Explore Watercolor flowers with Lotus and Water Lilly

1. Welcome to my class: The looters and water lilies come from the monkeys water. But growth into this beautiful and pianist think, I love these beauties of the flat world and absolutely enjoy painting them. Hello everyone. My name is Amy. I'm a watercolor artist and love to being everything beautiful I see in nature. And here I am with the class for you guys on bending simple loaders and water lily, the two beauties of nature in this glass, I have driven down the best and easy approaches to paint the loaders and water lilies. They are petals and leaves and water surrounding them. Breakdown of the steps is to sketch these flowers with bees. I also talk about color mixing and alternative colors that you can use if you have a limited violet. I have explained each and every brush stroke and techniques used in these paintings. You will be able to use these skills managers for these projects, but also to compose your own watercolor flower paintings. And to pain from reference photos that this class is suited for beginners and intermediate, and more importantly for anybody who's looking forward to being some flags. So how pond with me and let's begin to bend. 2. Lotus: Intro and materials: Welcome to the first project. We're going to paint up include the CEO. The sketches uploaded in the resource section for your reference. My watercolor paper is offered 15 centimeter and height 19th centimeter. Here is a list of colors I'm using. And I have also listed alternative colors for your use. If you are a beginner and planning to paint along, I would suggest you to skim through each lesson first, watch the painting techniques, and then replay and being belong. Don't forget to have fun while painting. Keep in mind that it's okay to make mistakes while learning. So now let's begin. 3. Lotus: Sketch: We will draw the sketch on paper first and then trace it to our watercolor paper. I will be taking thin sheet of paper from a notebook, place it on the paper, and draw an estimated size of the flower that I need on this watercolor paper. Lot of erasing can harm the watercolor paper. So it is best to always sketch on a paper and then trace it. I already have a sketch of simple loaders. This is an old sketch of mine. So let's use this and I will show you how to draw it now. The dotted line here indicates the flow of the petal and the stem. Let's call them the slower lane. These flow lines starts from the base of the flat where it meets the stem. So let's draw the petals for these line as a reference. So you can see how every floor line converge at the center. Let's begin our sketch. Starting from the basic center flow line of the flat and the stem together. And this will be the center. Beginning with the center petal. I will draw only half the battle as it discovered by other petals. The right side slightly longer than the left. For the next petal. First, I will mark that the pasta petal and then draw a flow line connecting to the center with that girl. Now drawing the petals around it. Notice that the right line will follow the direction of the slow line and the left line will bulge in the opposite direction of the curve off to slow light. This adds dimension to the petals. With the same approach, drawing the left petal, making some corrections so that there is a gap maintained between the center two petals bloated the sketch in the resource section. You can also take a print out and trees are trees using an iPad, do total for which I have added the link here in the video. Now let's continue drawing our other battles with this same approach. The bottom two petals are a bit different as they are blooming, are opening downwards and are close to the base. So the slow length of v look a bit different as well. And below the center line, pointing like a cup. It is the overlapping lines to avoid confusion. Okay, now let's draw the leaf. You just need to follow my sketch. These bendy leaves here are the foldings on the lotus leaf. Thank you. This bottom fold has to be in cemetery with the dark blind. Now scratch the backside of the paper with the HB pencil or regular pencil. I would not recommend mechanical pencil for this, for the shading. Now the shading has to be dark enough to get a good trace menu on the opposite side. So I'm scratching graphite Osgood layers here. A place your trees on the watercolor paper, bulleted form in place and draw on the drink. No need to trace the flow lines, just outline of the flat and the leaf would be enough. My dress has turned out very light, so I will darken my trees a little bit so that it is visible for you guys and for the purpose of the class, do not do this if you're traces already dark enough and visible clearly. Yeah. I sketch is ready now, let's be. 4. Painting Lotus: Colors I will be using our permanent yellow. Alternatively, you can use lemon yellow and then opera pink and yellow and magenta. This is a combination of a lighter shade of pink and a darker shade of pink. So if you don't have the same exact colors, you can just use any light and dark combination of being that you have. If you do not have multiple links, then you can just work with a single pink shade. I'm using size 4 and size two brush here that the brush is for highlight. Let's talk about paint consistency. You can see that how transparent, what did he my mixes on the ballot? This is what I referred to as light mix. Adding some more paint to it gives me my dad makes it darker consistency. Please practice or testes paint consistencies before starting your painting so that gulf familiar with it. Please note that the yellow mix has to be really, really light, close to negligible. This is my light and dark mix. Quinacridone magenta. Lightening the sketch so that the pencil marks are not seen on the painting. Please use as light sketch as possible. I'm using Docker sketch here for demonstration purposes. Within extremely light mix of yellow paint, the bottom petals with first layer of yellow. Adding another layer of yellow just at the bottom of the middle, three petals use the same light yellow mix here. Some yellow for the intersection of this opened. But now we are going to paint the pink petals for which first, I'm taking a very light watery mix of opera pink and applying on the entire petal. I will switch to a smaller brush and take some magenta and add at the tip of the petal. With a clean brush, I'll slowly pull magenta to the corners of the petal. You can use any other alternative, dark pink available for you, or just add another layer of opera pink. Repeating the same process for other petals as well. Make sure that the neighboring petal is completely dried before you paint your petal, so that the colors do not bleed into the next petal. Okay, now we're going to follow the same process to paint all the petals. You don't want to stack the consistency of my op trapping, the first layer of paint is quite light, and I'm using a very light mix so that we can build up layers. That is correct. Okay. Okay. Here is an example, petal wet. I'm adding a second layer of highlight with opera pink itself to show you guys how alternative approach can work if you do not have another shade of dark pink with you. For this petal, I have made the bottom portion dock as bigger portion of this petal is exposed and as it moves towards the bottom, that will be shadow. Hence, it couldn't be DACA. The left side of the spectrum is the better folding, hence painted. Coming to the big petals, which I have already painted a layer of light yellow. Please notice the consistency of our wrapping is very light. I will apply a layer of light mix of our prepping only on top half of the petal. Then take some water and pull the paint down to form a very thin layer of pink over the yellow. So we add building layered here, taking some more water and dragging the paint further down. That as we move into the bottom of the petal, there is a very, very thin layer of pink. I feel that the top part of the petal looks a little light, hence adding some mode opera quickly before the petal dries, add magenta to the tip and drag the paint to the corners. Also pulled some wanes off the petal. The veins have to be along the petal slowly. Take note that I'm not loading paint from the petal for these flow lines by just pulling the paint that I have already put on the petal, that desert magenta color. I'm pulling just three or four lines at this point, not more. Also, my petal is still wet, which is why these lanes will form a soft line. For the bottom petal. Paint, the left side and right side. 5. Adding detailing to Lotus: We are going to build a second layer of pink on the petals. Approach, same as before. Applied dark color to the tip of the petal. Next, clean your brush, take some water and blend the paint into the petty. Use only water to blend so that the lower layers are very light and we can build contrast. We'll also add some veins for few petals. Repeat this process and make the tip of the petal stack. Make sure to use a small thin brush for these things. Hi. Okay. To this button. Hi. What prevents too, the big petal. Try not to add mode. Adding tiny portion of that color, magenta in my case, to add some highlights to the tip of the petal. These are tiny triangular shapes. If it forms hard edges, blended SMOTE with a clean brush at the bottom of a triangular shape. I feel that the borders of these two petals meet some contrast to differentiate it from the center petal. So adding some magenta to the right border of the left petal and left border of the right by two. And then with a clean brush and little water will blend it. We'll also make this section a little darker to add the contrast. Adding some hardline of wins along the flow lines as we had drawn earlier. To the center three petals. Winds need not always start from the tip of the petals. It can also start from middle of the petal. So paint some random means starting from different points. Hi. 6. Leaf and background: The shades of green, I'll be using yellow, green, Hooker's green. And presciently, basically, we need a light green to which you can add yellow to make it lighter. And add dark blue shade like indigo together Dockery. There you have it. Three shades of green for you to use. First, I'm going to apply the light green shape that I have. Blue. Notice the consistency. It is a bit watery as I wanted to stay with it for longer. I painted the first layer of green watery so that it stays wet for longer and I can add my second shade of green and paint the lines on top of the leaf. Repeat the same step, fifth, darker green if needed. Adding some dark green at the root of the leaf where it joins the stamp. Painting rest of the leaf with light green. Next page, the last fold of the leaf with a little darker shade of green. Paint. The edges of the leaf foldings with your darkest green. Switching to a smaller brush and adding the dark highlights along the leaf foldings. Again. Because I painted my previously folding with a thicker brush, the highlights have blended and does not look distinctive, which is why I am repeating the process again. This dark green portion is a good buffer. Lastly, folding the wavy edges of the leaf with darkest green, you have mixed. Adding thin lanes of these dark green highlights. Please use a very thin brush for this. If you do not have a thin brush, then you can skip this. Stem off the flat with darkest green at the tip. As you move down from halfway, use lighter tone of green will be dark due to shadow from the flower. On the leaf falls with second layer of dark green if needed. Hi. Now let's draw the horizon line and some extra leaves at the bottom of the paper. Before we begin the background, keep all your color mixes ready. Going to paint wet-on-dry here. Hence, the consistency of my paint is very worldly as I want the paper to stay wet longer to mix different colors. If you're a beginner and not confident to paint wet-on-dry, please read the paper beforehand below the horizon line and then follow the same next few steps. I have my colors ready. First, I'll apply random patches of light green and some pink, which represents leaves and flowers at a distance. And then fill the rest of the area with the darker green. There is no particular order in painting the dark greens and the light greens in the background. But there is one logic that you have to keep in mind that when you're painting next to light green part of the leaf or the stem, use dark shade of green. And when you're painting next to their dark shade of green in the leaf or the stem, use lighter shade of green. This will create the contrast and you can distinguish between the background and the foreground elements. My light green paint has already dried off, which is why I'm rewriting that small section of area with lightest or with a very watery consistency of green. And then again, painting on it. Even here, I'm re-wetting the background and then I'll paint over it. Let's paint the background leaves now. The leaf with just a very watery mix of light green or just water. With the yellowish green colored leaves. Add some highlights like this. Yellowish green is still wet and we can get some soft highlight lengths. I weren't adding that good highlights in the background leaves as they're not to be made to prominent. Darkening the border of this leaf. Before we paint the sky, clean your brush thoroughly to get rid of all the greens. Keep your paper with slight inclination. Using civilian blue for the sky, you can use any light blue available for you. For example, a very late makes off cobalt blue. Now read the paper for Skype ocean carefully with clean water. Avoid waiting the flood. So be careful and paint only the right area. I want the sky to be very light so that the flower pops out in the painting. So take a very late and watery mix of say, Julian blue, just like you start painting the sky from the top and pull the paint down with water to form a gradations guy which goes light as it meets the horizon in the bottom. I've second layer of blue if needed. But do this only if your paper has not dried it and it's still red. If your paper has already dried out, then you can just leave as it is. That's it. We're done with that painting. 7. Lotus: corrections and final touch up: You can see that the left side background looks quite boring and plain. So let's add some distant leaves. So I'm reading this entire area first, adding some patches of dark green. Now, make sure that these are small batches because they are the small distinctive leaves at a distance. We'll come back to it later. One set trace. With light green. I add one or two stem-like lines to depict the background leaf stem. Painting the wavy edges of this leaf with some dark green adding dark highlights on the flower stem. Now, do this only if you feel it's needed based on the color contrast of the background and the stem that you have achieved. If they look very similar to each other, then you can just darken left side of the stem so that it looks distinctive. Now that background is grade. Adding some leaves, cup like structure, again with stems. Just add three to four, not more than that. And you can just paint on their dark green you had previously painted. With that said, I'm via done. Here are some correction hacks that you can use to enhance your painting and correct your mistakes. This step is totally optional, and it will be done only if for some reason you did not achieve contrast between the leaf green and the background green. Then add some white lines to the curve of the leaves here and there. You can also darken the bends of the petal to add some definition. That's all with this pink lotus. I hope you guys enjoyed the class. 8. Water Lily: Intro and materials: Hi guys. So glad to see you here in the second project, we are going to paint a bubble water lily here. My watercolor paper is offered 23 centimeter and height 14 centimeter using 300 GSM cold press, watercolor paper. Here is a list of colors I'm using. I have also listed alternative colors. The sketches uploaded in the resource section. This class is going to be super fun. So don't worry if you make any mistakes, it's okay. I have some great tips for you to cover up some mistakes towards the end of the project. So let's jump in into the lesson. 9. Water Lily: Sketch: Let's begin. Just for your reference. This is a picture of a water lily. We will wrote the sketch on paper first and then trace it to add watercolor paper. I'll be taking a thin sheet of paper from a notebook, place it on the paper, and draw an estimated size of the flower. Mark the center of the flat, and we'll build sketch around it. This is the first circle, and we'll draw a second yellow circle around it. The biggest third circle is a boundary for the flood. Inside the first circle, draw the tiny inverted U-shape details. I'm drawing them with some random distance with each other. Not all of them are placed next to each other. Next we will lightly mark the outer yellow circle. Draw few tube-like structure inside this. Just for your reference. Note that we're not going to draw the exact likeness of this image, but this image is here just for our reference. Now, draw the flow line of the four largest outer petals, which are diagonal to each other in allele, which together will look like an x. These lines will depict center of these petals. This line has to go a little. 10. Painting Lily part1: The colors, I'll be using our lemon, yellow and yellow ocher for the Center, for the petals. I'll be mixing opera pink and cobalt blue in different proportions to get the different shades of purple. If you don't have the exact shapes that I'm using, you may use alternative color, which is close to the color that I'm using. For example, initiator of blue and pink that is available to you. You can use it. Don't mix and get the book. Testing some of my color mixes here. I will keep adding things to the blue delay, get the desired shade of purple that I want to work with. The first mix looks more like bluish bubble, but I'm adding more pink so that I get pinkish purple. This looks like the perfect mix. I want to I really need another shade of pinkish purple for the outermost four bedrooms of the allele. So I'm adding little more to this mix and making it more pinkish. So these two are the sheets I'll be working with. Let's begin. I'll take some lemon yellow and paint the center with it with some yellow ocher paint or tube-like highlights. In this second yellow circle. The strokes have to start from outside towards the center and only restricted to the inner second circuit. Bend them at random distance. And dab some yellow ocher along the boundary of the inner circle. Filling some more lemon yellow because I feel that my paintings first layer of lemon yellow looks very light. So I'm just darkening it with some strokes of lines, but lemony yellow also filling the center circle with lemon yellow. I have mixed a good amount of purple and have kept it ready. This is the desirable color that I've decided. Notice the consistency of my band, also adding some drops of water to make it even more later. We'll use this to paint the first layer of the petals. Hence, it has to be very light. This is how watery and late I want my mix to be. Except for the largest fought battles in the X shape. Applied the first layer of bubble to all other battles. Switch to a smaller brush to paint around the yellow circle. And also be very careful when new paint at the edges. I will add some more pink to this mix of purple and make it little more pinkish purple. Paint the largest four petals with this new mix. Now let's add some highlights to the battle, switching to a thinner brush. Now, before we add these highlights, the first layer of paint has to be completely dry. Add some blue to your mix to get a purple that is blue and darker them. What do you have already used? Starting from the first circle of battles between these two petal, apply some dark mix that you have prepared. Now clean your brush completely and take a very little bit of more tip of your brush and small than the pain that you have just applied with just clean water. Now pull this dark color which you have applied on the paper to perform a very late faint center line. We will follow the same approach and applied dark color between the petals and pull the center line. Then we'll clean the brush and take very little water in the tip of the brush and smaller than the paint on the petals. You can also practice this on another sheet of paper first before painting on the actual painting so that you are confident enough to paint on your final project. Same approach, cause for all the other petals, just watch and follow my paper around so that it's easier to paint the petals. Painting the shadow with a bit of mediation here. Okay. Might be, but again, only the pointy edges, again between the petals if needed. 11. Painting Lily part2: Adding shadow, that similar approach to the next layer of petals. You can continue shadowing with the same mix. Or you can also take some indigo. Alternatively, you can take any other darkest blue. You have our Payne's gray. With indigo, I'll be adding some more darker shadow to this third layer of petals. Using indigo is optional. You can always continue with the same color mix. I'm just using integral so that this third layer of Bretton can have a different dawn of shadow. We're adding these shadow and highlights so that the battles in front of it pops out. For instance, the petal here to the left already has dark edges. So for this battle, I will add highlight only on the right side. Even here, the paddle to the right already has a dark edge, which is fine. I'm going to add highlight only to the left side of the picture. Now these two petals don't have space between each other to add some shadow between them. So I'm darkening one side of the body with any of the dark mix that you have used for the shadows so far. And some tiny protrusions inwards around the yellow center. This will add some definite of shape to the center of the flower. Now step back and look if need any adjustment to the shadowing. I am a light layer of shadow to this petal cause it looks very monotonous around this area. Mixing up pinkish purple by adding more offspring and less off blue. Now, add this mix to the tip of the last four outer petals and smoothen the edges. Add some shadow to the bottom of these battles with Puppet. Add shadow to the bottom of the petal. Only if the petals in front of it is very light or is not distinctive enough to pop out in the painting. In my painting, only the right two petals meet the shadow at the bottom. So you paint shadow accordingly to your painting. Coming to the center of the flag and bonobo long lines inside the yellow center to show the tube-like structure. Just add few. Let's not overdo it or add too many of them. Mixing some blue to yellow ocher to get a very yellowish brown paint around the inner circle in dots. And also the center dot fit this color mix. With yellow ocher fill the inner circle. Except for that, I need to Blake structure. And second layer of ocher and only the right in our circle. This creates a shadowy effect here. Next up adding highlights with white. Either use white ink like posca pen or Jelly Roll pen, or white watercolors straight from the tube. If you don't have watercolor do and you are using band, then you can just use a very thick mixture of white with the very minimum water. Our goal is to get a rough lines like these. First, add some white highlights to the center of the flower. So if you do not have any light shade formed at the center, then you can alternatively use this white paint to counter it. Next, add some white paint to the tip of few petals. I chose the petals in random order. There is no particular preference here. With this, we are done with the flag. See you in the next section. 12. Painting leaves: Mixing yellow ocher and a shade of light green. To get a yellowish green, you can mix any yellow and green that you have so that you get a very yellowish shade of green. Wet the leaf area with clean water. I had some green in my brush. So it looks kind of like green because of that. But it's okay Since anyway, we're going to paint the entire leaf with green. But ideally you can just write this area with water. A play some patches of the yellowish green mix in the coordinates of the leaf. Next video calls green or any late green shade that you have painted remaining part of the leaf. Apply some dark green to the center of the leaf. You can get this dark green by mixing blue to your green. Switch to a smaller brush and add veins of the leaf litter, dark green, Babson, dark green to the center as well. Alternative approach to paint this leaf would be wet-on-dry. Let's do that for the second leaf with watery consistency, I'm applying yellowish green around the corners and then make style fill the center of the leaf with the light green. Switching to a thinner brush. And with some dark green, I'll paint the veins of the leaf. Basically the approaches the same. It's just that I have not read the leaf first. Instead, I have used a very watery consistency of paint so that I can paint wet on dry weight for the leaves to dry completely before you begin with the background. 13. Water background: Clean the brush thoroughly with clean water to remove all the greens. We are going to be in the background thread don't bet, will be using say Julian blue and binds gray for this. Keep the paint mix ready beforehand so that you can apply the paint on the paper before the paper dries up. Wet the paper with clean water. Most beginners have trouble keeping the paper wet for longer, which is why I am writing only half of the paper first and then painting on it. If you're confident enough, then you can offer to paint the background in one goal. Also, be careful while writing the area around the flat and leave leave some gap so that when you paint the background, it doesn't bleed into the flood, out into the leaf. Now, apply suddenly in blue first and not the blame blue near the edges of the flood and the leaf. Also note that I am using only brushstrokes in one direction, that is in a vertical direction. I'll be painting the entire background with just this direction of brush stroke. Next, take some Payne's gray first applied in random stroke following the same direction. Make sure to leave some blue colors in-between urine. They don't cover the entire blue that you have been done before. Next, film near the corners and borders of the leaf and flat with green. If you don't have finds grave with you, you can mix some blue to black to get the color close to pines gray combines gray at field, near the corners of the paper or at the edges. Switch to a smaller brush and add some more binds gray line in the vertical direction. This will add some more flow to the water. Now quickly read the remaining part of the paper with clean water. And then we'll paint the background with the same approach on the other side as well, which is blue first followed by gray. Hi. Adding some more binds to darken the corners and edges here. Painting with smaller brush brings female brushstrokes. And it makes a lot of difference. At this, we'll add layer and different movements on the water. Now, if you get unwanted edges and blooms like her under the flood, then you can cover it up with some shadow. This is because we waited and painted the background into different parts. Wait for the background to dry completely. I will start adding shadow with the leaves first and shadow only to the lower side of the leaf. With some green paint and some hard lines on the wings. I'm using a bit of thick consistency of paint here so that my brush stroke is broken and is quite rough. Next, up, fill in the shadow of the flag with the mix of buying screen. First layer of shadow has to be of the same shape. Throughout all the petals of the shadow. Making sure that the saturation of pines gray for the first layer of shadow is consistent for all the petals. Now we have to wait for this to dry completely before we add another layer. Meanwhile, I'll show you what we can look to hide some mistakes or unwanted bloom set you would get. We can paint some beads and leaves submerged in water. This can be done by using a very watery mix of green or a very late mix of green so that it does very late band. And then on top of this lake green paint use a very late war that the mixture of Payne's gray do this only to cover if there is any mistake. Otherwise, skip this section. So here I'm painting read which is submerged in the water. Now that my first layer of shadow has dried, paint, the second layer of shadow, but paint only the shadow of few of the pedals switches close to the water. This way you add perspective to the shadow, which means the shadow of some of the petals are darker and for some, it will be comparatively lighter. I still have some unwanted bloom under the shadow. You can paint an underwater leaf to hike dispatch. This is again optional or as a measure of correction if you do not have these unwanted bloom, please keep it. Adding some final details with white. If you're adding these kind of white lines of highlights, then make sure that your pin does really dry so that you'll get broken and rough line. Make sure you do not overdo this with white. Just add some highlights here and there and in a very small proportion. Also add some highlights on the leaf. I will add a little bit of order to the side so that I can get some droplets of weight on my paper. I like these droplets only in the side of my paper. And make sure you cover the flash so that these droplets do not fall on top of the flat. Again, this is optional only if you like it. That said, we are done. Yay. Let me quickly show you how to alternate. Be used. Jelly roll band out Bosco band for the white highlights. A player drop of this white gel on the dip and then bullet with your fingers to get the rough lane. So this is how you can get the rough texture and Laden the saturation of the weight. 14. Conclusion: I hope you guys enjoyed the class. I'm really looking forward to see all your class projects and hear from you. So don't forget to upload your class projects and drop your review for the class. You can connect with me on Instagram at brush paint and everything. Do tag me. If you upload your project on Instagram, I would love to share them. I have a couple of other classes as well on Skillshare. Do check them out if this interests you. I had lots of fun painting these beauties of the flat world. I hope you guys enjoyed it. Do so until next time. Happy painting.