Leafy Doodles - Watercolour & Gouache Flowers & Leaves

1. Welcome to Leafy Doodles!: Hello, and welcome to Leafy Doodles. I'm Holly Thomas, and as well as a skill share teacher, I'm a bedding designer. So I'm just showing you here a few of the designs I've done over the last year, along the same vein as the class we're going to be doing today. Today is all about creating beautiful botanical shapes, lots of leaves, and some supporting flowers. So this time, we're going slightly bigger than the Scottish wildflower series of classes, celebrating botanical shapes. We'll be creating a six by 12 inch study. If you don't have this sized paper, you could always tape off your page to these measurements. And as for paints for this class, you could use either gouache or watercolor or a mix of both. So who is this class for? It's primarily for those who love doodling as much as I do. And it's also aimed at confident beginners. Those of you who want to just branch out a little and add some details. It will also build on your glossary of leaf and flower shapes so that you're able to recreate these freely without recourse to references. We're going to be using our filbert and round brushes, and also pencil and pen. I also like to bring in something just a little bit different to each class. I'll be sharing with you a tip on how we can create easy centers for our flowers, which does not involve an artist's brush. We're going to be mixing complimentary colors here with the buttery yellow, with your choice of warm yellow and white, your choice of pink or lilac, and we're just going to add a little white gase or water color to that. Not to mention the lovely, warm green and bluey green that we're going to be creating to form our main leaf motifs. So you may want to hold an awareness, the interior design code, namely the 70 2010 ratio. I'm sure you're already aware of that, and I've translated that over to this class. We'll start to see that being put into action with our larger leaf motifs, our supporting flowers, and our finishing touches. And just before we move on with the class, let me just draw your attention to our projects and resources area. And you can upload your project here under my project to the right. I can't wait to see your projects and to chat with you. If you have any questions, do let me know. And also, if you have any tips to share with us all, that's always really helpful, too. So let's move on with our first lesson. 2. Creating Our Leaf Motifs: So let's prepare our colors together. This is the brusco olive green, which is a pigment powder, and I'm going to water that down. Got gage Prussian blue. Green appetite, which is a water color, Hans yellow deep, which I used a guage for, and mixing the cooler green there with the Prussian blue. So that we have some different greens to dip into. So let's start with the warmer mix and our pointed fill bet. I can see here I'm starting the movement before I hit the page almost, and it allows me just to make those very intuitive quick movements. So on some of these strokes, I'm pushing right through to the bottom of the brush and on others like the very small one there, just the tip and maybe a third of the way down. So adding a little bit more prussian blue now, so we have a very cool green, leaning very much towards the blue. I'm using the same brush, but just using the tip to a third of the way down the brush. I find this works best if it's done quickly, but if you have a different style you can bring to this, and you go ahead. This could also be done with a size four or a size two round brush. I'm varying the size of the leaves as well. So let's move on to our third zone, very similar swoops through right to the bottom of the brush. This is that size eight pointed filbert. But we're just creating a tropical leaf here, where they all meet in the center. You can see also that it's very pleasing because the way that it dries, particularly on the hot press paper, Now, let's look at the zones that we have and keep to a similar size. So I'm now going to do a leaf, which we did in the Concertina book class. It's one of my favorite moves. So we're just going to start out with some watery leaves, and we can vary the value and the color. So more watery, more pigmented, from warm to cool. So the two warm leaves there are leaning towards the hands yellow deep and the bluey leaves towards the Prussian blue. And we just drawing them down very slowly, taking our time, and then we're going to load up our dip pen. I'm just dropping in color there to the base of the leaves, and now I'm going to mix up the brusho olive green. So at this point, if you don't have brusho, you would just bring in a dark green of your choice. That can be anything from olive green to green or undersea green. I'm just putting a tiny amount in because I do blot quite a lot. I saw an artist do this where they just put in a tiny amount via a brush with the dip pen upside down, and I'm now using it the right way around. Drawing it up to these leaves, and you can see what a beautiful effect it has. It's so effective. So adding some longer leaves to this and going back to our size f round brush. Varying the colors again from to cool greens. Dropping in some of that deeper blue to the base of the leaves. Going to flip the page around now just so I can get an overview. And we're going to mix up this lovely kind of gray green, which can easily be mixed up with a warm pink, and I'm using and olive green or any dark green. Oh I'm going to use very swift movements again. Very similar to the pointed filbert, but with our round brush. It's kind of a jabby movement, and I'm using different movements. So I'm putting the point down and sometimes not going very far down the brush. And then on others, drawing right through to the bottom of the brush. And this can be done really slowly as well. I moving quickly like this, just makes them feel a little bit more organic and have some movement to them. And as you can see, I'm just making the bottom leaves a little larger. And I'm also remembering that I don't need to overwork these leaves because we're going to be going in and doing some doodling. So I've mixed a really warm green now with our olive green and handsy yellow deep. So let's do some more ribbon leaves. So you can either wiggle your brush from side to side as you draw it through, almost like a snake, or you can do a halting movement where your brush is straight. You're not moving from side to side, but you're lifting up and down on the brush a little bit. And just adding some little tips to the leaves. I find it easier to do this after you've painted the leaves. And now I'm going to use the olive green. And I'm going to map out a stem, just to get me going and to know how big to go here because this is a smaller space than the other zones. We're going back to a very simple movement that you've probably done in a lot of other classes as well, just pushing down on the tip of the brush, allowing it to flare out, and then bringing it up. Tip, and up to a tip again. Tip, and up again. And you can do that with a side sweep. Now, I often do a side sweep, and you will have seen it a lot in my classes. And it really does make the leaves a little bit more natural. There's one there. You can see, it's just a lovely shape. So now we've painted all our leaves. Let's move on to our flowers. A 3. Creating Our Floral Motifs: So I'm putting some white gage down, or you could use watercolor and replenishing the handsy yellow deep. We're going to be mixing a lovely cream color, and we use this mix in Bry rose as well. If you're using a gage, you probably need only a touch of paint to the white, particularly if you have handsy yellow deep. It is so vibrant. So I'm just adding a tiny bit there, adding some water to it. Just getting it to a nice cream type mixture. That's a little too pale. I'm just going to add a little bit more of the color. I'm just doing these two sweet petals. Using our round brush. And painting four or five petals, leaving a little space in the middle. Again, I move quite quickly. Sometimes out of necessity because I struggle with muscle weakness, but you can approach this in any way you like and just take your time. We're just slowly going to build these up in the spaces that we have. Just remembering to pan out and keep looking over whether we are placing them, leaving enough space around. Are they getting a little cramped or crowded? I'm also just adding some tiny little two petaled flowers. Now let's mix a really quick lilac color, and I'm using the rose madder, adding some water to it. Then I'm going to add a little bit of the Prussian blue or whichever blue that you're using. The reason why I've lilac is that it's the complimentary color to yellow, and these two harmonize we. L et's just check, and that looks gorgeous. I just want a very delicate violet color. And then I'm going to create these little flowers, very similar to the yellow ones, Little two sweet petals, leaving a little space in the middle. I've got a surprise for you there. Think you're going to enjoy it. Here it is. This is a makeup brush. I use this technique on a larger scale with my design det. Now, makeup brushes have all the same shapes that you can find in watercolor or acrylic brushes for a fraction of the price. And this is what you would call a stippler. Mine's oval shapes. So I'm trying to squash it into a circle. What I'm doing is spending time getting the majority of the paint off because we want it quite dry, just to drop into the centers of the flowers. Leaving that space and knowing that we can use this stippling effect in the center. I like to get in quick whilst the lilac petals are still wet, and then it just blooms slightly in the middle there. Definitely try out how wet the sip brushes. We want it with just enough moisture to travel a bit. They are so satisfying to do. Little we flower there and stippling, shaping it, stippling in any green of your choice. I've just done a little bit of everything there. I like to leave these quite watery and pale because we can add details to them. Constantly thinking about that we're going to be doodling and doodling really comes into its own when we have different values of leaves and flowers. So I'm just finding some extra little spaces on the page. Getting in there with the stippler. Remembering that it needs to be on the dry side. Being careful now because I don't want to do too much. But just adding these little solitary flowers in some of the spaces, I think looks really cute in with the si. I might put some hands yellow deep in this one. That's cute. I was just going round to add a little bit of yellow to the others as well. I think one or two more of these little violet flowers. Trying to keep it round. If you have a round stiper makeup brush like this, that would be perfect. So just finishing up this little cluster of flowers. And the violet and the buttery yellow look so nice together. It's one of my favorite color combinations. So a bit of everything there, a bit more hands yellow deep. Maybe some white. I'm going to put this down first this time, just to see if it works the other way around. Just adding a little bit more moisture to this one and then get in very quickly if you can with the round brush and bring those petals to the center, just touching the center and allowing the color to bleed out a little bit. Let's move on now to P one of our doodles. 4. Doodling With Pen & Pencil Part 1: So moving on to our doodling, and I've got my Pigma Micron, and I'm using a 01, but I use it very lightly. I just trash the ones that are smaller, because tend to go through paint with them. So let me show you on this little piece of paper what I'm doing. Just I'm doing it larger, so you can see, they're just little squiggles really and dots, like a little row of s. Squiggles and dots, and then just joining them up with a little stem. And moving down to the violet flowers. I'm just thinking about which direction I want the stems to flow. I'm going to move on to this little sprig of leaves here. I tend to keep it really simple. We're just going to run a line through it and it doesn't have to be through every leaf or I outline them or add a small extra leaf in pen. And again, I tend to work quite quickly, but you can work at your pace. I'm just adding a couple of leaves. Oh. So casting your eye around and choosing your next motif, and I'm moving over to pencil. I do like the difference in texture between the pencil and pen, and I often mix the two. So I'm either tracing the whole leaf or half the leaf or just running a line through it as I did with the others. Extending the stem a little here. A. Restful to do at this stage. Of course, you can always add little bits of paint as well. I'm just going to do a little blotch of green here over these looked I really like when they don't actually match exactly what the pen has drawn. And while I'm here, I'm just going to add a few baby leaves. Okay, I'm happy with that. So looking around. I'm just pausing because that's all part of the process, really. And I do like to run these little lines from the center of the flower, just two little lines or three little lines. And then I'm tracing around the petals. Switching back to the brush. And I was thinking of doing some little shadows on these flowers, so And on just one side, around the center, I'm going to add a little shading. So we're just using a little less water in the mix. So we get closer to a more purple color. So I'm just extending these shadows just around half of the middle, and it just makes those centers pop atle Just working my way round slowly. If you put down color that just feels a little too dark, swill your brush in water, take the excess water off and just go in and just pull it out a little bit and smudge the edge. And because we've got the violet, right next to that greeny yellow that really harmonizes very well. Just the lightest of touches. So I'm mixing some green appetite there with the handsome yellow deep a nice warm green. I'm just wondering what it would be like with a little bit of the creamy yellow in it. So I'm going to use a fresh brush the clean brush because I might want to go back to the yellow. So let's add some sea curves to the center of the yellow flowers. It's the simplest of centers, and it looks so effective. And maybe some dots. Maybe both. Turning my page round just so that I get an overview of the whole as we go along. I'm just adding some tiny little leaves to these stems now, little side sweep. A smaller version of what we were doing with the flowers. So I'm going back to the pigma micron. And I'm just going to work on these little yellow flowers over here. Adding a stem. So I'm noticing here that one side of my page is slightly more knit together on the left there and the right is more spaced out. So I know then that I need to add a bit more detail to the right side. But we'll work on that slowly. So I'm now adding those little leaves to this little cluster of flowers. Tip down, and then gently on the side of the brush, bring it up to a tip again. I think once you've got this side sweep movement, you will use it a lot. It's so cute. And I don't want to forget this little cluster here. And putting them around the petals, as well as on the stem. And this is just that mix of green appetite and handsy yellow deep. It's no wonder, really that my doodles get quite complicated. And that's because I can't stop. It's it's very relaxing, very enjoyable. And just doing these little V shaped leaves. What really makes a pie so prey is varying all these little styles of leaves and the size, the color, and the hue. And these can go over existing leaves as well. And if you wanted to, you could use your pigma micron here instead of the brush. Just wondering now, what next? So I'm just going over to add a few little dots further out from the center. When we look at the whole, we don't always see all the tiny details. And when someone's looking on to one of our paintings, they're not quite sure why it works. But the reason why it works is we have variety. We have different hues, we have different values, and a great attention to detail, and not to forget, hopefully, the fun and the relaxation involved. So shall we move on to Doodles P two? I think we. 5. Doodling With Pen & Pencil Part 2 : So I've got the pigma micron again and joining up these lovely tocisy tropical leaves. And I'm just doing the same really as I did with the green leaves. And I'm just drawing the pen down like one line, like the vein of the leaf. And I like to go beyond the leaf a little bit. Some of them, I'm going right round. And also going around some of these leaves just to define them a little bit more. When I've got a weaving leaf like that ribony leaf. I tried to go with the feel of the leaf, so I'll also wiggle my pen a little bit. And I wanted to go round all of that one. Defining the leaf on the top also helps to separate out those two leaves. The same here with our large green leaves, wiggly line. Start to define the leaves that we feel weren't thoroughly defined with the paint. So there again, I have a leaf going over another one. So I've just defined the top one. So I'm going back to the mix that we had of rose Mudder and olive green, and I've added some of the blue to it. I wanted more of a kind of a gray color. And now what I'm doing is working on what I noticed earlier, which was that the left side is more detail than the right. So what I'm doing is I'm just choosing a very simple leaf, using all of the colors really, apart from the yellow. And just to fill in some of these spaces and start to balance the whole painting. And it already is starting to look more balanced with the left. This is a simple trick. I find it very useful, just to go in with very soft leaves and just dropping in a slightly darker hue to the base. Just adding a couple more. Mixing up some of the hands yellow deep now. And I'm going to add a few extra leaves to this grouping here. And again, that will start to work to fill out this half of the page. And I'm adding stems and little leaves to these neutral gray leaves that we added. Tiny little stem, tiny little leaf. It's amazing how just these simple details can really bring balance. So I'm really happy now. I think it's very challenging when you're working on a detailed painting like this. It's so easy to lose perspective. So back to my pencil now, and I just want to outline some of these petals. Pencil is always very gentle. I'm not keen on that little line there, so I'm just going to rub that out. So, yes, I use pencil quite a lot because it's nice and subtle. So I think I'm going to go round most of these little violet or lilac flowers. You can see how painting a more watery flower, it leaves us open then to lots of doodling ideas. So out with the rose mad again. When we're thinking about interior design, for example, it's 2010. 70% your main focus, 20% of your supporting color or texture, and 10% final details, just tiny little touches. I'm using that here and bringing it over to this class. Now I feel that I'm on the 10%, and I'm just going to add these tiny little rose madder petals, We have the leaves, the main event. We have the flowers, which are the Support Act, the 20%, and we have the finishing details like this for the 10%. I generally use a very warm, soft green for this. But because this is mostly leaves, some have got out of green, I felt like a pink would be nice and balancing. I'm echoing those tiny little leaves that we did earlier with the rose Mudder. I'm back using that pointed filbert, which is so good for these little throwaway petals like confetti. And the pressure on the brush decides the length of the petal. So just a tiny little touchdown would be these minute little pink petals. And if we pushed more, it would be more elongated. Trust in your eyes here. You eyes will automatically pick out areas that have white space where you might need to just add these little details. I just wanted to point out again how easily we can bring a painting back into balance by adding more details to one side of the page to balance with the other. So casting my eye over the whole painting now. And just thinking about what I might want to just bring to the fore with a little bit more pencil. Lots of little lines on that petal. I love doing that. Such a nice doodle. So now just moving to and fro from the brush, the pencil, and the pen. And that's enough. I'm really happy with it. 6. Thank You! :O): Thanks so much for joining me in this class, leafy doodles. We've touched on different leaf shapes and colors, pretty little flowers, and we've also been mindful of how we've spaced our motifs across the page, starting with the larger ones, then adding our flowers through to the finishing touches. But perhaps the most important part of this class is the doodling because doodling calms us. And if there was one thing I wanted to achieve in this class is that I've been able to provide some calm and tranquility away from the challenges of life. That's what I feel doodling is all about, just getting really engrossed and experiencing flow time. I usually sign off from my classes by saying goodbye, but this is actually the beginning. So I look forward so much to your projects, and also just your feedback on the class, what you've enjoyed most, what you've struggled with, and we can all support each other. I really enjoy that aspect of skill share. And I hope you feel really supported, not just by me, but by the Skillshare community. So I shan't say goodbye. I'll just see you over in class discussions and overall Instagram. In the meantime, take really good care of yourself. Thanks again. 7. Sienna - BONUS lesson - Leaves: Uh, U U U, Oh. Oh. Oh. Yeah. U U Yeah. Yeah. M U 8. Sienna - BONUS Lesson - Flowers: Oh. O oh. 9. Sienna - BONUS Lesson - More Flowers: O. M. A De De a O O Oh Oh. Oh 10. Sienna - BONUS Lesson - Doodles: Oh. Oh O Oh. Oh. Uh 11. Sienna - BONUS Lesson - More Doodles!: Oh h a Oh living in a a Oh. T Oh O