Paint Loose Watercolor Flowers Effortlessly with a Limited Palette

1. What's In Store for You: If this is a painting style that you've always wanted to try, then this class is for you. Let me share with you how I was able to achieve smooth background, control edges, organic marks, and work with a limited palette. Hi. I'm Bianca Lustre, an aspiring watercolor artist from Batangas, Philippines. My first floral paintings are far from my recent ones. But through the years of continuous learning through books, courses, workshops, competitions, and lots of failure, I am happy that I'm now able to paint loose florals with watercolors. In this class, let me share with you my process, starting from choosing my colors and swatching them, doing studies, practicing drills, and working on the actual project. I know that this approach works because my in person workshop students did the same class project. All of them are beginners, by the way. But of course, those of you who have a bit of experience with watercolors are welcome to join in the fun. Upon finishing this class, you can now choose your own reference photo with the same floral structure, do the same techniques discussed, to achieve a loose and soft painting style. If you're ready, prepare your materials, and let's get started. 2. Class Project: Our goal for this class is to paint a cluster of flowers loosely and effortlessly so that you get to enjoy the process instead of stressing over the results. To do that, we need to relieve some pressure by getting to know our colors and testing them, doing pencil and colored studies, practicing drills, and working on the class project step by step. Don't worry. I'll be with you all throughout the class. To complete the learning process, I'm looking forward to give you feedback on your work. But to do that, of course, I need to see your project. So please don't forget to upload yours using the projects Gallery tab. To get started, please download the class guide where you'll find the colors I used, a list of recommended materials, the photos of the project in different stages that you can use as a reference. Once ready, I'll see in the next video, and let's get started. We 3. Setup and Color Mixing: Here's my usual setup. I have my water jar here, paints over here, my palette. There are already colors because I've tried my colors earlier, and then this dirty sponge. It's a bit dirty, but it does the job. Then my paper here, which is Bow Hm, mother color paper, cold pressed. And then I have two brushes here that I usually go to and pick up when I'm doing studies. So what I want to show you is how I do studies like this. I have my pencils sketch. I have a small color study, and then I have here some mixes just to test out, if the colors that I picked indeed work with each other. And then here's the smaller painting, the smaller version. Well, for this class, I've chosen my favorite pink, which is quinacridone red, and then thalo blue, burnt umber and greenish yellow, but I won't use some of the colors as is, and I'd like to swatch them first and test the color combinations that I can achieve with a limited palette. I am a fan of color mixing, and if you've been following me for a while, you'll notice that because I love painting with limited palette. So let us try out the colors straight from the tube and see how they look like. Here's my Qin red. That's a pretty pink. So I'd like to use that straight off. But the blue is too vibrant for me, and I don't want to use that for my background. Later, I'll show you another shade of that. That could really work well with the palette that I am looking to use. Now this brown is good for the color of the table, but not really for the shadows. And of course, this one. I think the color is a bit funny, but we can still use that. I'll show you how. So this one, I'll live it alone, since I can use that from the tube. But the blue, I'd like to add a bit of my Qin bread and make it a bit purplish. Now that could work for my background. Look how lovely that color turned out. What about the green? The green or the greenish yellow doesn't look really good. So here is my puzzle of green. And if I add just a bit of blue into that, You'll have this beautiful leaf color, isn't it? Now, if I want to tweak that even more, I can add burnt umber oops, maybe a bit too much. Let's just fill the green and the blue again. And it turns into a lovely earth green color. So see. See the difference it makes if you take time to really swatch your color. Now, let me just put this here so you can see the whole set of colors that we're working with. From the four colors that I selected, this one, we'll be using this beautiful set of colors later. Oh, let me add the brown two. I said that this is too bright for me, right? So what I'm doing really is just adding a teeny tiny bit of blue onto that to make it a bit darker. Maybe too much. Let's add bro, burnt umber, to the mixture. That's how it looks. These are the colors that we will use for our project. Once you're ready, I'll see you in the next video, where we will do a quick study. 4. Watercolor Studies: Right. Here is the painting that we'll try to replicate. This is an old painting of mine. I can't really find the original painting, but I have the photograph, so let's use this as a reference. Now I'll do two mini studies. One is a black and white study using a pencil, and the other is a color study using the mixes that we tried in here. Just to make sure that everything is working for the black and white study actually have the small cards that are very useful in creating small studies like this. This is a two by three inch illustration board. That's it. The painting is portrait, so I will be drawing that in portrait too. Looking at my photograph, my reference photo, the table is some one third of the painting, right? So it's one thirds. So around here. And then the vase would be over the table, something like this. I'd like to start my studies with edgier shapes, and then this the edge of the table, and then I'll use abstract shapes or my florals. That would work. Now, I'll use the hatching method. Just to shade everything that needs to be dark. This lower left side of the painting is dark. This part of the table is dark too, and then I'll color in the rest of the table with a medium value. This is a fallen petal. Then there are parts of the flowers that are dark. I'd like to color that into. Doesn't need to be perfect. All we're doing is replacing and determining where the lights are and where the darks are. Really, really simple study, because we can add in the details later. If possible, I would also suggest that you don't spend too much time. Five to 10 minutes for each study is good. Now that I have the pencil study or the black and white, I can now proceed with my color study. I'll use a small brush. This would be a messy one, and that's totally fine. You can draw a sketch before starting or just live it B. Okay. The table would be around here. The vase would be this one. Right. I just need to place them where they are. Again, do not spend too much time on the study unless it is a commission piece or it is a competition piece. I wouldn't really spend too much time. I just want to show to see if the colors that I've selected are working with each other. That's fine. You can see the division of the table through here. Now I'll color in the background, which, as I've said earlier would be a blue violet color. I'm doing negative painting here. I'm avoiding the shape of the flower. It should be enough. This as would be about the same color of the background, only thicker and darker. Let's put that over there. Now I can work on the abstract florals. This wouldn't be the final piece, so I'm not too worried about how this would look really. Where the violets are, I'll replace that with pink. And then the green. Let's introduce the green. Ch. This is supposed to be shadow the base. That's fine. The base is supposed to be white, so I'm lifting up some colors here. What I'm doing is I'm just rinsing my brush and then lifting up some colors that are already on the paper. If you can, you can also pat it dry with a paper towel. I think that could work, that could really work. Instead of violets, we are going for a pink flower. I'm trying to add an impression of details here. N C. That could work. I'm happy with the result. So I will have to pause now. Just one tiny tiny bit of detail. The shadow over there. Bis meets messed up, but I know that that would be the shadow of the vase. There we have it. This is how I usually prepare for a painting. I have my swatches of colors. I have my black and white study, and I have a very small color study. Once you're done doing this, we can now proceed to the actual project. S. 5. Base of the Flower: Okay. Now I have transferred my drawing on seven by ten watercolor paper, and I taped it down on a white board. So I'll get a nice border later once we're done. I have my colors here. And the other materials that I haven't mentioned earlier that you'll need to have are this. It's a kitchen plastic wrap. Looks like this. I just bought it at the local supermarket. I'm sure you'll have something like this wherever you are. And of course, paper tel, which we'll use for a method called lifting. Now, this is what we'll do. We'll work on the first layer of the florals first, and then the background, connect the color of the background to the table and we'll leave some of that to dry. Then we can work on the details. So the flowers, background, table, vase, and the details of the flowers. Are you ready? Cool. I have my scratch paper here again, and I'll demonstrate some of the techniques that I will be using. First, for the flowers. You'll notice here that there are some soft spots on the flowers. To do that, we will use the technique called wet on wet. But for us to better appreciate the technique I will demonstrate what we call wet on dry. This is wet and dry, and the technique called scumbling. You repeatedly dab your brush on the paper. Depending on the size of the brush, on the shape, and on the pressure and angle that you're holding your brush, you'll achieve different shapes. But that's not what we're after. We can do that to add the details later. How do we deal with the background color of the flower? We will use wet and wet. Instead of directly painting over the florals, I'd like to wet the flower shape first, and then I will drop my colors. So now you have softer edges, and that works so well for the background of the floras. Okay? And we will also drop some greens while that is still wet. So let's lift them and let them bled and blend with each other on the paper. You can also retouch that. If you're not satisfied with the feathering effect, you can grab another brush, something like this. So this is a very cheap calligraphy brush. No brand. I can't read this. So what you do is you just brush slightly over that area. So on a side view, it looks like this. I'm just lightly, like how you retouch your makeup. Just very lightly scrub over that, and you'll get rid of the feathering effect. Okay. So let's get started. First is I have also grabbed a flat brush now because we're working on a bigger paper. First, with my dirty water. I will wet the florals, the flower area, the flower shape. So you can see a a slight tint of green in my water, and I think that works well so that you can see where I am wetting the paper. I didn't really refill my water yet. I'm too lazy to do that. I just wanted to get things done. This still works because the final output would still be darker. It's okay if you use a dirty water as a base like this, but not too dirty. Do not forget this fallen flower over here. Over here. Now I'll switch to a smaller brush loaded with pink and drop. So I will concentrate the pink over here, here, here, and here. So soft because it is wet. Very soft. I like that. You don't really need to copy the reference photo as is, If it looks like a flower, then that's enough. Do not stress too much over getting something as close to what I'm doing. Please don't do that. Please be good to yourself. Don't be too harsh. I think I've mixed a bit of blue in there. That's okay. You can also vary the consistency by adding more pain. Over here, it's a really dark pink. I'm using this cumbling technique, but on wet paper. So it achieves a different look. Now, I'll raise my brush and load it with green. Again, that is green, less blue. And then if you want, you can also add a bit of brown just to give it an earthy color. Make sure to swatch again, if you're unsure. Yeah. That's so beautiful, isn't it? Now the greens are over here. A bit here. So here. Over here. That's it. If you want, you can also grab a smaller brush. Something like this. This is optional. And you have to be very careful when you're splattering, make sure that your mobile phone is not beside you or anything that you don't want to me to mess with is far from your working area. This gives us those tiny tiny shapes. Don't worry. We can still use the cling wrap method later if you don't prefer splattering if you find it hard to control. Now, the base of the flower is done, I can now work on the background. See you in the next video. 6. Soft Background: My flower hasn't really dried yet, but I am ready for the background. To achieve a really smooth background, I will also use wet on wet. To just demonstrate that very quickly, if you are going to cover a area like the background here, I mean, in proportion to the size of your brush. It would be hard if you cover it carefully, and then you paint around the flower like this. What we'll be doing is we're wetting the background area first with water or in my case with dirty water. And then that's when I'll drop the colors. So I wouldn't really have to hurry, and I will still be able to cover the background and make sure that it is smooth because it is wet first before I drop the pigments. Now, I also need you to grab your paper towel for this step. I'll show you why. Okay. Again, I will cover the whole background area with water only. This is dirty water. That's fine. My florals are just starting to dry, but I don't really need to wait for that. This is negative painting. It's a bit tricky for beginners, but since we don't really have to be careful and it's really totally fine to go outside the lines, please do enjoy the process. Don't stress too much, just to show you where I'm wet, I'll just tilt it. So can you see? I just wet the background area and then I'll grab my blue violet, make sure that it is darker at the top, so I will do this motion. And then I'll add more water to that mixture. I don't really want it to be too dark. Now, to avoid hard edges between the background and the florals, you can sort of lift carefully pat the edges of the florals with paper towel. This is the same technique that I use for clouds in a summer sky, in a clear blue sky. Just be careful like what I did here. I accidentally lifted up the color of the florals, so I'll need to retouch that again, but I'll leave it be. Now, for additional texture, I'm actually dipping my fingers on my dirty water, and then I'll flick and splatter. See how that creates those lovely texture. That's so beautiful. I like it. Now I will connect. I won't wait for the background to dry, and I will reload my brown color. Mix that with a bit of blue, just a bit. Don't go overboard. And again, the table is a big size, is a big shape, I mean. So I'll wet that again with clean water. I'll go over this petals. That's okay. Then now I can drop that brown color. In my reference, this part is lighter than the rest. So I will just go over this parts again later and make them darker. Under the vase should be dark, of course, there's a shadow. Now, to make this, just reload your brown, make sure there's more water now. I mean more paint than water. Then paint over those areas. I think I need more blue. That's still too orange for me. To orange. I needed to be. Yeah, this color. It's lovely. I'm also using the same color for the shadow of the fase and make this part darker too. I cannot see the line here, so I'll use this brush again to manipulate where the paint goes. There you go. You can also do the same splattering effect on the table. I just love how that creates a beautiful texture. Now, we'll work on the vase and the final details in the next video. Sea. 7. Final Details: This is looking so good right now. I just don't like the hard edges over here and here. This would be good, but I still wanted to retouch it. My favorite technique for this is also called lifting. But this time it's lifting while the paper has already. What you need is a flat synthetic bruh like this and your paper towel. We your synthetic bruh and on the edges that you want to lift and soften. Just be careful not to lift the whole thing, okay? You can also use a scrubber brush if you have one in this one, should blend smoothly. Okay. Yeah, that's better, right? So now we can work on the vase. Again, I will use the same color as this one on my vase. All I need to do first is to wet the shape of the vase and do wet on wet again. So I am wetting the vase shape. And then I still have a bit of my blue violet in here. I can just grab that, grab and drop. There. L et that spread. But again, makes a thicker consistency of the blue violet. You can also switch to a smaller brush this time. It's easier to control and then drop around here. You can also drop over these areas. Those are shadows cast by the flower and a bit here, just a bit. Then you can retouch with this technique if there is too much feathering to your liking. You can then extend that color and use that as the shadow color to. I'll re wet my brush and just to soften that edge. So now all that's left are details. What we'll do next are add those tiny details like this and some wood marks. So I'd like to start with the wood marks. Just do dry brushing. So I'll do this. Okay. And same on this side. That would be that should be enough. Okay. Now for the details of the flower, you have different options. First, you can do scumbling, switch to a smaller brush, load it with pink, and do this. Let's try on this smaller petals so you can do that. But if you it doesn't look too organics You can also tap it with your finger to spread it even more. Can you see the difference? So if you just cumble like this versus you tap it with your finger. And then, of course, we have our handy plastic wrap. Instead of a brush, dip that on your paint, and you will achieve organic shapes like this. Isn't that beautiful? So I'd like to start with this cling wrap. This is my favorite technique when it comes to adding abstract shapes like that. I will refill my pink and green mixtures. And I'll start with the lighter color first. You can have multiple plastic craps for different colors, but I'll just use one. And start with the lighter color first. See how easy it is to add those tiny details. It's a bit messy, yes. You'll get messy fingers and hands later, but it is a lot more fun, I think, than scumbling. O. That's fine. I'll live that. Oh. It's too addicting, too, so make sure not to go overboard. I'll just extend some of that and let it go to the background. Then without leasing the cling wrap. You can just crumble that again. I'll dip that on my green. So easy to do too. If some of the edges are too hard for you, you can also use your finger to retouch. It's really a combination of techniques and knowing when to use the wet on wet, wet and dry and when to live it to dry or when to work on wet on wet, that you really get to achieve this look for your florals. If you'll know this, I also am not too stressed about getting this as perfect as it is. I'm just enjoying the process, and that's it. You can also add a bit on the fallen petals over there. You can do a bit of scumbling. If you want finer details. And I think that's it. Massy fingers, messy hands. But I am happy with how it looks. Now, let's reveal the painting by peeling off the masking tape. And see how this really looks with a clean border. I am hoping to see your projects. Please do not forget to upload them in the project that. We can also change the palette as you see a bit. If you have a favorite color, then please use that. And let's appreciate what each of us has come up. Using the techniques that I've just showed you. So here is my floral painting, using a limited palette of four colors. I'll see in the next video for some tips on what to do next. 8. Furthering Your Studies: Wow, you did it. Thank you for letting me be part of your learning journey. I'm looking forward to see what you've come up with during the class. I will leave a feedback as soon as I can. If you want to keep learning how to paint loosely and softly, don't forget to practice, but of course, you can also follow me on Skillshare as I am planning to publish more classes like these. You can also challenge yourself by finding reference photo with the same floral structure and apply the same techniques discussed during this class. I am fond of working with limited palette as it takes away the pressure and stress of deciding which color to pick next. That's my key takeaway for this class. Along with, of course, doing studies to boost your confidence on working on the actual class project. That's it for this class. Don't forget to upload your project and leave a review, and I'll see you on my other classes and together, let's make this world a little bit more colorful with our artworks.