Capturing Flowers’ Beauty: Pansy Orchid in Watercolour

1. Class Introduction: Welcome to my new class, capturing Flowers beauty, Pansy orchid in Watercolor. In this class, I'll guide you through the enchanting process of creating a standing panty orchid watercolor painting from start to finish. Whether you are a beginner or an experienced artist, you find invaluable insights and techniques to enhance your watercolor skills. Hi, I'm Kadia, I'm an artist and online teacher. We will begin with tracing the delicate outline of the orchid, ensuring that every detail is captured with position. As we move through each stage, you will learn the art of the first wash, laying the foundational colors for each petal and the flowers vibrant center. With step by step instruction, we will build upon these layers with a second wash, adding depth and dimension to your painting. Finally, we will bring the orchid to life with intrical final details that showcase the beauty and complexity of this remarkable flower. To support your artistic journey, I've included the tracing of the orchid reference photos of the finished painting and the images of the actual flower in both color and black and white. Join me in this artistic adventure and discover the joy of painting a pansy orchid in water color. Let's capture the timeless beauty of these exquisite flowers together. Let's get started. 2. Class Project: The project for this class is of course to paint the pansy orchid. You can use the resources that I gave you the picture and the tracing, or you can use your own pictures or your own live specimen, and you get brownie points for that. Don't forget to post pictures of your orchid in the project section, and you can add your pictures by clicking on Submit your project. Please do so because I would like to see what you create. As usual, if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask, and I will keep an eye on the discussion section in case you want to ask me anything. 3. Color Mixing: We are going to start with color mixing. And I normally use these little watch cards that I made, and these are just with my, pigment. There's no pre mixed. And I see which color is closest to the color I want to achieve. And then I modify that, I changed that. So in this case, it is bright violet. And to this, I add I watch it first just to check it, you know, even a little bit diluted. And then to this, I add a little bit of blue, which is windsor blue green shade. And it's always best to, you know, do your colors, your colors watches from a live specimen. But I didn't have the plant anymore. I used to have it. But unfortunately, I don't have this anymore. So I'm using a picture. But if you have live plants, you know, it's better to mix the color against the actual plant. Here, I'm looking for a color, which is for the darker areas. To the first mix, I added. This is for the areas where it is a bit more reddish the color because you can see different colors. Some of the areas are a bit more reddish. So of the areas are a bit more pink. I added a little bit of Qing magenta to the first mix to make it a little bit more reddish. That will be good for these areas where there is this reddish undertone. And now I'm going to mix a darkening mix. This year, it will be with winds blue, red shade, quincho magenta and transparent yellow. I make a violet first with the blue at the red and then add the yellow to make the brown. But afterwards, I will realize that I prefer another type of darkening mix for this. Don't mix this just yet. But I wanted to leave this in the video just to show you the different stages and that you don't really achieve the color that you're looking for straightaway all the time. So you have to try an error, basically. This is not too bad, but then I use another dacing mix, which is much better. As usual, I take swatches and write down the colors that I use. I will give you a list of the colors that I used. Again, I watch it down and I write what it is. Now I'm looking for the center color. I start with a red pigment and it's permanent carmine. To that I add a little bit of per maroon and a little touch of windsor blue red shade to make it a bit. I'm adding the blue now and always add this blue in small amounts because it's quite powerful, it would get really dark real quickly. I think you can really tell on the screen if it's a properly matching color, it looks a little bit different because I noticed that things like pinks and reds, they don't come up really good when they are photographed or when they are on screen. The colors look a little bit different when I put them close to my picture. But these are the closest matches and they look a bit different in real life. In here, I'm just showing you that I wasn't too happy with the first color for the general color for the flower. So I'm mixing another one, and it's bright violet, but I've added Winds blue red shade. And I like it a bit more. And then after this, I take down these pigments and I put a thick and across, so I tick where the color that I like and then I'm mixing the other darkening mix, which is window blue, green shade, quench magenta and lemon yellow, which I like a bit more to darken the color of the flower. So in the areas where there is a shadow, I can add that if I need to Again, I put a cross in tick in the ones that I want to use and the ones I don't want to use. This is just to check what it looks like when I add the darkening mix. This is the color mix. Then in the next video, we're going to start applying the fe. I'll see you in the next lesson. 4. The Tracing: Before we start painting, we need to chase the flower on watercolor paper. And what I did here was I drew the flower on chasing paper, but I did on the reverse. So basically, now we have a flower. This is the right side, and the pencil line is on the wrong side, so to speak. So now all we need to do is to fix the chasing paper on the watercolor paper. And using this tool, we can just grab the chasing paper, and you will have the flower transferred, or you can also use the back of a spoon because I understand this tool is a bit expensive. I'll just show you an example because I traced it on the watercolor paper already. But basically what you do is you do your drawing on the tracing paper. And so you trace it on you draw it on the wrong side, so to speak. You turn it around, and that is the right side, so RS stands for the right side. And then with the tool I showed you before, you just rub the tracing paper. And make sure that all the design is transferred. If it's not transferring the rub a little bit more and it's very light, but you can see is transfer it. This is very easy to erase as well. It doesn't leave a mark on your page, like for example, a Penzu could do. It's one of the ways that I prefer to use to transfer my drawings onto good paper. This is how you transfer your design. You can also use allied box if you prefer, but acqui like this method. Now we can move on to start painting. 5. Left Petals First Wash: Now it's time to start painting, and what I do first is take the excess graphite off from the page using my kneading eraser. So just make the drawing a bit lighter, and I would make it normally even lighter than what it is at the moment, but I want you to be able to see on camera, so I'm leaving it a bit. But especially in that area where there is that white part of the petal, you need to make it re light, otherwise, the dark pencil which show your watercolor basically. Now I start with the main color, and I make a diluted wash. I add quite a bit of water, and I just do a flat wash. I always very often, I start like this. I start with some flat washes, usually one, sometimes a bit more. Before I put the color down at the moment, I just add some water. On the page, on that petal to wait the paper because especially at the moment at the time of filming, it's really really hot. Sometimes I don't add the water first, but when it's really this hot and the page, the paint dries really fast, then I add the water first, and then I drop the color. I'm dropping the color now and usually I start where I can see the shadows of the flower or whatever it is that I'm painting. I start from the darker area and I drop the color there. But normally, I end up having a flat wash. Sometimes when there is some really really dark area like in this case, then I just leave them a little bit darker from the start. But generally, I do a flat wash just to have a starting point, and then I start to add the darker areas afterwards. I drop a bit more pigment. Don't worry too much about having a completely smooth wash because we're going to add quite a few layers on top of this. If you can see some hard lines is not the end of the word. As long as you have a light wash and you build the color slowly, then it's okay. You don't have to worry too about hard lines. And what I did here, I just as you can see, added a little bit more color on the darker areas of the flower of the petal, and I'm just smoothing the general wash. And now I'm just adding water to the next petal, and usually, you wouldn't do this like one petal next to the other because your pigment will flow into the next pet the other petal. But because it's so warm, it so hot, actually, that petal was so I could work on the next petal straightaway. If you can see that there is still a meine to your to your wash, then don't do the petal next to it. But if you like me are in a place where the paper dries really fast, then it's okay to just work the next petal closest to it. It is the same technique, basically. I'm just adding water and then dropping the color and I start dropping the color in the darkest area of the petal. Everyone then, I just add the picture here. You have this to download, so you can have a look at it while you're painting because I didn't want to add it very often on the video, so you wouldn't get distracted. I start to chase some faint lines, as you can see the veining of the petal. Then again, just adding water on the other petal on the left, and then after this, I will drop the paint in this one as well. Again, I start from the place where there is a shadow where the petal looks darker and keep moving to the other side of the petal. And what I do is I just rinse the brush, but then don't use the brush too wet. Rinse the brush and then touch it on your kitchen towel on your paper to take the excess water away from it because otherwise you will have a petal of water, which at this stage is okay, is not the end of the word, but in different layers in the next layers, it could be causing a little bit of trouble. In the next video, we're going to paint the petals on the right side. 6. Right Petals First Wash: I'm going to work on the right side petals the same way as I did the left side petals. I will add some water first just to wet the paper and then drop the color. Again, I start dropping the color where I can see the shadows, where I can see the petal is d, and it doesn't make a huge difference at the moment where the washes are so light, but still it helps to build up the color. I always start dropping the paint where I see the shadows. In this case, if you do get that area a bit darker, it's okay because you have shadows there. This type of pigment stains quite a bit. It's difficult to lift once it's, especially. But even when it's still wet, it is a bit difficult to lift. Make sure you drop it where it should be. I could see differences in the cameras I used to different cameras to film. In one camera the color a bit different, it looks a bit more purplish. But I left it as it is because at the moment, it's more important for me that you see the technique and from the other camera, you can see it a bit more close up. So don't worry about the different color. It's just for you to see the technique. And the color that you see from the top camera, it's the one that is closest to the actual color that is the is real life. But this is just for you to have a closer look at what I'm doing. Unfortunately, with the cameras, it's always like this, they pick up the colors in different ways. You can see here I've changed brushes. I'm using two brushes, one with the pigment and one just with clean water, just dump brush to make the paint transition smoothly. That's, these are the petals done for the fast wash. Now in the next video, I'm going to do the larger petal, which is called labelum in boarical terms. Will do that in the next video. 7. Labellum First Wash: So now we can tackle the big petal, which is called a bellum in orchids. And what I do again is to wet the paper, especially for this one, which is a much larger surface, and the weather is so hot, so it will dry quickly. So I wet part of the labelum and do the left side first, and then I will do the right side. When you work with a very light wash, it's okay to do that. You don't have to worry too much about creating a hard line. So again, I drop the color where I can see there is a bit darker. It's not a huge difference, but it's a little bit darker on this side, so I drop the color there, and I'm careful to work around where there is that white area, that white pattern of the petal. So and just basically drop the color and then make the smoo transition make a little bit lighter towards the center and top of the petal. Towards that area where there is the white because I will build the color more slowly there with dry brushing. There is a transition from the colorful petal to the white part, which is similar to what it's in real life. There is a little tiny part there which is white on the petal, there is that little pointy bit in the center. There is actually white. I'm careful not to put color there and leave it as white as possible. And now I do the same on the other side. I put some water first and then I drop the color on that side as well. The Petos look a little bit different because the right side of the peto was folded a little bit. It looks a bit sh, but it's because it's folded. I'm dropping the color where the shadow is and using the same technique, bring the color with the brush took over the whole. And as you work, you will see that there will be less pigment in the brush and sometimes I just dip it ones in water and touch it on the paper tower so that there is no excess water. So it will have less pigment. And that's it. This is the first wash is done. In the next videos, we're going to see how we do the next step, the second wash. 8. Flower Centre First Wash: Before we move on to the second wash, I needed actually to finish the flower center. That's what I'm doing now. And again, it's the same thing. I just adding water to the flower center, and then I will drop the color. So it's the reddish color. And I need to mention that there are two small orange spots in this red area, and I have applied maskin fluid in this little spot. So I can apply the red color without any without worrying about covering that area. If you look in your chasing, you will see those two little tiny spots and if you want to apply maskin fluid there, you can do that before you apply your your first wash. In here, you need to be quite careful because the spaces are a bit small. So don't be afraid of changing your brush and swap it for a smaller one. So I will do this at one point as well. I will use a smaller brush. But at the moment, I'm using this the same number one brush and is the Winter Newton series seven. And these are quite a pointy tip, basically. They're quite good when they are new, especially. The tip is quite pointy. If you're careful, you can get into small spaces. But for the more stains, there's more spots that you can see in the flower. I will use the number zero, zero brush. Again, it's just a general flat wash just to put down some color. And then we build the color on top of this slowly. Working in this way, I find it much more relaxing and I find that I'm more in control than when I work in wet in wet because then the paint can just go all over the place, and if you don't feel in charge when you're working with wet, then maybe this technique is more suited for you. Because it's a little bit of wet in wet, but it's not a huge amount of water, you are pretty much in control. So just applying the color in some of the little spots there. Then since I'm here, I just do the details in the very center of the flower. There is a little structure there that looks like a bell, and if I remember, well, this is called a column in the orchid. It's quite fascinating actually looking at the botany explas, of the orchid. There are some little marks in there as well, which again, I'm doing in a light color at the moment, and then I will make darker later on. Of course, the scale of your flower, the easier would be to make the details. This is a a larger scale already than it is in real life, but the details are still a b difficult to get because there's so many things in there, so details. For the little area there that looks like a little bell. I'm using the darkening mix, which is a gray, and so it can be used for a white area for the shadows of the white area. This was the first was in the next video, we are going to start with the second wash on the petals. 9. Left Petals Second Wash: Now we can start working on the second wash and I will concentrate on the petals on the left. What I do now is wet on dry technique. I'm not going to wet the petals, but I'm going to apply the paint and then use another brush, which is just a damp brush. I just dip it in water and then touch it on the paper towel, and I use this brush to make the transition like a smooth transition from the paint to the next area. I quite like to work this way. I'm not sure if this is your preferred way to work, but this is one way that I find gives me a lot of control. And also the fact that I use two brushes, I have one brush always loaded with the pigment and the other brush that I can use for the smooth transition from dark to light. You just have to keep rinsing that brush because it will pick up the pigments. Rinse the brush and touch it on your paper towel to eliminate the excess water and then do the transition work. I just gently tease the pigment. The very tips of these flowers are almost white. That's why I tease the paint away from the tip to leave it lighter. I put down a little bit of paint and then smooth it out with the dump brush. Because this petal is actually a little bit bigger, I do wait a bit, but it's not a lot of water. Just to give it a little bit of humidity because it's so hot the way that the paint would die way too quickly. In this petal, which is bigger, I do use a bit of water to start with. Again, I lay down the paper, the paint just where the shadows are stronger, and then I use the damp brush to smooth out the paint and make the transition. As you can see, I keep rinsing and dry the brush on the paper towel. We are going to apply more layers on top of this, well, at least one more layer. And so don't worry. Try to make a smooth transition, but we will apply a dry brush layer on top and also a wash as well. So it will smooth out transitioning from the darker side to the lighter side. These areas are darker because the petals that are behind are casting the shadow. The way the flower was lit, it did this effect that this shadow from the petals at the back because these petals are quite translucent in a way. You can do this technique with just one brush if you prefer, but you would have to rinse your brush every time, get rid of the paint and then smooth out the pigment. That's why I prefer to use two brushes to do this. You don't have to waste your paint and rinse your brush all the time and just do this over and over again. And always be quite careful with the margins of the petals. Try to be to leave quite a sharp edge where the petals finished out the margin of the petal. In the next video, I'm going to carry on with the second layers for the next petals.'s 10. Centre Petal Second Vash: I'm going to apply the second layer on the central smaller petal. Again, I'm adding a little bit of water because the paper is so dry. Again, I start adding the paint from the darker area. Going towards the lighter area and is the same technique. But then this time, as you can see, applying the paint a little bit more where the natural veins of the flower so that to create this effect of the veins coming up. Even if you apply all the layers afterwards, you will still see these veins going up the petal. If the paper is not too wet, you will get this diffused effect of these veins. It won't be sharp lines. You will need to practice, I think to see our point, the paper is wet enough to apply this technique and point is to or too wet. You just need to practice. That's the key for it. There's no other ways. As I apply the paint, I try not to go all the way to the top of the petal because there is a white area there. So I use the damp brush to push the pigment a bit, but in a way that doesn't arrive all the way to the top of the petal. 11. Right Larger Petal Second Wash: We can now carry on with the other petals. So this one is actually a petal, and I'm calling all of them petals, but the smaller petals that you can see underneath. So on the right hand side, the smaller petal there is actually a seple. And the one on the left, the smaller one is also a sepal. And the petal, the top central one is also a sepal. But I'm calling them all petals for ease of just calling them. I'm proceeding in the same way. I add a little bit of water just to wet the paper a little bit. Then I will add the color, the pigment first where there is a shadow where it's darker, the petal is darker. Then I will make the transition using my wet or damp if you like brush. Just add some pigment and then make the transition with the damp brush. This way, I'm pulling the color slowly, so I'm building the layers slowly. Once the paper is a little bit, you can drop, more pigment, and you can keep working this way. I keep smoothing the paint as well just to avoid the heart lines. I always keep checking your reference. Just make sure that you're applying the pigment it's on the picture. With this technique, you don't need to work too fast. Of course, is what a color, so you shouldn't let it dry and otherwise, we will make the hard lines. But it's more difficult with my technique to actually have those hard lines, and you can work a little bit more relaxed if you like. I'm just working around that area as well. I. Just make sure you keep rinsing and drying your second brush because it will pick up the pigment. I do this motion with the brush, applying the pigment always in the direction of the veins of the flower so that it will show the form as well. Or it will help to show the form of the petal. I'm applying a bit more pigment because this area is quite dark, so I put a bit more and always keep looking at your picture. In this area, there is the other pedal underneath that is casting a shadow. I added a bit more. And then you just tease the paint and make that transition. Even though this area is quite almost like a hard edge. But I don't really like to have hard edges on my painting. I do that little bit of transition anyway. Always remember that the little tip of the petal is almost white, so don't forget to leave the little bit without much color or without any color. So we're almost done with this petal for the second wah. And in the next video, we're going to tackle the smaller petal. 12. Right Smaller Petals Second Wash: We can now start working on the sepal. I just again, add some water, and then I drop my pigment where the shadow is. I always start start adding pigment where it's darkest. Then I can tease the color, tease the paint and make that smooth transition. It's very important here to make that part between the petal and the sepal quite dark. Just to make sure you have that three D effect. Once you make that area dark enough, it will look like the on the top is actually lifted and the other petal is underneath, and there is a shadow cast by the petal on top. With the very tip of the brush. I'm adding that little bit more paint, more pigment. As you can see, it makes the difference. Then there is another area of shadow underneath there. I make sure that the area is also a bit darker. Always make sure that you once you dip the brush on the water, you take the excess water off, otherwise, you will drop it on your page. This is basically all the pets for the smaller pets and now we're going to be tackling the larger pet in the next video. 13. Labellum Left Side Second Wash: Here, we're going to do now the dela bellum and again, I'm adding some water and is important here because the area is much larger, so it's important to add a little bit of water so you don't get the hard edges. So is going to ale bit of camera here. But basically, I'm dropping quite a bit of pigment and as you can see, I leave the edge a bit rough, so that it's easier to make that transition from the dark to the light. Don't do a straight line. The edge of pigment you put a little bit ugh. And then just with a damp brush, just accompany the paint from the dark to the light. Don't worry if it's not completely completely smooth. As you can see here, I've added a little bit more pigment because there was an area where the pigment was moving too much away from it. Also when we do the dry brushing, any e that might have formed, they will be canceled by the dry brushing. But as you can see here, I'm applying a bit more pigment because the petal was quite light, so it's okay to put a bit more pigment. And as you keep adding the pigment, it will finish in the brush, it will be less and less, and you can move to the lighter area of the petal because there will be less pigment and you will deposit less pigment, so it will look lighter. As you can see, I touch always the brush on my paper towel as I work on the lighter area. So I don't leave too much paint. I pick up the paint, but then I get rid of the excess paint on the paper towel. So when I touch the paper, there's not too much pigment. So it's best to have not enough and then you pick up a bit more but not to have too much, and then you put a big blob or pigment on your paper. This way, as you can see, I work almost like as if I had a pencil, and it's quite nice that you are completely in control of putting down the pigment. I always touch the paper towel. Just to make sure that there's not too much paint on the brush. I'm doing the left side in this video and then I will show you the other side of the same petal in the next video. You have this little bit sides lessons that you can do slowly if you want. You can even leave it here and then go back to it because there's no worry about creating lines or messing up your painting if you leave it now. 14. Labellum Right Side Second Wash: Now we're just going to do the right side of the la bellum. It looks a little bit different from the left side because this petal was folded a little bit. Again, I just apply the pigment first in the area where it's darker, and then I will smooth the transition with my damp brush. I just normally touch where the pigment I've applied finish and the other area starts. In between Here there is an area a little bit darker because the petal is folded. Again, apply the color and then just transition it to the lighter area. I have actually spared the video a little bit because the technique is always the same. I wanted to show you the entire process. But every then I speed up the video just a bit, not a. As you can see in the picture, there's that little area where it. Always look at the picture. Or if you have the live specimen, which is even better. I always look at your plant or leaf, whatever dist you're painting. Then as you can see, I always use the movement on the direction of the petal, of the veins of the petal to give form. This time is from the edge towards the center of the petal. At the same time, I add color, I make the shadow darker and I give form to the petal this way. And then smooth it out with a damp brush. And always be careful of the white area. Don't forget that there is that white area around the central pattern that needs to be left there. Try not to bring any pigment on that area. It's so a matter of building the color slowly, and just keep applying and making this smooth transition and if it's not do, just apply a b, a bit more pigment. As the paint is finishing on your brush, as you using it up, then you can keep working on the lighter area without the worry of adding too pigment is lighter. You start from the darker area and then as the paint wears off, you keep going on the lighter area. It might look like you're not really adding too much paint, but you are making it darker. Even if you pick up a little tiny amount of paint and you do this brushing like I'm doing at the moment. I'll show you here how much paint I actually pick up, it looks like nothing, but you are actually adding paint and making it stronger. That's why I always compare it to using a color pencil because the pigment is not a lot, but you are adding it a little bit at the time. So in the next video, we're going to do the second wash on the red center of the f, on the pattern of the flower. 15. Flower Red Centre Second Wash: So now we can start the second wash on the center or the flower on this lovely pattern. And again, I use the same sort of method, but this time, I'm not going to apply water. So I'm just going to do a wet on dry technique because the area is not too big, and I can apply the paint just straight without adding any water first. And I'm still using my number one brush from Winter Newton Series seven. Keep always checking your reference picture because there are some areas that are a bit darker even in the flower center. So just have a look at it properly. That is why I gave you the pictures in color and black and white. Because with the black and white picture, you will be able to see even the different tones and where it is and when it is lighter. So really look at it with the you know, just put attention and try to notice where it is. At the moment, there's not much difference in my painting, but there will be a darker area. I'm adding a little bit more pigment, as you can see here now because that area is a bit darker because the petal folds a little bit there. Just pick up small amounts of paint and then keep adding to your painting just slowly. Again, I'm following the direction of the petal veins, if you wish. This time I'm working from the center to the outside towards the edge of the petals. But I'm following the direction of the petals veins. As you can see, I'm picking up very, very small amounts of paint. I really liked the idea of painting this flower because of this pattern as well. It's just a lovely a lovely flower to paint. If the paint dries too much, just add a little tiny touch of water and mix it again. So you can use it. As you can see, I started touching the brush on the paper. Just do a few lines to get rid of the excess paint. Also at this point, you can see by doing this how much paint is in your brush. If you're releasing too much paint, because I'm really working now wet and dry. I don't want to add too strong a pigment on the page at this point. So I'm just strengthening the color a little bit. And there are certain little areas which are a little bit darker as well, so I'm just doing that while I'm making the color a bit darker. It always looks a bit different on camera, unfortunately. But the important thing here is the technique. If the color looks a bit different on camera is not the end of the world, I suppose. I'm leaving the lighter areas as I see them on the actual petal on the picture. You have this dark and light places in the petal. If you need to have less pigment on your brush, you don't need to wash it to lease it, you can just touch it on the paper towel and it will take some of the pigment off. And that's it. So in the next video, I'm going to strengthen a little bit more the details in the center of the flower. 16. Flower Centre Second Wash: Now we can start working on the very center of the flower, and I've changed my bruh to a double zero, so a smaller brush for the smaller details. And I'm just strning the color of this pattern on the side of the very center where the column is. There is a small area, small area of red in there as well. Yes, it's important to always observe carefully your picture or your flower, whatever it is that you are painting. Now I'm using the darkening as a way to add shadow to the white area, that little bell shaped area that is in the center of the orchid. I just add the tiny small amounts of this diluted darkening mix. Don't add it too dark. You can always make it darker. And then with the damp brush, as I've done before, I just make the smooth transition from the dark to the light. And then I add a bit more pigment, a little bit darker on this area, which indicates that is the inside of the bell. Hopefully I'm explaining it, it gives it that three D impression because it looks like you can see the depth of this little bell shaped area. You need to make it a bit. And then just add a little bit of yellow in this central area because you can see a yellow coloring in there. Now in the next few videos, I will show you how to tackle the details of the flower. We started to do the final layers. 17. Top Petal Details: For the final details, I'm going to use a dry brush technique. I'm going to pick up very little paint and then just use my brush as I was saying earlier, like a pencil. So always pick up a small amount of paint and then add the color I can't think of any other way to say it unless it's like this like a pencil. So as if you were handling a color pencil, for example. A little strokes and you add the color a little at the time. You will see that this will it doesn't look like you're doing much at the time, but this will make a lot of difference because it will make your painting more es and it will smooth out if there are areas where the paint is not exactly smooth, so it will make it smoother and at the same time, you can intensify the color where it needs to be darker and you don't have to worry about the water flowing all over the place where you don't want it to go. I just love using the dbrush technique for this reason because you pretty much in control of where the paint goes. You just have to be careful not to load your brush to with pigment. Always try it on a scrap piece of paper if you're not sure if you have or if you have too much pigment, and you will see me doing this regularly. Keep a scrap piece of paper next to you and you can do a few lines and make sure that your brush is a got too pigment. I just showing here how much pigment I pick up, which is very small. It's almost like painting on velum, and as I was saying, just do a few lines on your scrap paper. I don't know if you've ever painted on velum. I haven't, but I've seen people doing it, and you need a very dry brush because you can't really put too water on the velum. This becomes like that. I will show you all of the petals while I'm doing this technique, so you can see exactly what it looks like. In the next video, we're going to do the left or small petal, as I like to call it. 18. Small Left Petal Details: Now we can start with the details of the left petal or sepal, and again, I'm using the same technique. Pick up a small amount of paint and just color with your brush, basically smoothing everything, smoothing the paint. I start always from the side where it's darker, and then I carry on because this will strengthen that side, the darker part of the petal, and we'll also avoid you maybe if you have a little bit too much paint on your brush, it will look less conspicuous if you put it down where the petal is darker. As I'm doing this, again, I'm always following the direction of the growth of the petals at the direction of the veins. This will really help you give that to the three D for. Don't be afraid of turning the page if you can because it will be always better to work in certain directions. So if you need to turn your page, just do it. Don't think you have to work always in the same way. Sometimes I try not to turn the page too for the camera, but you can definitely work at different angles if it makes it easier for your hand to do the brush strokes. So as you can see, I'm turning the page here. In the next video, we're going to do the left, so the bigger petal. 19. Left Petal Details : We can start working on the left petal now. Again, pick up a bit of paint and check on your scrap paper if it's too much on your brush and then start with the brush strokes. Some people might find this way of painting with watercolor at b to like a process which is too, but I actually find this que therapeutic. Here I've made the video a little bit faster because it's always the same technique, you don't need to see it in real time. But as I was saying, is therapeutic. It's like when you do a coloring page and you enter in this zone and you forget everything else. At least I like it, but hopefully you will enjoy it too. If you have any questions on my technique, just don't hesitate to contact me. You can take this chance to refine the edges of the petal as well. As you are finishing with the color and adding your last layer, you just make sure that the edges are quite sharp where they need to be and they're not ragged and untidy. In this way, it's easier to leave that white area at the very tip as well because you don't have to color, so you can just add the color next to it. But without going into the w of that area. And then the next lesson, we're going to work on the on the right side. 20. Right Petal Details: So we're going to work on the right side pedal. And I've sped up the video a little bit. Again, the technique is always the same. As you can see, I keep checking that I don't have to paint on my brush. So I just do a few lines on the scrap paper. This way, it helps you to smooth that transition from the dark area to the light area as well. At at the time, you can build up that small transition and just showing you the difference of real time against the speed up video. Don't have any you know, don't be in a hurry to do this. Don't worry about how many hours you going to work on this or how many days. Just enjoy the process. Enjoy the fact that you are building the petals a little bit at the time and don't worry about it. You don't need to give this as a commission. No one is waiting for you. So if you are lucky enough to have some commissions, then by all means, try to find a quicker way to do your watercolor. But if you want to achieve a lovely finish to your watercolor, then I would advise you not to be in any hurry and just enjoy this process. After all, this is why we should paint to enjoy the process. No for anything else. So I'm building a little bit of a shadow in the lower part of the petal as well. I tend not to work in the same area for too long because you might end up building too much color in the same area without realizing it. That's why I move from one side to the other of the pedo so that I'm not too tempted to one area too and then the other area is too light. In the next video, we're going to work on the small sepal small petal on the right hand side. 21. Small Right Petal Details: Now we're going to do the sepal or the small petal. And here is important to really reinforce the dark area underneath the petal, the larger petal. As you can see, I'm just starting from there, and that is what is going to make it really. The top petal will look like it's really on top of the smaller petal because you will see this shadow cast from that petal. I'm still using the method, the technique of dry brushing. As you can see, I have quite a few lines on my scrap paper from when I test the pain, how much paint is in the brush. This video is also faster than normal speed, but it's just always the same thing basically. Have a look at the areas where you see the shadow and just really reinforce that Of course, don't forget the little tip of the petals where there's that little bit of white. There is the area beneath the la bellum, so the bigger petal, which is also a bit darker. If you can't see in the picture, just do it a little bit darker anyway just to show that the little sepal is underneath those petals. In the next video, we're going to do the details in the la bellum. 22. Labellum Details: Now we can tackle the lablum, which is the largest petal. I'm going to use always the same technique with a dry brush with lots of control. What I did here, I added a little bit of color on the side as well because there is the part of the petal, which is this pinkish color. Then I will just keep coloring with my brush, basically. So always following the direction of the petal growth of the veins of the petal. And always starting from the darkest side going towards the light. So by the time you moving on to the lighter area, you will have less paint on your brush, and you can keep coloring. That's why I like these brushes as well because they are a bit expensive, but they hold a huge amount of paint. So you have to be even careful not to pick up too much paint. That's why I keep getting rid of the excess paint on the little scrap paper there and I keep testing it. And I always pick up really tiny amount of paint and I showed you that before because these brushes really hold a lot of paint, and for me, it's worth the investment. But of course, everyone wants to invest that much money in a brush, especially if you are first starting. But these ones, if you're serious about water color, then I would advise you to invest in good brushes because they do help to get better results. If you see there in my palette, I don't have a lot of color in there and even so I just touch the brush on my kitchen tower because there will be too much paint otherwise. You can see the color getting darker, even though it looks like that you're not doing much, but you will see the difference when you do this type of work. On the right side there, there's also an area which is darker because the light for my paintings usually come from the left because I'm right handed. Of course, if you're left handed, you might prefer to do the other way around. And I'm trying to sort of not do a completely straight or sharp edge between the white area and the pink, let's call it area. So try not to be try not to leave this line to cut out type of line. So not too ragged, but not too sharp so that it smoothly transitions from the color to the white. If you want to practice this technique, you can always do just one petal, for example. Just take one of these the smaller petal, and then you do all the steps, but just with one petal, and if you're not happy with the result, you can just do more ones. It only takes a little bit of practice. That's it. There's no secret sauce or magic recipe for this. Just a little bit of practice, and you will get there. All right, so that's pretty much the bellum done. And then in the next video, we'll show you how I do a final wash just to bring everything together. 23. A Wash To Bring It All Together : So now that I finish the details, I'm going to do a final wash for the Petos so that it will bring everything together. So this is this final wash will just make everything more cohesive. It's just a wash that is done with a very diluted color and is the local color, the one that I've been using for the pets so far. But it's really really diluted, and you just do a wash on top of all the petals. You will still see the light and shadows that you painted before because the wash is so light. I'm just changing brush here for a larger one, and you just have to be very delicate here and use a lot of water to dilute your paint and don't rub too much. Just use a very light touch. It's just basically a flat wash all over the patos. Just be careful with the white areas are. Here I just rinse my brush and went over the white area. As you can see, it's not very dark, but it will help with the overall aspect of the petals. Also in the le bellum is going to strengthen the color as well because I feel like the light area is a bit too light, so you can use your wash in this way as well. And sometimes you can use this type of washes to change slightly the color as well, the bias, the overall bias. If you want that pink, for example, to be a little bit more reddish, just as an example, you can do a wash with a reddish or red color, was very, very light, but it will give that different bias to your painting. But in this case, it is just to strengthen the general color that I have applied already. So in the next video, we're going to finalize the red markings of the la bellum. 24. Labellum Red Markings Details : We need to strengthen the red markings of dela bellum as well. And this is what I'm doing here. Again, using the usual technique. Just make it a bit stronger and a bit more detailed. And at the moment, I'm using my number one brush. If you look closely at the picture of the flower, you'll see that there are some I could describe them almost as stripes inside this red area. This is what I'm doing at the moment. I'm leaving some lighter areas and I'm making these striped areas with the der markings. You can see the lighter areas in between the stripes, let's call them. You saw that I'm picking up a very tiny amount of paint. Now I'm just swapping the brush for a smaller one, which is a double zero. This way, I can get into the little spots there the little details more easily. I'm making them a bit. And also strengthening the same color details in the center of the flower. I'm just finishing the red markings now, and then in the next video, I'm going to strengthen the details of the very center of the flower, that bell shaped part that is in the center. 25. Flower Centre Details : Now I'm just going to strengthen the little details inside in the sender of the flower, what is called the column of the orchid. There's this little structure that looks like bear and the surrounding area is this yellowish color. I'm using lemon yellow to strengthen this, and this color is from Daniel's Mt. I also added a little tiny bit of windsor blue green shade, but a very, very small amount because certain areas in the center of the orchid are a sort of greenish color, but it's very light, so don't overdo the green. Of course, if we made this orchid even bigger, it would have been easier to do the center of the flower. But then you will have this huge labelum to deal with. So as you can see, there's always something. But I think this is quite a good size actually, and I'm using the darkening mix here as well to strengthen the shadows on the white bell shaped element there. I've also mixed a little bit of the fui color with a yellow for that center area as well. I'm now removing the skin fluid. I'm just using rubber to remove it. I'm just dropping a little bit of orange color because these dots are orange. I'm using the transparent orange and dropping that color in there. If you didn't have the masking fluid, it would be much more difficult to work around this little tiny dots. But if you don't have the masking fluid, don't worry too much, just don't put the dots because this is not a ten scientific botanical painting, and you can at the end of the day, you can just avoid it. Don't go in rush and buy masking fluid for this reason, if you don't have it, you don't have to do that. All right, so that's the details done. And in the next video, I will do one final wash, I promise, just one final one. Just to get everything together. And that's it we done with the orchid painting. 26. One Last Wash : All right. We're finally doing one last wash, just to bring everything together, as I was saying in the previous video. I like to do this wash at the end just to complete the flower. And in here, I actually did add a little bit more red because I quite like to bring the color towards a reddish bias on the Petos. As I was saying before, you can change a bit the bias by doing a wash and adding a different color. I quite like the result. This is what I'm doing now. Was use a very light for these washes. Don't do it with a strong pigment. Otherwise, you might ruin your work. Again, here on top of the petal, I always try to leave that area white, and just make sure you do the flat wash on all the petals. Always try to have a light touch, so you don't disturb the layers underneath, because if you start rubbing your brush on the paper, you might move the paint underneath. Water color is never completely set like an acrylic paint. You might still move it around if you're not careful. But if you use a soft brush and a light touch, then you will be okay. And always remember that little white area at the center of the la Bellom as well. That's it. We are done with this painting. I hope you have enjoyed it, and I hope to see pictures of your orchids very soon. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact me. Thank you so for taking the class. 27. Final Thoughts: Congratulations on completing the class. I hope you have enjoyed it, and I hope you found it useful, and I hope you have acquired new skills that you can use in your future projects as well. Don't forget to post pictures of your project in the project section by clicking the Summit project. I can give you feedback and I can see what you create as well. Also, don't forget to hit the follow button here on Skillshare, so you can be notified of my new classes. And you can check out my profile here on Skillshare as well, where you will find many of the classes on painting and cool mixing as well. If you'd like to keep in touch, you can find the links to my social and website in the about section. If you have enjoyed the class, I will be very grateful if you leave a good review because it will really help. Thank you again for watching the class, and I will see you in the next class. Bye.