Paint Expressive Watercolor Sunflowers in 12 minutes : Simple Techniques for Stunning Results

1. About This Class: In this short session, we'll be painting these lovely sunflowers using simple watercolor techniques. I'll guide you through the process to help bring your sunflowers to life, giving them depth and dimension without looking flat, so they feel vibrant and full of character. By the end of this class, you will have a better understanding of how to create natural and dynamic looking sunflowers. So grab your brushes and let's dive in. 2. Supplies Needed For This Class: Before we begin, let's quickly go over the materials you need. I'll be using this Bao Hong Academy 100% cotton, co press watercolor paper in 300 GSM. This is roughly the size of an A four sheet. For our sunflower painting, I'll be cutting it in half to create an A five size. For best results, I recommend using a cotton based paper or at least one that is partially cotton. You can also use a lighter weight paper like a 200 GSM. Now, if you don't have any cotton paper but still want to join in, can use whatever watercolor paper you have on hand. Just keep in mind that your results may vary, especially with the wet on wet technique, as this technique works best on cotton paper. Now, for brushes, we'll use medium sized round brushes for most of our painting and smaller ones for finer details. For the medium brushes, I'll be using a size eight and size six round brush from silver black velvet and also this alter size two brush, which is similar in size to this size six silver black velvet brush. For finer details, I'll be using a size two round brush, but you can also use a size one. So feel free to use any brushes you have on hand. Next, you need a palette or plate for mixing colors, some paper towels to block excess paint and moisture from your brush, and some clean water for rinsing. And you will, of course, need watercolor paints. I'll walk you through the specific colors you'll be using in a sunflower painting lesson. 3. Before We Begin : Watercolor Techniques You Will Use: In this class, we'll be using two main techniques to paint our sunflower. The first technique is the wet on wet technique. So this involves applying wet paint onto a pre wet area or damp paper, allowing the colors to spread and blend smoothly without creating any harsh edges. So here, I've painted a sunflower center, and then I'm going to drop in some sepia while the paper is still wet, allowing the color to spread and blend smoothly without harsh edges. When using the wet on wet technique, the thickness of your paint mixture plays a key role. The more diluted the pain mixture, the more it spreads, while a thicker pain mixture stays more controlled. So now I'm going to drop in a thicker mix of sepia. And you can see that it doesn't spread as much as our previous mixture. So by adjusting the consistency, we can control how much the color flows and spreads on the wet surface. Ticker mixtures will stay more concentrated, while diluted mixtures will flow and blend more freely. So we'll use this technique to add beautiful color variation to the flower center, as well as to create depth dimension and textures. Next, we'll use the polling technique. This involves dragging out paint from a wet area to introduce color variation. For example, when the brown sunflower center is still wet, we can pull out some of the brown pigments as we paint our yellow petals. Allowing the brown to blend naturally into the yellow petals, creating a seamless transition of color, as well as adding some color variation to the petals. Now, it's important to note that we can only pull pigments from areas that are still wet, so to keep the center wet for the pulling technique, you can either add more paint to the center to prolong its wetness, or you can continue painting the petals and drop in more paint into the center as you go, keeping it wet enough for the color to blend into the petals. Alright, so we'll be using these two techniques to paint our sunflowers in the next lesson. Now, if you would like a more in depth lesson on watercolor techniques and brush strokes for painting sunflowers, do check out my other class on painting sunflowers. In that class, I go into greater detail on watercolor techniques and show you how to use your brush to create different brush strokes for painting sunflowers and leaves. You also learn how to paint sunflowers from different perspectives. This class complements what you're learning here and will help you further develop your watercolor skills. 4. Painting The Sunflowers: We are going to paint these beautiful sunflowers. I'll be using the following colors, but feel free to use any similar colors if you don't have these exact ones. Now for the petals, I'll be using primary yellow, permanent yellow deep and yellow ochre. We'll also be using yellow ochre for the flower center, along with sambn sienna and sepia. For the leaves, I'll be using green earth as my lighter green and shadow green as my darker green. Now, you can use any greens you have. Just make sure you have a lighter and darker shade to create depth and contrast. Alright, let's start with our flower center. I'm going to start with some yellow ochre. And I'll drop in a bit more pin to make sure it stays wet longer. Now, while this center is still wet, I'll drop in some Bn sienna along the edges and let it blend with the base layer. I'll also add a little more towards the middle. So here I'm using the wet on wet technique to create some subtle shading in the flower center. This adds depth and texture, making the center look more dimensional. All right. Now let's move on to the petals. We'll be using primary yellow, permanent yellow deep, and yellow ochre. Now, feel free to start with any color you like. The idea is to mix it up so that the petals have three different yellow tones. I'll be using permanent yellow deep and yellow ochre for most of the petals with primary yellow for just a few. But you're free to decide how to use each color. I've also painted some thin strokes between the petals to give them a wispy look. This adds a sense of movement to the petals. So by using three different yellow tones, we can create depth and a more natural look capturing how light and shadow vary across each petal. This also helps prevent the flower from looking flat. Now, since the center is still wet, we can pull some of that color into the petals as we paint. This further adds color variation in the petals. I now since the center is still wet, I'll drop some burnt sienna along the edges and lightly tap some in the middle. This will allow the color to blend naturally, creating some soft shadows that will add depth and dimension. Then with my sized toothbrush, I'll add some subtle shadows on the petals by adding a few delicate strokes here and there. Now for this step, the petals can either be dry or slightly damp. Both will give a nice effect. Alright, now let's darken the center with a bit of sepia to add contrast. I'm just lightly dabbing my brush on the paper, making sure to leave some areas of Burnsiena visible. This helps retain those warm tones, making the center look more interesting and dynamic. Now, let's paint the stem. I'll start with my lighter green, which is green earth. And I'll make the stem a bit thicker. Next, we'll paint a side view sunflower on the left, letting the stem overlap with our first sunflower. We'll vary the yellow tones for the petals using the same colours from our first sunflower. Now, feel free to start with any colors you prefer. I'll start with yellow ochre and then transition to my other yellow tones. A and for the shadows, I'll use a thicker mix of yellow ochre and burnt sienna. Okay, now let's add the saples. Since the petals are still a bit wet, I'll use a thicker mix of green to prevent it from spreading all over the petals. If you want more defined sepals, you can wait until the petals are completely dry before adding them. Next, I'll add some shadows to both stems by applying some shadow green on the left to create that now let's add some leaves to our sunflowers. We'll keep it simple with just a few leaves. I'll start with a larger leaf on our first sunflower. Here I'm using green earth to create a heart like shape by combining several brush strokes until I get the desired shape. And while this layer is still wet, I'll add a darker green to create shadows to create dimension and interest. Lastly, I'll paint two smaller leaves on the side view sunflower. Alright, now that the side flower is dry, I'll add some defined samples to give the flower a finished touch. Okay, so that wraps up our lesson on painting sunflowers. I hope you had fun and enjoyed the process. I would love to see how your sunflowers turn out, so feel free to share them in the project gallery. If you found this class helpful, I'd really appreciate it if you could leave a review. It will help others discover the class and support me in creating more lessons for you. Thank you and happy painting.