How to Paint a Foxglove in Watercolor

1. Preview: Hi, hello. In this tutorial, I'd like to show you how to paint this beautiful facts glove. I wanted to paint this flower for a very long time. They finally had an opportunity to do it. I've taken some photos of these flowers in a botanical garden in my city. And I picked one that I thought would work well as a painting. There are two main things that I like about this painting. One is the contrast between the rich pink of the petals and the green background. And the second one is that gorgeous pattern on the inside part of the bells. This pattern is actually the main reason why I wanted to paint this flower. It's a really nice project, very relaxing. It requires a bit of patients. But look at the effect. I think it's beautiful. 2. Background: Hello. In this tutorial, I'd like to show you how to paint the fox glove. I would say that this is a medium difficult painting due to that specific pattern on the flowers. That pattern requires focus and a bit more precise painting. But I think that it looks really beautiful and it's worth the effort. Bugs gloves are amazing flowers. They have great shapes and they're colored is beautiful. They are tall and they look elegant. I like to paint close-up flowers. So I cropped one of the photos I've taken in the local botanical garden. In this painting, I wanted to capture that beautiful pattern inside the bells, but also petals and leaves illuminated from behind. I hope you'll enjoy this tutorial. Let's get started. Let's start by painting the background. I think we'll start with a size eight brush, but let's get the colors ready first. We're going to need transparent yellow as a base. Now, let's add Windsor blue-green shade to that. Thanks to this, we'll get a beautiful juicy green. Now, add a little bit of quinacridone magenta to it to create a more natural color. Once such a mixture is ready, I like to add the colors that make up that mixture at the edges of the petal. So on the one side I'm adding yellow, and on the other side I'm adding blue. Thanks to this while painting, I can shift the color to yellow or blue at anytime depending on the place I'm painting, Let's also prepare a very dark green. This color consists of the same colors as before, plus Payne's gray. Now with a brush number eight, apply a layer of water to the background area in the upper left corner. We're going to paint wet on wet. I don't use masking fluid because the background areas are not large here and the flower shape is quite simple. I think we'll be able to paint the background without any masking fluid. Rotate the image if you want to make it more comfortable and apply a layer of water evenly on the background area that you're going to paint. Give the water a minute to settle down. I hope you can see how evenly shiny the surface of my paper is. I will now change the brush to a smaller one, size six. That's because we're going to use a few different shades of green. And we're going to paint in very small areas. A large brush absorbs a lot of paint and water. And it's good for a more uniform in larger backgrounds. But in this case, we need a smaller size and more control over the paint. Pick up that greenish yellow on the brush. And using dabbing motions of the brush, put the colors on the paper. Change the color along the way. Note that I'm using dabbing motions of the brush instead of just regular brush strokes. There is a difference between these two brush techniques. The difference is in the way that the paint is delivered to the paper. With dabbing motions, the paint is released in a place where the tip of the brush touches the surface of the paper and it spreads out in that place. This way, more paint is also released to the paper. On the other hand, when we make a regular brush stroke, the paint is pulled across the surface of the paper by the bristles and then it's released at the end of the stroke. As we lift the brush off the paper surface. If you pick up the paint on the brush, but you feel that it's too much or it's too diluted, touch the tip of the bristles against a tissue or towel to get rid of the x's, then you can be sure that the paint on the brush is not more wet than the surface of the paper. If that was the case, there would be a risk of getting blooms. So apply the paint to the entire area, go back to some places and apply more of the darker paint. The main thing to remember is that you shouldn't force colors to mix with each other using your brush. Just add paint and the colors should mix by themselves. Tilted the painting in different directions to force the paint to move a bit. The colors should create smooth gradients. Here I've thought that the darker area between the leaves was the background. It wasn't until later that I realized that it was actually a shadow on that leaf. But it's not that important. This is a minor element of the overall painting. Your painting, to get the paint moving and mingling on the paper. Remove the excess water from the edges. As you can see, my background is not the same as in the photo. This is because the photo is only inspiration. It tells me what colors I can use, what shapes I can paint, but I don't have to reproduce everything perfectly. After all, it's just my painting. In the same way, paint the background in the upper right corner. After applying a layer of water. Add your colors. This time, I'm adding even more Payne's gray and quinacridone magenta to my dark green mix. Quinacridone magenta acts as a neutralizing color here. It is a complementary color of green. So green will be more neutral and less saturated. When we add magenta. That's the color I want. Here. We could add a little bit of blue, maybe cobalt blue to suggest the sky in the background. But I'm only using green. I'm not applying any paint to the lower part of this area. I'm just using a damp brush and I'm trying to tinge that part with a bit of green. In the lower left area we have a match vizier background. There are some leaves and also a piece of stem that I honestly didn't notice. If you want add that stem here, as you can see in my painting, the stem is missing. But again, if I hadn't told you about it, would you have noticed that? I don't think so. Maybe after looking at it for awhile, flowers attract attention enough that such less important elements are not noticeable. I want to simplify this background area. Here. I won't be painting those leaves or the stem. Instead of just suggest colors and fill this area with different shades of green. I'm also adding a bit of quinacridone magenta to break that green scheme and suggest some background flowers. We still have this largest area to paint, painted just like other areas. Wet on wet. So start by applying a layer of water and give it a half minute to settle down. You can add any colors you want. It doesn't have to be green. You can add more pink or maybe blue here. I'm following more or less the colors from the photo. Applied, the lightest colors first, and then add darker and darker colors until you're satisfied with the color saturation. Remember that the colors become paler as they dry. So at this stage they should be more saturated and darker than you think. I want to paint the background by applying one layer. But if you find that your background is too pale after drying or the colors are not intense enough. You can always apply another layer of paint. 3. Leaves: We have the background ready, and now let's move on to painting the leaves. I have a second container of water here will be using lighter colors. So we must have clean water. I'm using a brush size six. Start with yellow. Use transparent yellow with the addition of Winsor yellow. Paint, wet on dry and apply this color to the entire leaves, except for the edges. The edges of the leaves are lead by the sun and we will leave them white. I'm using a more Winsor yellow because they think that the yellow here should be cleaner. Besides now I see that I should have used a more diluted mixture. My paint was too thick and the color was too intense. If I were to paint this again, I would use a lighter, more diluted tone here. The green of the leaves gently fades to the flower Bell. We won't be using pink at this stage. So we have to leave a forgotten edge here. I call it this way because it's a place that we forget for a moment and we will come back to it later. But we don't want to see sharp edges here, so we're fading away that color towards the bell. I'd also the same color to this smaller leaves below. Just like before. Leave the edges and painted. Now I'm using a hairdryer to dry the first layer quickly. Switch the brush to a smaller one. I will now use a spotter brush size two for details. I'm mixing Winsor yellow, transparent yellow, and Winsor blue. Now comes the fun part. Paint, wet on dry. Put a light shade of green next to the lines marked with a pencil. Leave thin and painted stripes, which will be the veins of the leaves. Slowly apply successive layers of a light green shade. It is a process of constant adjustments of the tone. I'm starting with a light tone. Then I'm gradually making more and more brushstrokes. As you can see, I'm using short brush strokes and a very light shade of green. Subsequent layers darken this green until I achieve the effect similar to the one in the photo. The general idea here is that we paint little fragments, little areas between the veins. We want to create veins by painting the negative shapes between them. The veins have the color of the previous layer. We are now feeling the negative spaces between them. We don't have to try to get a uniform smooth layer. Those leaves have their irregularities. They are not perfectly smooth. So we may have some different textures here. This painting can be simplified. Of course, we could apply only one simple layer of green. It all depends on how many details we want to paint. I want to paint these leaves quite precisely and put as many details as I can because it is an element of the painting that is located close to the so-called powerpoint or focal point. If we divide the painting into three equal parts, vertically and horizontally, the four places where the lines intersect are called PowerPoints. The areas of the painting in those points usually draw attention the most. In these places, we usually place the most important elements of the painting. This is where these leaves fell out. So I want to spend a little bit more time on them and paint them in detail. These leaves are less important. I will not go into details here. I'm just going to run a few stripes of green between the veins. I just want to suggest that the nation, the last green thing that we have to paint is the stem and a leaf on top. Use dark green here. Apply the color using the wet on dry technique. Remembering to leave the edge of this stem and painted. Now vary the color of the leaf. And brighter and warmer greens close to the tip of the leaf and applied dark green over the rest. When the paint is slightly dry but still damp. Use a clean, damp brush to lift out some paint and create subtle highlights here and there and that. So we don't need to go into more details here. In the next part, we'll start painting the flowers. 4. Petals - Initial Layer: Now let's move on to painting the flowers. We'll start from the outer parts of the bells first, and then we'll paint the inside. Start by preparing a lot of paint. We need two colors now. One of them is quinacridone magenta, which is our main pink. The second pink is Permanent Rose. Permanent Rose is a warmer shade of pink than magenta. We will need both of them. Use a slightly larger brush. Now I'm using a size eight. We'll be painting wet on wet. So start by applying a layer of water. We can start adding quinacridone magenta right away. Closer to the left edge, the shade is later. There is also a distinct highlight that we want to keep. So try to avoid this bright area. Continue painting on the second flower bell. First, apply a layer of water and then add colors. This flower has a slightly warmer shade. So add more permanent rows. Remember that color perception is individual. Perhaps you don't see a warmer shade here and you don't want to add permanent rose. This is absolutely fine. In my eyes. Each flower on the right side is a little bit warmer. Also, inside the bells, there are warmer areas. So I'm going to use alternatively, magenta and permanent rose. Go to the next two flowers. We are painting both flowers at a time because they touch each other and there is not much difference between them. Therefore, at this stage we can apply basic colors to all flowers. And in the next step, we will add shadows and we'll make a clear distinction between each flower. Here's start with the warmer pink close to the leaves. Then apply a magenta on the left flower and more permanent rose on the one on the right. Finally paint the last flower with the same colors, more magenta on the left and permanent rose on the right. Our first layer is ready. 5. Petals - Final Layer: In this part, we will apply a second layer of paint to the bells to deepen the color and create shadows. Before I start painting, however, I want to fix two things. I went over the pencil lines with the paint and I want to clean that up. I'm using my clean damp scrubber brush to lift out the paint from the edge and from the highlight on the left. Now we can move on to painting. We'll now need a darker shade of pink mix quinacridone magenta with Payne's gray. This mixture gives a very deep purple tone, which I think will be perfect here. Start by applying a layer of water to the first flower. We're painting with the wet on wet technique. Start with pure quinacridone magenta, and change the color too deep purple, where you can see the dark shadows. It is important that the brush strokes follow the shape of the flower. So I'm not making horizontal strokes now. I'm trying to apply paint vertically, following the shape of the flower. As long as the paint is shiny and therefore still wet, we can add more paint to deepen the color. Repeat the process on another flower, adding more permanent rose, N2 more flowers. It's the same process here. Again, start by applying a layer of water and then keep adding colors until you feared that the intensity and tone are satisfying. Only need to intensify colors on these bells. We need to add a darker shade in the right places. The second layer of paint increases the intensity of the color and makes the pink look really saturated. Here we want to create a more apparent distinction between the flowers. So use a darker purple where the two flowers meet. Also use a thicker consistency paint and more Payne's gray so that your color is pretty dark. Cover the last flower with magenta and add a dark shadow on the right side. 6. First Full Flower: We finally got to the most exciting part of the tutorial. In this part, I'll show you how to paint the inside of the bells. Let's start by preparing a very light shade of orange. First. Use transparent yellow here and mix it with permanent rose. My paint is very watered down. It basically looks like tinge to water. Apply this color to the inside of the bell. Not on the entire area, but only unselected fragments. We do this because there is really no white color here. Note that compared to the brightest delete areas on the petals, the inside of these bells is very dark. By gently changing this area with this warm shade will also help create a worm glowing effect on this bell on the right. Already adding quinacridone magenta. Now let this layer dry and when everything is dry, we'll move on to the next step. Now we have a lot of tedious work to do. I'll be using a spotter brush size two. Pick up a very light diluted shade of quinacridone, magenta and the brush. Our goal at this stage is to build color gradually. Start with a very light tone and then gradually add more and more layers of paint. Paint with wet on dry technique. We now want to paint the shadows that we see in this part of the bell and then fill the entire area between the spots that form that characteristic pattern. Notice that I drew the darkest spots with a pencil. Now when you're applying this pink color, tried to paint around those spots, leaving an unpainted border around each spot. There is a light border around each dark spot. So we have to paint around them. Note that I'm using a very light color. My paint is really watered down. First, only mark where the pink should be, and then add more layers to darken the color. It's a very slow process. And I don't know how about you, but for me, it's really relaxing. It won't look good at first. But believe me, with time, as the pink gets darker and darker, the bell will start to take shape and it will look beautiful. Look carefully at the photo. Some places between the spots are darker, others are lighter. Some are more pink, others are more purple. Don't rush slowly in really small steps, build these colors and shapes. The darkest shade of pink is at the inner edge, on the right and on the left. There you can immediately use a stronger color. If you need a darker shade. Use a mixture of quinacridone, magenta, and Payne's gray. Now change the color to permanent rose and added near those darkest places. I think this warmer shade of pink creates an amazing effect. It adds that warm glow from the inside. Besides, the color is not too uniform, it's not boring. We have quinacridone, magenta, permanent rose, but also Payne's gray here. So all of those colors create a color palette that is pleasing to the eyes. Continue applying the colors slowly until you feel that the town is dark enough. I came back to the same places a dozen or so times, adding new layers of paint. Just take your time. Slowly. Add many thin layers of paint, and you will see that the effect will be beautiful. Now I'm going to speed up this video because I'm doing the same thing all the time. Now that I think that this color is dark enough, we can paint the darkest spots. For this, use, a mixture of quinacridone, magenta, permanent rose, Payne's gray, and transparent yellow. We're adding yellow to the mix because these spots have a brownish hue. And we get such a brown shade when we add yellow to purple. So a mixture of pink and blue. Now try to paint these pods very precisely. This is probably the coolest stage because now the flower is gaining character. Tried to vary the colors so that all the spots are not the same. Let some of them be a little bit brighter, some more pinkish, others may be more brownish. This way the whole pattern will look more interesting. After painting the darkest spots, we can now judge whether the inner part of the cup, the inner side of the bell is dark enough or not. I decided to darken some places. So I put another layer on. Note that I'm trying to slightly soften the pink color on the edges where it meets the white spot. I don't want a hard edge here. Those spots have slightly blurred edges. Finally, the last thing we need to do is to paint the shadows on the curled petals. Start by applying a light pink tongue and then add a darker shade where you see a darker tone in the photo. Unfortunately, I didn't notice that a drop of water from the brush dripped onto the bell on the right-hand side. When I noticed that water drop, it was too late and a lighter spot was left after removing it. But of course we don't worry about such things. I'm going to turn this into a real water drop in a moment. I'm starting by painting an elongated shadow under the water drop. Now I'm painting a core shadow on the water drop itself with a slightly darker shade of pink than the pedal. I'm leaving a lighter edge because there should be a reflected light. I'm going to use white gouache straight from the tube just a little bit to add a highlight. I'm also adding white gouache in that reflected light area. And finally with a damp brush, I'm softening the edges and the water drop is ready. There's one more thing that I want to do with a clean, damp scrubber brush. I'm gently softening sharp edges close to the brightest highlights. This will allow us to obtain a stronger effect of glowing light. And I think this flower is ready. Now we can move on to paint the next ones. 7. Finishing the Flowers: I don't really think that I'll show you anything new in this part. We just need to paint two more flowers exactly the same way as the first one. So let me just show you a bit better version. And in the end, we will also add some white hairs using white gouache. I'm drawing more dark spots here first on this flower. Thanks to this, I will know which places to avoid when applying the pink color. Again, slowly step-by-step. Apply a very thin layers of paint. Each next layer will darken the color and you can even change the color if you feel that you need to. Now take a look how this inside part of the flower changed after I applied the right colors. As you can see, some places are really dark. Some are purple. And that's where I used more Payne's gray at the edges. I also added a little bit of yellow, transparent yellow because this is the color that I noticed in the photo. Now paint the dark spots. Use the same mixture of pink, blue, and yellow. After painting the dark spots, add some more shadows to the curled petals and the flower is ready. Repeat the same process on the last flower. When the flowers are ready, we only have one element left to paint. For this, we're going to use white gouache. I'm squeezing a little bit of paint onto a piece of paper. Now with the tip of the brush number four. And using that white gouache, add hairs around the edges of the petals. I'm hardly using any water now. I dip the brush in the water, but I removed the x's by rubbing it gently on a towel. We cannot dilute the gouache too much because it will become transparent. And we want it to be opaque. If your hairs become semi-transparent, when they dry, then it's a sign that you're using too much water. And those hairs were the last stage of the painting. Now all we have to do is to sign the painting and it's finished. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and I will see your version of this amazing flowers soon. Thank you very much for watching and happy painting. Bye.