Minimal Watercolor Botanicals: Paint Simplified and Stylised Leaves and Florals

1. Intro: Hey there nature-loving creative! Do you have a constant desire to paint every leaf and flower that you see? Me too. I love to make botanical illustrations in a stylised and minimalistic way. I'm Devika, an artist, illustrator and surface pattern designer from India. I'm also the artist behind the art brand, The Artsychoke. I have always loved painting and back in 2018 I took a huge leap of faith, put a stop to my architecture career and started making art, hoping to make it a full-time job. Today, in addition to selling paintings, I also license my work on print on demand websites like Society6, Redbubble, and Teepublic. If you go through my art portfolio you will see a lot of different kinds of art like abstract acrylics, watercolor landscapes, architectural illustrations and botanical paintings. But if I had to pick a favourite theme to paint it would always be botanical illustrations. I love to make nature inspired art - be it a hand painted floral pattern or a digital one, or minimalistic watercolor paintings like the ones I will teach you in this class. This is my fourth Skillshare class and I'm so thrilled to have you here. We will start the class by talking about the class project and the list of supplies that you will need. Then we will explore some brush control techniques and how to gather inspiration for your paintings. After that, we will paint a variety of leaves and florals in watercolors. We will not cover any complex techniques of layering or shading using watercolors in this class. Instead, the class primarily focuses on teaching some essential brush control techniques that are required to make those smooth curvy profiles that we often see in nature And to look at reference images of flowers and leaves and to paint simplified and sometimes stylized versions of them. This class is suitable for all levels and is especially beginner friendly. And if you are a beginner who's also looking to get a better hang of brush control, look no further. I have included four practice sheets with exercises that are specially designed for you to practice and improve hand control. These exercises are ideal for beginners, but they're also great for you even if you are an established artist, as you can use them to warm up before you start painting anything. You will find this class useful if you're looking for an easy introduction to botanical illustrations, or if you're someone who loves to send out beautiful nature inspired greeting cards and notes that you've painted yourself. This class is also great for you if you are someone who loves to paint as a hobby, but don't get much time to do so. These illustrations are super simple and effortless, but impactful at the same time. What you will learn in this class will help you design your own bookmarks, greeting cards, gift tags and envelopes, journals, or even art that you can frame and display at home. When you're done with this class you will have a set of beautiful leaves and florals that you've painting in watercolors, and much more confidence in using a paintbrush. So, what are you waiting for? Let's get started! I will meet you in the next video. 2. Class Project: Your project for this class, if not already obvious is to paint as many leaves and flowers as you like. You are of course, free to paint the same leaves and flowers that I do through the class. But I would love to see something different. I'd like to see something that you loved and choose to paint. To make your job easier I have created a Pinterest board with images of leaves and flowers in two sections. Feel free to use these images as reference. We will in fact be using some of these images in the class. You can find the practice sheets that I designed under the projects and resources section. Download them and practice these templates as much as you want before you start painting. I will also be showing you some more exercises in addition to these practice sheets in the coming lessons. And once you've finished your illustrations, upload them to the projects gallery by clicking the Create Project button. And I would love to get some insight into your painting process. So feel free to upload some process images as well. I can't wait to see your pretty botanicals. 3. Supplies: Time to gather all the supplies you'll need for this class. So the first item on the list is paper. Now, I always, always use 300 gsm thick watercolor paper. For absolute beginners - gsm stands for grams per square meter and refers to the thickness of the paper. So higher the gsm, the thicker, and heavier the paper will be. 300 is kind of medium thickness and is ideal for watercolor, and anything lesser than 300 would buckle when you use watercolors on them. So make sure the paper you uses is at least 300 gsm thick. Some other qualities I look for in my paper are that it's cold pressed and acid free. Cold pressed paper has a nice mildly rough texture which I quite like. This is just a preference and you're free to use any paper, even rough or hot pressed paper, which has a fine smooth finish. But watercolors dry faster on hot pressed paper so keep that in mind while you work on your paintings. I would advise you to make sure your paper is acid free, especially if you want to keep your paintings for a long time as acid free paper last longer and will not turn yellow time. In this class, I'm using 300 gsm cold pressed watercolor paper from Canson. You can of course use any brand you'd like. Next, you'll need watercolors. The only thing I look for in my watercolors is that they're artists grade. In my years of working with and trying out different quality and brands of watercolors, I've realized that it's best to choose artist grade watercolors as they are a lot more pigment, behaves better on paper and lasts longer without fading. But these are things you need to consider mostly if you plan to sell your art. If you're just a hobbyist, definitely don't worry about these factors. We will obviously be using a lot of green for the leaves. Mostly sap green, since it's my favorite shade of green. You can actually use any shade of green you'd like. And for the flowers, we will use some bright colors like red, yellow, magenta, blue, et cetera. You don't need to strictly stick to the colors I use in the class. The color of your flower is totally up to you to decide. In fact, I want you to know that you can give any color even for the leaves. It doesn't strictly have to be green. You are free to choose your own color palette of watercolor for this class. You will also need a palette to mix your paints. So I have my palette filled here with watercolors from different brands. If you don't have a palette, don't worry. Just use an old dinner plate or a lid. You will need two round brushes for this class, one medium-sized and one thin brush. For the longest time I have used regular non-branded brushes I picked up from my local art store. But a friend recently gifted me this Princeton long head script brush, and I love it. So I'll be using this as my medium-sized brush. It's a script brush, meaning it has longer bristles than a regular round brush. And it's in size four. The other brush I'll use is this liner brush from a local brand, and it's in size double zero double zero. But honestly you don't need a script brush or a liner brush for this class. You can easily get the job done with any regular round brushes. Just use one medium and one thin brush. Next you'll need a jar or cup of water and some tissue papers or paper napkins. Alright, so that's all with the supplies list. Let's move on to the next video where I will show you some brush control exercises. 4. Brush Control Exercises: In this video, we will explore some brush control exercises. This is the stage where you'd want to work on those practice sheets. If you haven't already downloaded them, you can do so by clicking the link on the right under the Projects and Resources section. Now these exercises are especially designed for beginners to practice and improve hand control. It starts with very basic line movements and then proceeds to slightly more advanced strokes like curved lines. These practice sheets are pretty simple and straightforward to use. But if you do need detailed explanations on how to use them, I have covered them in my previous Skillshare class, Botanical Illustration: Painting a Simple Indian Floral Pattern in Gouache. I explain each exercise in detail and give lots of tips on how to control your hand movements and pressure for getting different line types and strokes. So I highly recommend you to take these classes while using the practice sheets. The only difference is that in that class I use gouache paints. But that really doesn't change anything for you in this class. Once you have completed the practice sheets, we can proceed to some additional exercises which are more specifically relevant for this class. Ideally should do these second set of exercises after completing the practice sheets, because some of these exercises are evolved versions of the exercises you'll do in the practice sheets. Alright, if you've completed your practice sheets let's move on to the second set of exercises. I'll be using my medium-size brush for these. For the first one, I'm going to draw a single vertical line with the tip of my brush. And then I'm going to draw these small angular lines on either side of the line. I'll complete one side first and then move on to the other. But that's not a rule and you can do both sides together as well. Do whatever you're most comfortable with. Now, try to keep all of these little lines the same length and parallel to each other. Now if you want these lines to sort of taper out towards the end or be more pointy you can start your strokes from the vertical line and outwards, rather than the other way around. Like this. This way you are using the drag and lift technique we learned earlier. And you can move your paper around as you want. Okay, now let's try the same with the small lines in the opposite direction. So instead of them slanting upwards, they all point downwards. And same as before, to get pointy lines, start your stroke from the vertical line and use the drag and lift method downward. Alright, that's done. Now let's make this a bit more interesting and try to give these little strokes on a curved central line. So I'm drawing a thin curved line like this. And give the outward strokes along the curve. Try to keep the strokes the same length. There. We're done. Now let's do this exercise with the lines getting longer towards the bottom. So I draw a thin vertical line and start giving these small downward strokes. And I make each stroke longer than the previous one. And that's done. And I do the same thing again with the strokes in the opposite direction as well. All these exercises we do now are going to help us paint different types of leaves in our coming lessons. Okay, let's try a new brushstroke now. What I'm doing is touch just the tip of the brush first and move it slowly downward. And as I move down, I press down, drag it, and then lift it up off the paper to get a pointed tip down as well. Now let's try that again. Touch the tip of the paper, press down and drag, and then lift up. Do it a few times to get the hang of it. Now let's do the same stroke in the horizontal direction. So touch the tip of the brush, press down and drag it to the right or left if you want, and just lift your brush off the paper. Do this exercise also a few times. Now I want you to try this brush stroke in an angle. Slowly press and drag and move your hand upwords in an angle, like that. And you already have a leaf. Let's do this a few times as well. And now in the other direction like that. And we do that also a few times. Alright, now for the next exercise, we combine the two previous exercises we did - the strokes with the central line and this press and drag technique. So I'm drawing a thin central vertical line and I'm giving these angular brushstrokes on either side of it instead of the small straight lines. Press, drag and lift. Now on the other side as well. And feel free to turn your paper around whenever you feel the need to do so. I usually turn my paper around a lot when I sketch or paint something, so it's actually quite hard for me to keep it stationary. I'm trying to do it as much as I can for this class. Okay, that's done. And look at that - we have a small twig of leaves. Now if you want, you can do the same thing on a curved line. Draw a thin curved line, and give these press and drag little strokes on either side. And that's a very basic leaf bunch for you. I want to show you two more exercises before we wrap up this lesson. So the second last one is a modification of these wavy lines we did on the practice sheets. So instead of drawing these lines in one uniform pressure, I'm going to vary the pressure a little. Applying more pressure as I move to the left and releasing as I move the brush to the right. I'm basically doing the drag and release technique in a continuous wavy sequence. And now I'm doing the same thing in the opposite direction. I'm applying a little more pressure on the paper every time I move my brush to the right and release it as I move to the left. Now the last exercise is super simple. I'm just going to draw a circle and fill it up with paint. So I'm drawing the outline of the circle first and then I put a blob of paint and just drag and spread that paint around the whole circle. This is how you get an even wash of paint. I'm drawing some more circles of different sizes and doing the same. Now you could also take a darker shade of the green and slightly dab in some of it close to one edge of the circle. It kind of adds some drama and depth to the circle. And it doesn't just have to be a darker shade. You can also add in a lighter shade, or even an entirely different color. Everything is interesting, so keep trying and let your imagination flow. And it's best to do this while the paint is still wet so that the new paint you add blends in well with the first coat. And that was the last of the brush control exercises. I hope after the practice sheets and all these exercises, you feel a lot more confident in using a paintbrush. In addition to getting you comfortable while using a paintbrush, the goal of these exercises is also to give you a sense of confidence painting directly with a paintbrush, rather than having to make a pencil sketch first. Alright, now that we've covered all the exercises, Let's move on to the next video where we talk about how to gather inspiration for your paintings. 5. Gathering Inspiration: Now as a nature lover, I always look to nature first for inspiration. I love to go out in my garden and click a few leaves and flowers. But it's winter here right now and there's hardly any flower blooming in my garden. If you are in a sunnier part of the world and have a few flowers blooming in your garden, Do go out and pluck them along with some leaves you find interesting. I did manage to pluck a few leaves for my sad looking garden and I'll be using these as reference for my paintings. Here's a useful tip - Always click pictures of flowers and leaves you pluck before they start to wilt. I clicked pictures of these leaves as soon as I plucked them because I know they will start to wilt soon. This really helps me paint at my own pace rather than having to rush to paint them before they start to wilt. This way, if they do wilt by the time I get to painting them, I can just look at the picture and can avoid another trip to the garden in the cold. Additionally, I can use these images as reference in the future for any project. It always helps to have a library of images. One thing to keep in mind while clicking pictures, especially for the kind of botanical illustrations that we'll do in this class is to preferably click flatly images. Flatly images are basically pictures that are clicked directly above the subject. Place your flower or leaf on a plain flat surface and click a clear bright picture. I usually place them on a regular A4 paper or even watercolor paper. Now for anyone who doesn't have a garden, you can always look at the Internet for inspiration. The best place to look for images is Pinterest. And if you want copyright-free images, you can look at websites like Pixabay, Pexels, Unsplash, etc. Alternatively, you can just do a Google image search. Use clear specific keywords. Some great examples of keywords are minimal botanical bunch, flowers close-up, leaves close-up, botanical flatly, simple leaf bunch, simple bunch of flowers etc. Remember, we're not painting a complex composition. So you don't want to use a complex looking image. The simpler the image, the easier it is to paint. And like I mentioned earlier, I have created a Pinterest board with a section each for leaves and flowers. And you can use these images as reference for your paintings. You can find the link to the board in the class description. All right, Now that we've covered how to gather material for inspiration, Let's move on to painting our leaves and flowers. I will meet you in the next video where we start with painting leaves. 6. Painting Leaves Part 1: We will first illustrate the leaves I plucked from my garden and then move on to some images I found on Pinterest. Let's start with this fern here. I'm using my medium brush for this one. I load my brush with sap green and then draw that central vertical line first and then start painting the leaves. I start with the smaller ones on top and move downward. And as I move down, I make each pair of leaf bigger than the previous pair above it. Now when you look at the image, you'll see that the top few leaves are folded, but I'm just going to keep things very simple for us and draw flat leaves. Keep making them bigger. I draw the outline of the leaf first and then fill it up with paint. This is an application of the last exercise we did in the previous lesson. Now just to add some interest I'm dabbing in some darker green to these leaves. And I'm painting the next leaf also with this darker green. I like to vary the shades of green as it adds a little drama to complement the simplicity of the illustration. I can keep adding leaves on either side, but I'm stopping here and extending the stem a little down so it sticks out a little. Alright, our first leaf painting is done. The original fern leaf is tall and slender, but ours is a shorter and fatter version of it. The next illustration is going to be a variation of the one we just did. Instead of rounded leaves, I'm going to paint pointed leaves on this one. So again, I start with a thin central line. And this time I'm making it slightly angled. And then I start painting those pointy leaves on either side. And just like in the first leaf, I make each pair longer than the previous. I switch to a darker green somewhere along the middle. And there's really no method to it. I switch up shades of green whenever I feel like it. And we'll be doing this in almost all of the leaf paintings. I'm just finishing up the last pair of leaves. And there, we are done with this one too. Let's move on to our third leaf painting. Now this one has these little rounded leaves. It's a pretty simple composition. So I'm going to draw the central stem first and then the smaller ones branching out from it. This is actually how I start all my illustrations. I identify a main central branch, draw that first, then paint little branches on it, and finally add in the leaves. I find this method works best for me to understand the composition and make the process of painting it easier. So now that I've painted the branches, I start painting the leaves. I don't try to recreate the composition as it is, I'm just using it as a vague reference. I'm also adding in a few dabs of darker green here and there. Now I don't really like this branch ending left empty like that So I'm just adding a leaf there. And one up here as well. I still feel the whole composition looks a little unbalanced so I'm adding a couple of leaves more. Okay, I'm happy with this one now. Alright, ready for the fourth leaf? I'm using a lighter shade of green for this one. So I'm mixing a little bit of yellow to the sap green. And same as before, I draw the central line first. I'm painting this one vertical instead of slanted. And then onto the leaves. These leaves have this teardrop like shape so I'm painting them that way. And I draw the outline first and fill them in. Painting leaves on either side of the stem. And they get darker in color towards the stem so I'm dabbing in some dark green there. I'm painting one more row of leaves and adding in dark green and all of them. Now this looks a little too plain to me, so I'm going to add in some more detail. I'm taking my thin liner brush for this and drawing little stems on either side of the main stem. And then I'm adding these little berry-like elements. I'm painting them in green itself because I like to keep it monochromatic. I feel it retains the minimalistic character of the painting. And this leaf is finished as well. You see how we spruced up this rather plain looking leaf by adding some contrast in the green and accessorizing it a little bit? The next leaf painting is a slight variation of this previous one. This time, instead of the tear drop shape leaves, I'm going to paint more typical leaf like shapes with pointy ends. And for this, we're going to use the press-drag-lift exercise from the last lesson. I'm drawing the central stem. And then I'm giving these angular strokes. Press, drag and lift. I want the leaves bigger and fatter on this than what I can get with just one stroke of the brush so I'm sort of scaling up the exercise here by using two strokes instead of one to get the shape of the leaf. I first define the shape with an outline and then fill it up with paint. And I'm going to give the leaves on the other side of the stem. Same way, two strokes and a fill for each leaf. And done. The sixth leaf is super pretty and has these little butterfly wing shaped little leaves. I'm using a darker shade of green for this one so I'm mixing some viridian green with the sap green. And I start drawing these very casual butterfly wing shapes starting from one point. Hm, they kinda look like hearts too! Butterfly wings or hearts, whatever they look like to you, go for it. I'm filling in my butterfly wings with paint. And it's alright if your brush goes a little outside the outline, you can just modify the whole outline with your brush. Now I'm drawing this very curved stem for it as well. And then dab in some darker green towards the corner of the leaves. I want to add one more leaf on the side because this one looks a little too lonely. So I'm just drawing another leaf here. And just like the first one, drawing the outline first and then filling them up. And lastly, I add another stem like this connecting the two leaves. Finishing this off with some dark color dabs. And our sixth leaf illustration is done. For the next leaf, I'm taking inspiration from the one we just painted. I want these little butterfly wings on either side of a single stem. So I start with the central stem and then paint in those butterfly wings on either side. Now there isn't much we can do to add some kind of interest to this illustration. So what I do is I just vary the shades of green here and there. And that's done as well. For the next leaf, I will be using my thin liner brush because it's got these little thin pointy leaves. I'm taking a lighter green on my brush and start with the one central line and pick a few smaller branches I want and draw those. And now, I'm just giving these small little lines all along the branches, starting with the main central one. Remember the first exercise we did in the second set of brush control exercises? This one is essentially the same strokes, but here, don't try to make the strokes parallel or same length. Vary them up. Give the lines a little more haphazardly. And you can even give them one on top of the other at different angles. This adds some thickness to the whole leaf bunch. And as I progress, I vary the shades of green. Like here I'm using a darker green. You can move the paper around whenever you feel the need to do so. I'm moving onto the smaller branches and given these little lines on those as well. And finally, I finish off by adding a few dark green strokes here and there to give a sense of depth. 7. Painting Leaves Part 2: Alright, we've painted all the leaves I collected from the garden. And now let's paint a few from the Pinterest board I created. You will find all the images in the leaves section of the board and some more images you can use also. Now let's see. Let's start with this palm leaf. I'm going back to my medium brush for this. And as always, I start with a thin central line and then start giving typical press-drag-lift strokes for each leaf. I drag them out a little more to get these longer leaves. You can see that I'm not copying the image. I'm just using it as a reference and painting a more wavy, stylized version of the leaves. I make the leaves longer as I move down. And finishing it up with this leaf, that's curving in a different way to give a feeling of movement to the whole leaf. Let's try painting the same palm leaf in a little more stylized way. I'm opening up the leaves a lot more and really exaggerating those curves. I'm also making them intersect and flow over each other. I'm using the same press-drag-lift motion here and just adding more fluidity to my strokes. There. Isn't that beautiful? I love it! Next image is this delicate looking bunch with little simple pointy leaves. I'm switching back to my thin brush for this painting. So let's simplify the composition. I see one main branch, two smaller branches on the left, and another one on the right. So I draw those. And then I start painting the leaves. These leaves are small ,oval with pointed tips on either end, kind of like the shape of an eye. Adding in some darker green now by mixing the sap green with some viridian green. By the way, if you don't have viridian green, you can just add some blue to your green to get a darker shade. Likewise, if you want to make your green lighter, mix it with some yellow. I'm painting over a couple of leaves to get more depth to the painting. I don't worry about the paint smudging. But if it's something that you don't like, you can just wait till the leaves are completely dry before painting over with them. Alright, let's move on to the next illustration. Our reference image this time is an olive branch. I'm using my medium brush for this one because the leaves are bigger on this. Starting with the central branch and then moving on to the leaves. Olive leaves have this long oblong shape, with the ends extending out to join the main branch. After painting the first couple of leaves in sap green, I'm adding a bit of olive green to the sap green for the next few leaves. If you don't have olive green color, you can make some up by adding burnt sienna, which is a brown to sap green. You could paint the whole branch in olive green, considering it's an olive branch. But I'm personally not a big fan of olive green so I'm just adding in a tint of it here and there in this illustration. I quite like that all the leaves in this picture are pointed in different directions. Let's paint one leaf in front of this one. That should do it. Now, instead of the olives I'm going to give small berries growing out of the main branch. So I'm taking my thin brush for this and drawing these little stems from either side of the main branch. And adding these little green berries. Actually I think I'll make some bigger than the other. This makes it a lot more interesting. Now, like I said earlier, you can paint these berries in some other color and it doesn't have to be green. In fact, let's just quickly paint one branch with colorful berries. I'm painting an upright branch with the same type of leaves. And I'm adding the small branches. Now I'm taking some red color in my brush and painting little berries with it. There. That's super pretty as well. So it's up to you to keep your illustrations monochromatic or colorful like this one. Let's paint this little branch of leaves. You are familiar with the process now. That's right, draw the central line first and then the leaves. I'm giving the same type of leaves we painted earlier, but much smaller this time. And I try to vary the direction of the leaves as much as possible. So we get this thin delicate strand of leaves. And as always, don't forget to use different shades of green. Alright, let's see which leaves to paint next. I quite like this one. I'm mixing up some dark green on my brush and painting that main branch. And I slightly increase the pressure on the brush as I drag down to make the branch a little thicker there. Then I'm painting the little branches which connect to the leaves. And after that, I switch to the medium brush to paint the leaves. The leaves have these irregular circular shapes so I'll draw those and then fill them in. And once I'm done with that, I take my thin brush again and paint these little stems and add in the buds at the tip. Giving the buds in green, no surprises there. I feel like there's too much gap here so I'm just adding a small stem here as well. And done. The last leaf illustration we will do is yet again, that of an olive branch. I'm using my thin brush for this and drawing the central line, slowly increasing the pressure to make the line thicker as I move down. And I'm painting the first leaf up here. Then the second leaf in a darker shade. Now I'm adding in some branches and then painting the rest of the leaves. Just like I did with the rest of the illustrations, I'm picking some leaves here and there from the reference image instead of copying all the leaves. I want to balance the composition out a little bit, so I'm adding some more leaves here. And this illustration is complete as well. So we have painted all our leaf illustrations. Are you ready to paint the florals now? Let's proceed to the next video for that. 8. Painting Florals Part 1: In this video, we will illustrate some florals from a few reference images I saved from the website Pexels. The first image is of this yellow floral bunch. I'm taking my thin brush, loading it with sap green and drawing a thin central line for that stem. And I'm drawing these little stems sticking out from either side of this main stem. Now I'm drawing these tiny triangles for the lower green part of the flower, which connects to the stem called receptacles. By the way, I had no clue that these parts were called receptacles and I had to Google it for this class. So yeah, I learned something new myself while teaching this class. Those are done. Now I'm taking my medium brush to paint the petals. Loading some yellow on it. And I'm painting these oval shaped petals above each receptacle. They're not strictly oval-shaped petals. I'm actually just using a few strokes to get a vague petal shaped blob there. And I'm leaving tiny gaps between the petals and the receptacles because the green paint is still wet and I don't want the yellow mixing with it. You can see that here again, I'm not replicating the reference image. I pick the prominent features of the floral bunch, like the stem, the receptacles and the petals. And I illustrate them in a simplified style. Alright, I'm just adding in a few details with my thin brush, just to fill up those empty spaces. There you go, first floral illustration is done. The second illustration is going to be of these pretty little buttercups. I'm mixing a lighter shade of green on my thin brush for this. And I'm drawing these multiple stems which bend and point in different directions, just like in the picture. Now these flowers don't really have prominent receptacles, but I'm painting them anyway because I like them. So I paint a receptacle at the tip of each stem. Next, I'm adding in some loose curvy strokes to fill up all that space between the stems. I see those little green buds in the image. And I'm modifying them a little and painting them like this. I also make sure they're evenly distributed across the illustration. Time to paint the petals now. Instead of yellow, I'm going to paint them in a magenta color. So I'm taking some magenta in my thin brush and painting these small rectangular shapes for each petal. Just like in the previous illustration, I paint them very close to the receptacles but don't touch them. Now I know buttercups have five petals, but I'm just painting four here. Giving these small rectangles above the receptacle. 1, 2, 3 and 4.Like that I'm finishing up all the flowers. I also want to add in some flower buds and I'm painting single rectangles here and there for that. Adding some stem to these buds. And we're done. Let's paint this bunch of baby's breath flowers. I'm taking sap green on my thin brush and drawing the branches first. Drawing the main central one, and I'm increasing the pressure a little towards the bottom to make the stem thicker there. Then I'm painting the smaller stems that branch out. I'm going to paint these flowers as well in magenta, but I'm using a very diluted version of the color, so I'm mixing it up with a lot of water. And I'm just dabbing in random small dots for the flowers. I'm giving a cloud-like shape filled with dots for each cluster of flowers. Trying to cover one whole bunch with dots. That bunch is complete and I'm moving on to the others. Keep giving random dots with your brush. Now there's no particular pattern to this and they don't have to be precise dots at precise distances apart. And don't be afraid to dab your brush over areas that you've already covered. Be as random as possible in giving the dots. And if you want, you can take a darker shade of the color and dab a little over some regions already painted to give a nice shading effect. I'm finishing up the other bunches as well. I feel like this bunch is too thin so I am adding some more dots to make the whole cluster bigger. And that is it. Super simple. For the next illustration, I want to paint the same bunch, and this time I want to make the clusters of flowers more segregated, similar to what we see in the image. So just like earlier, I start with the central stem and the smaller branches. This time I'm choosing blue for my flowers. So I'm taking very diluted ultramarine blue and making small bunches with dots. It's the same process as the previous illustration. But here, instead of painting the whole cluster of flowers in one big cloud of dots, we're painting each little flower bunch separately. And this illustration is complete as well. Let's paint this stem of flowers and leaves. I'm using my medium brush for this one. So I'm going to draw the central stem and the leaves first, and then the flowers. I start with the stem, and then draw some leaves. You're quite familiar with this now, we painted very similar leaf illustrations earlier. And now I'm drawing small stem sticking out from the central one. This reminds me of the olive branch illustration we painted earlier with little berries between the leaves. It's very similar to that, but instead of berries, I'm going to paint flowers here. The flowers are going to be red this time. So I'm taking some red on my brush. And I'm painting these simple three-petal flowers at the end of each stem. So there, that's our illustration based on this image. You see how we looked at a rather crowded composition and simplified the whole thing into our own minimalistic interpretation. Let's move on to these little blue lilies. I'm switching back to my thin brush. And I'm using a darker shade of green, so adding a tint of viridian to my sap green. And as usual, I start with the central stem. And draw the little stems which are bending down from either side of the central stem, because most of these flowers are facing downwards. I also paint little receptacles here. Then I take some blue and paint that bud right on top, and then move on to the flowers. The flowers have this bell-like shape so I paid those. A little bell-shape with pointed ends. And then another pointed petal in the center. I also make sure I leave a tiny bit of gap between the receptacle and the flower to avoid the blue and green mixing. Now if you don't want to leave this gap, you can just wait till the receptacle is dried to paint the flowers. I'm finishing up this illustration with some leaves here and there. Next we're going to paint this bunch of daisies. Similar to the buttercup illustration, I start painting a few stems which bend in different directions. A few of them intersect as well. Then I paint the receptacles. And some grass-like leaves to fill up the empty gaps between the long stems. Now I'm taking some violet in my brush and giving these little lines starting from the receptacles. Give small short strokes of similar length. Similar being the keyword. Don't make them all exactly the same length. We want them to look more natural and organic. Imagine painting a thick short crown of hair for the receptacles. I'm starting my strokes right from the receptacles and not leaving a gap between them here, because I know the green has already dried up, so the paints won't mix. Alright, this illustration is done as well. 9. Painting Florals Part 2: Let's now paint some flowers I've pinned on the Pinterest board. You can find all these images along with others in the Flowers section of the board. The first image is of these tulips. I'm using my thin brush to mix a light green and then draw two stems. I'm also painting receptacles. You've probably guessed by now that I love to paint these receptacles even when they're not there in the reference image. I don't know, I feel they're a nice feature to add on to the flowers. Right, now I'm taking my medium brush to paint the leaves. And once I'm done with the leaves, I'm mixing a little bit of orange with red to get a nice coral-like shade and painting the flowers. I'm changing up the tulips a little. And I'm adding a little bit of red here to give a darker shade. I feel the stem looks a little too long and empty so I'm adding a few green lines with a thin brush here and there. Okay this one's turned into a whole new leaf but that's okay. I'm going to stop myself before I overdo it. And done. Next, we're going to illustrate this image. I don't know what these flowers are called, to be honest. They kind of look like orchids but I'm not sure if they are. Anyway, let's get to painting them. Their structure is very similar to the blue lilies we painted earlier. And I start with painting that central stem with my thin brush. And then little stems on either side of it. And of course, receptacle. To get that lavender shade, I'm adding a little bit of blue to violet. And I'm starting with the petals. There's mostly two petals visible for each flower. And they have this hoof-like shape. I'm finishing up the petals. And then adding a couple of leaves. It looks complete now. I can totally imagine this illustration on a bookmark! Our ninth illustration is going to be this - lilies of the valley. I'm sticking to my thin brush and drawing the central stem that's drooping down. Then these little side stems that are drooping down as well. I'm also painting these little pointy projections that are seen on all of the stems. Now I'm going to paint the lilies in yellow. I start with small flowers on top and then make them bigger as I move down the stem. The shape of these flowers remind me of a Disney princess skirt! Or they can be little bells. Finishing it up with a single statement leaf. And maybe one more down here. For our tenth illustration, I'm picking this bunch of pretty little flowers. As always I'm going to start with the central stem and then the little branches, and then the leaves and flowers. So drawing the stem with my thin brush. I'm using sap green here. And yes, I am painting little receptacles at the tip of all the stems. Now some leaves. They're like these little branchy leaves. Time to paint the flowers now. And I'm painting them in violet. Now, making these flowers similar to the buttercups we painted earlier. But instead of four petals I'm giving them five petals. You can start with one little rectangle right above the receptacle, and then paint two petals each on either side of it, like that. One middle petal and two on either side of it. Let me finish that up. Now because I'm painting a very small area I don't want my brush to be overloaded with paint, so I dab off excess paint from the brush on a tissue paper. This prevents a large blob of paint coming onto the paper and messing with my flowers. I'm adding a few more leaves wherever I feel there's too much empty space. And our tenth floral illustration is complete. Let's paint one last illustration. I'm using my medium brush for this one. To get that mild orange. I'm adding a little bit of yellow to red. And I'm just painting a rough outline of the flower. Remember, it doesn't have to look exactly like the reference image. We're only painting something that looks like it. So don't stress on getting the shape of the flower perfect. I'm filling in the outline with paint. And I'm dabbing in a few drops of red color right at the center. Now I'm painting the smaller flower on the top right as well. Same way, drawing the outline first and then filling it in. And adding a tint of red there. Now I'm taking my thin brush, getting some sap green on it, and drawing the stems and buds. And then a couple of leaves. I also add a touch of the orange to the buds. Now this time I want them to merge with the green, so I don't wait till the green dries for this step. And I'm finishing up our last illustration by taking some brown and dabbing a few dots right at the center of both the flowers. So we have completed all the illustrations and with that, we've reached the end of this class. I will meet you in the coming video to wrap things up. 10. Conclusion: Congratulations on finishing the class. We started this class with some basics like those brush control exercises, which really set the base for painting not just leaves and flowers but anything really. I hope you feel a lot more confident using a paintbrush now. We then talked about how to get inspiration for your painting and then painted these beautiful minimalistic illustrations. I hope you enjoyed this class as much as I did creating it for you. If you need help or tips somewhere along the class, feel free to ask a question in the discussions panel and I'd be happy to answer them for you. Once you finish your illustrations, upload them to the project gallery. You can do this by clicking on the Create Project button. And if you decide to share your work on Instagram, make sure you tag me @the_artsychoke so I can reshare it. I love to show off my students' work. And don't forget to tag Skillshare. Your feedback is extremely important for me, so please take a moment to leave a review. This will also help me make better classes for you. You can also follow me here on Skillshare so you get a notification every time I publish a new class or make a new announcement. Thank you so much for taking this class and I can't wait to see your illustrations. Take care until next time. Bye. 11. Quick Update!: Hi again. I just wanted to update you guys on a new development. I am now offering 1-on-1 sessions. 1-on-1 sessions are great because they let you have a more focused, responsive and personalized learning experience. Pre-recorded classes are great, but sometimes they lack that personalized touch which can make all the difference in your learning journey. In a 1-on-1 one session, the focus is entirely on you, your strengths, your goals, and your areas of improvement. Every minute of the session is dedicated to your unique needs, and I'll be able to give you immediate guidance and feedback as and when required. I offer two different sessions. One is a 15 minute feedback session for any of my classes on Skillshare. So if you enjoyed this class and need a personalized feedback or need a little bit more help somewhere along the class, you can book a 1-on-1 session with me. You can show me your progress or ask me questions regarding the class and I'll help you out. The second session is a 30 minute session on finding inspiration for drawing botanicals. Over the 30 minutes, I will list and explain eight places to look for inspiration while drawing botanicals for your illustrations or patterns. Unlike pre- recorded classes or other online courses which follow a one size fits all approach, 1-on-1 sessions can be personalized to your specific needs and learning pace. To book a 1-on-1 session with me, just go to my Skillshare profile page. It's really an investment in your creative journey and I hope I can help you and guide you through that.