accidents like this, and you can turn it around and make it look beautiful. Now let's do one more petal here. I'm just going to glide my brush up like a check mark, and always make sure that you're pointing towards the center. Alright? With a wet brush, I'm just trying to fade away this side to make it look softer. Alright, so this was supposed to be a five petal flower, but I can't fit in one more. So now I'm just going to add some thin strokes that will just add some character to this flower. All right let's grab indigo, and you want to blot out the excess moisture in a tissue paper, and we can add that in the middle while the flour is still wet. So when you're using 100% cotton paper, the paint also stays wet a little bit longer than student grade paper. Now they can add some stem, and I'm going to make this a little bit curve. And then you can add some leaves. Now we can grab a darker green and drop it in the leaf just to add some shadow. I usually like painting these thin stems just as a guide for me so that I know where to put the other flowers later on. So now, while this blue flower is still wet, we can grab some green paint and add the leaves and look at that beautiful blending. That's because the flower is still wet. So we want the blue and the green color to kind of mix together. I'm going to rinse my brush and just add a leaf right here at the bottom and really just fading away the side of the petal, making it look very flowy. So I think it looks more dramatic this way. All right, let's go to the second flower. I'm using prussian blue again, and I want this flower to be diagonally across the first one that we did. So it's a little bit higher. I'm going to put a small dot as a guide. So I'm just going to pull my brush up and down, always going towards the direction of the center of the flower. And we can rinse our brush to create a lighter value. So I'm painting with almost like just water, and we're also holding the brush towards the end of the handle to create these beautiful expressive strokes. Then while that petal is still wet, we can drop in a little bit of that paint. Okay, so make sure to paint the petals from different angles. For this part, I'm going to intentionally do a negative space. So that petal is going to look like white. And that's why I'm grabbing some darker blue color to add some high contrast. All right. Let's do one more petal right here. I'm just trying to make a loop. Now let's grab a darker blue color. This is still prussian blue, and I just want to use a tip of the brush to create some thin, short strokes. Alright, so we're just going to accentuate the negative space. So while this flour is still wet, we can add a ring of small dots in the center. So I'm just letting that darker color flow into the wet petals. Alright, it's looking really good. Now let's rinse our brush and grab some green. We can add a stem right now while the flower is still wet and I want this to be a little bit curve just to add some movement to our composition. Okay, so it's time to add some leaves while the petals are still wet. You can see that beautiful bleeding over there. I just love the dramatic effect. Now to add some more contrast in that area, we can get a more pigmented perline green or any darker color you can also use indigo and just drop that into the wet leaves. Okay, maybe we can add a longer stem right here, and then we can add some flowers using the color Benziena we're going to do a cluster of small peta, so I'm just going to press my brush and just drag it down and lift towards the end. And then we can do another one on the right. So just make sure that you add a little bit more pressure to your strokes just to make it more fun. I'm grabbing a little bit of this brush and blue and going to add that to the Prinziena petals. All right, so I'm just blotting my brush because it's a little bit too wet. Now we're going to start from the side of the brush and going into the center again. Alright, so we can do some shorter strokes right here at the bottom, just to give an impression that this is a flower on its side. So we're going to leave the blending as is. We're not going to move around the colors in the petals so that it won't look muddy. I'm just grabbing some green and just adding another stem. Okay, so we need another smaller flower or like a secondary flower for this composition. So I'm using this brush and blue and just pressing my brush, go up. You can see that we have created a beautiful texture there. You can use the tip of our brush to just add some negative space. You'll notice how the bristles expand as we press our brush onto the paper. Just make sure that you always lift your brush towards the end of the stroke so that you get a nice pointed tip. So this is a really fun exercise for you. You can mix and match different colors and just let them bleed into each other. All right. So I'm going to grab a little bit more of that burnt sienna and just drop it in. And to add some contrast, we can grab some indigo or Prussian blue, any dark color, put it in the center while this flower is still wet. Alright, so this flower turned out a little bit too heavy for me, and I'm just going to grab a clean brush and absorb the excess paint just to add some glow to that flower. I'm just bringing in back some more of that burnt sienna, just to brighten up this floral. Now we can add some thin, short strokes just to add some character. Now let's do some fillers. I'm using the burnt sienna. You can just tab our brush to create these petal like strokes. So what I like about these projects is that they're quite simple. So we're painting just a five petal flower, but at the same time, we're able to practice our strokes and just play around with the brush pressure. Alright, we can grab some greens and add some more leaves. And you'll notice I'm trying to wiggle my brush and then live towards the end to create a jagged edge. We can also add burnt sienna to our greens. So I'm usually adding the leaves near the flowers just to shape the form of the flower. We can drop in a darker color just to add some contrast and shadow. So looking at this from afar, all the Benziana colors are at the top, and I want to add a little bit more color towards the bottom half. So we're adding a few more flowers to again, play around with the angle of your strokes to create some nice expressive petals. I'm also making sure that my leaves are facing in different directions. So the leaves and painting here are pointing down. Alright, so the petals are already dry. I'm grabbing a size six round brush and a more pigmented Prussian blue color. And we're going to add a second layer. Just using the tip of the brush, we can just add these tiny strokes in between the petals. I also like adding these quick flick of brush strokes towards the tip of the petal. Let's do one more over here on the second flower. So this is a way to give more definition to the petals as well. Just use the tip of the brush to create these wispy strokes. If you think you overdid the strokes, you can go back in with a clean brush, and you can fade away some of the strokes to soften that area. All right, so we're almost done, adding some veins on the leaves, just to add some more definition and using just the tip of the brush for this detail. Okay, so I'm going to show you how to add some shadow leaves or the barely there leaves. I want a blue color, but I want it to be very diluted in water. So this is going to be super light. Alright, so let's just add some leaves right here so you can see it, like in the background. So you almost cannot see it, but it adds some depth to your painting. It fills in a white cap, as well. And I think it also adds some flowy effect to your loose floral painting. Now, you can try to sway your brush, just dance with your brush to create these beautiful leaves. Alright, so we are done. I hope you enjoyed painting this floral composition. Now let's move on to the next video. 11. Project 3: Part 1 Main Flowers: Before we start here are the colors that you need. For our last project, we are going to paint a more detailed painting, and we're going to apply all the exercises about brushstrokes that we have learned into this floral composition. Let's do a brief overview of our project. So we are going to start by painting two main flowers, and this is going to be a blue themed floral composition. But you can definitely change the colors. Make this easier and more approachable, I split the project into three parts. So the first part is all about the main flower, and the second part is all about adding the secondary flowers, just like what I'm painting here. These secondary flowers will definitely complement the main flowers. So we're doing wide brush strokes for the loose petals of the main flowers, and here in the secondary flowers, we're just tapping our brush using just the tip to create these short strokes. Now, part three is all about adding leaves and also fillers, and this way we'll be able to fill in the small gaps in between the flowers. There's also another way to experiment with holding your brush. You can do some nice expressive leaves by holding your brush towards the end of the handle. So when the flowers are already dry, we can go back in and add a second layer using a deeper color and just the tip of our brush to create these wispy strokes. The next part, it's going to be optional. I'm going to use white gouache to add some highlights and some small white flowers. You can definitely skip this part if you don't want to add these details. But if you don't have a white gouache, you can also use a white pen or maybe just poster paint. Alright, so it might seem daunting at first, but this is very doable for you. We have prepared for this project through the exercises that we did. Alright, so let's start. So the first thing that we need to do is to grab indigo, and we're going to dilute it in a lot of water. We want this to be quite translucent when we paint it for our first flowers. I'm just going to swatch it for you guys so you can see the color. Next, we'll also grab indigo, but this time, it's more pigmented. Using a size six round brush, we can start by tapping the tip of the brush to create a ring of small dots. So you want these dots to be a little bit wet because we're going to pull the color later on. All right, so I think we can add a little bit more color. I'm going to use permanent violet, and I'm going to mix that with the indigo, and I'm going to add a few dots on this ring that we did earlier. So we're going to have two colors. Switch back to a size eight so that we can have a nice fluffy petal. I'm going to grab this very diluted indigo, and let's start here with the ring and going to just push and pull my brush going up and down motion. Then you can use the tip of the brush to create these wispy strokes on the side. All right. Let's do one more. You see I'm holding my brush in the middle of the brush handle, so you can use just the side of the brush to create a broad stroke. So I think I'm going to grab a little bit more color and place it on the petal. Alright, let's do one more. And I'm pulling the color from the center where we have a very concentrated color. And I'm just going to add a little bit of that violet into some of the petals. So again, try to press, and then you can pull your brush, then go back up and do a quick motion so that you get a nice pointy tip. So I'm really pressing my brush to create a nice expressive stroke. So here you can see a dry brush area, and I'm not going to fill in that white part anymore. I'm just going to put some small wispy strokes to give an illusion that it's a negative space. So that's a happy accident for me. Okay, so you can see I splattered a little bit of the paint, and I just plot it out with some tissue paper. While the flour is still wet, let's grab a deep color of indigo, dab it in our tissue paper to blot out the excess moisture, and I'm going to put this color in the center of the flour and let it bleed into the petal. Let's now move on to painting the second flower. I'm going to use the color royal blue, but you can definitely use other blues in your palette, and I want this to be a more pigmented mixture. It means that there is more paint and less water. Alright, so this is the color that we will be using. Let's start painting the second flower. I'm going to paint one petal here, just touching the first flower and doing a check mark very quick so that we have some nice whisp strokes and just using the tip of the brush to create some shorter strokes, then descrab some more paint and just really press our brush and then live towards the end, and we're always going to the center of the flower. You can do some sweeping motion moving up and down. And to make it look more interesting, I added a little bit of violet to my blue mixture, so we can add that color in. From the outer part of the petal, we're going to press going into the center. Use the tip of the brush to create some small markings beside the main petal. Again, make sure that you are leaving some white spaces in between your strokes. Now, let's press our brush and live in a curve manner, going again to the center. So now we have completed all the petals of this flower. We can just go back in and add some shorter strokes using the tip of the brush. This is going to add some character to our flower. You can also add these small bits of stroke to extend an area or add some volume. Now to add some depth, we can go back in with some deeper color of indigo. So I'm grabbing it from the palette straight into the paper. That's why I have a really dark color here, and I'm doing this while the flower is still wet. So there is an element of timing here. You do want the flowers to still be wet when you're adding these details. So I do want to add some bleeding between the leaves and flowers. So I have to add the leaves right now while the flowers are still damp. I'm mixing sap green and burnt umber to get that earthy green color. And we can just paint it in between the petals. I'm letting the leaves touch the petals so that we'll get a nice soft blending. So in order to frame the shape of this phi petal flower, we can add some darker leaves around it. So you can grab a little bit of indigo and add it to your sap green, or maybe add some sepia. So I'm just going to rinse my brush and paint another leaf and you'll see that we have a lighter value. Alright, this is the end of Part one. Let's move on to Part two as we learn how to add these secondary flowers. 12. Project 3: Part 2 Secondary Flowers: Alright, for this secondary flower, we're going to add a flower that is on its side or at an angle. I'm using just indigo, but diluted in a lot of water. So to start, we can put a small dot right there, just as a guide that it's the center of the flour. Alright, let's start with the fully loaded brush and just try to press and then live towards the end, and we're pointing towards the center of the flour. Do one more on the side, and then create some thin wispy strokes. One more at the bottom, and we're really just letting our brush glide onto the paper, and I'm holding my brush around the middle part of the handle. So I love how expressive this looks. We're going to do one more here at the top, and I change the color a little bit. So it is very nice. We leaving some spaces in between our petals. Now let's grab some indigo and blot out the excess moisture. We to add this in the center just to give some contrast to this loose flour. Okay, so let's mix up some color. This is royal blue with a little bit of indigo. So I want a nice, rich color, and we're going to use that for our secondary flower. Let me just watch it for you. So that looks good. Now let's start painting. So a while ago, we were using the full belly of the brush to create some beautiful petals. Now we're using just the tip of the brush and kind of stippling it onto the paper to create these short strokes. These are going to mimic some short petals that are clustered together like a small ball. But I'm also making sure I have some white spaces in between my strokes so that it doesn't look like just a blob of paint, right? So we can also try to rinse our brush and tap the excess water then I'm going to blur out some of the petals just so that some of them will look softer. All right. Let's do another one right here at the bottom. Again, I'm doing it in a circular motion so that I can create a small ball. Alright, we can rinse our brush and soften the edges. Going to keep stamping my brush. You can see that almost about one third of the brush is just bending. It's not the entire belly. Grab any green in your palette I'm using this perlin green or shadow green. Okay, so just connect it to the main bouquet. Let's do another side facing flower, but this time, I'm going to use just the tip of the brush. So we are going to do some check mark strokes just like this. So it's a quick stroke, and we're leaving some spaces in between our strokes. So I'm also going to tilt my brush so that it's easier to paint some of the petals. Again, all the petals are facing towards one point, which is the center of the flour. So it's looking good. We can rinse our brush and tap out the excess water or blot it in a tissue paper. I'm going to soften some of the edges. All right, so I think it looks good. You can add a couple more strokes to add some character. Alright, so let's look at the painting from afar. You can see that we have a lot of darks in the right side, and I think I wanted to add some more in the lower left side just to balance it out. So I'm just tapping my brush using the color royal blue. Just making sure I have some spaces in between my strokes, it's going to look like small flowers. So you can rinse your brush and soften some of the areas. Just press your brush, and you'll be able to create a petal like brush stroke. All right. So when you're doing a floor composition, you want to add different shapes. So we can add an elongated filler. So let's just grab our green. This is just sap green. We can add a longer stem right there and some leaves. Now, let me dilute some sap green in a lot of water. You can also add a little bit of yellow into this color. Then just dab your brush. You can see I'm really just pressing or stamping my brush onto the paper to create this nice rounded shape. And then we can grab a little bit more of that green and also some brown. You're going to add it in the center of this filler. Alright, so I think we need a little bit of yellow. So I'm using my white guache, and I'm going to add it with the color greenish yellow. But you can also use just yellow guaheO if you have just plain yellow watercolor, that's going to work fine. But I wanted to add some pastel color here. I think it's going to help balance the composition. We're just going to paint some smaller flowers. I'm just pressing my brush like this and lifting it towards the end, and I'm also using the tip of the brush to create some check mark strokes, add some wispy strokes. So just remember it's all a combination of different strokes to create a flower. Okay, we can add some stems to connect it to the main bouquet. So I think we're ready to move to the next part of this project, which is all about adding the leaves and finishing touches. 13. Project 3: Part 3 Leaves: Now, this is part three of the project, and we're about to add some leaves. I'm using sap green with a little bit of brown. So I'm using a size six round brush to add these wispy leaves. And sometimes I hold my brush like this. I hold two brushes at a time, and I know some of you can relate. So I'm also using some shadow green. This is a deeper green. And I also like holding my brush towards the end of the handle when I'm adding some nice expressive leaves. I really feel like I'm able to just add some movement when I'm painting like this. You can tilt your brush, create some really thin strokes. You don't even have to paint leaves just yet. Just paint some sticks, and that's going to help you decide later on whether you want to fill it in with some leaves or not, right? So we also need to play with values, make sure you have a deeper green and a lighter green color in your composition. So I decided to do some last minute florals here. I'm grabbing some blue and just pressing my brush in different directions. You can see I'm holding my brush towards the end of the handle. I love how you still have control, but you're also letting your brush do its thing. And with practice, over time, you can definitely do this as well. So I'm going to add a little bit of those yellow flowers at the bottom, pressing my brush and lifting. So this time, I'm using a size eight round brush, and we can just add some more leaves. And you can play around with the pressure in your strokes. You can just tap your brush, add some stems, and you can press your brush to create some broader leaves. Thing that I like to do is to add some detached leaves. So I will put some short strokes or broken lines like this, and it's like a negative space painting. So you just let your eyes fill in the blanks. So when you're doing a bouquet, don't put all the details in the center of the flower or near the main flowers. Try to extend some areas by adding some small leaves like this. It's further away from some of the elements in this composition. Alright, so let's check this flower is already dry, going to grab a smaller brush and use indigo, going to bring back in some contrast. So we're just tapping our brush, creating these small dots. It looks like an anemone flower. Alright, so we can add some veins on the petals. I'm using royal blue with a little bit of that violet. You can also use just indigo. Using the tip of the brush, we can create some nice whisky strokes within the petals. Right here, I pulled this color, and it's still wet. So I think it looks too much. I'm going to just blot out that area. All right. So now it looks good. Don't forget that you can always blot out the excess moisture in your brush using a tissue paper. All right. So we're just going to keep adding these short thin strokes. Now, if the center color bleeds into the strokes that you did, that's okay. Next, let's move on to the second flower. I'm using this royal blue color, and we're going to do the same. Just using the tip, we are going to create these wispy strokes, just like what we had practiced in the exercises. If you'll notice all these wispy strokes are a little bit curve. They're not just straight lines, and that's going to add some movement in your strokes. So this part is optional, like what I said earlier, I'm going to be using white gouache and I will be adding a ring of small dots, and that's going to be the highlight of the flower. I usually like adding this detail because it makes the flower look alive. It looks like a three D painting. And at the same time, you can use the white gouache to add some white flowers. I'm adding it here on top of the blue flower so that you can really see the white pop up. And just to add some contrast, we can grab some indigo and add a few dots on the white flowers. So we're almost done. I'm just going to add a few finishing touches just to make this composition pop up. And we need to add some second layer on those secondary flowers. I'm using royal blue. It's more pigmented than the first layer. So we can also add some darker center and some of the flowers. Alright, so I'm going to add some more strokes here. I'm really just pressing my brush to create these petal like strokes. Congratulations for finishing the last project. I hope you enjoyed painting this floral composition as we were able to apply everything that we have learned. And I hope to see your project in the project gallery section of the class. Alright, let's now move on to the next video. 14. Lets Wrap Up: Alright, so that's a wrap. Thank you so much for watching. I hope this does help you gain more confidence in painting your brush strokes. To sum up what we have learned, we talked about how brush size, grip, and brush pressure affects the strokes. We also learn the importance of water control to paint flowy strokes. Lastly, we practice different brush stroke exercises and gestural marks to hold the muscle memory in our hand. Remember, brush control comes with practice and play, so don't be afraid to experiment and loosen up your strokes. The more you paint, the more natural and effortless it will feel. I would love to see your work so you can share it in the project gallery section of the class. Under the Projects and Resources tab, you can click Create Project and upload the photo of your work. I would love to hear your thoughts on the class as well. If you found it helpful, leaving a view would mean so much to me. It not only supports my work, but it also helps other students to decide whether this class is right for them in their watercolor journey. Thank you for joining me in this class. Keep painting, and most of all, have fun. See you in the next one. Bye.