Painting a Radiant Opuntia Flower in Watercolor

1. Introduction: Are you ready to learn how to paint a standing upon sure. Flower with gorgeous fire like petals and as smooth, beautiful background in watercolors. I'm thrilled to show you how to create this beautiful painting step-by-step. Hi, my name is Chris and I'm a professional watercolor artist and teacher. Back in 2012, I discovered my love for watercolors and error since it has become my greatest passion. In fact, I love it so much that I turned my passion into my profession. Since 2019, I've been teaching online, sharing my knowledge and helping others understand the beauty of this medium. In this Skillshare class, we'll be focusing on painting a blooming, a puncher with a radiant light field flower will be using most of the wet on dry technique and learning how to soften the edges to give our painting a natural look. But I will also show you how to paint the background using the wet on wet technique, which is the best way to achieve a smooth, beautiful background with stunning colors that blend seamlessly. Throughout this tutorial, we'll work on capturing the intense light and shadows of our flower will be working gradually with a few layers. Slowly building the depth of colors and tonal values to create a truly impressive result. This project is perfect for anyone looking to improve their watercolor skills. If you're ready to start creating something beautiful, Then let's jump right in and get started. 2. Class Project: Our class project is this gorgeous, a punch of flower? This is an excellent painting for practicing smooth watercolor washes wet on wet background, and achieving deep vibrant colors. What I really like about this flower is how the sunlight illuminates its features with backlit petals adding a unique touch to its appearance. The color composition of this a bunch of flower is also striking, showcasing a complimentary color scheme with vibrant reds and greens that create an energetic look. To help you get started, head over to the resources area, where you'll find a helpful PDF file with our list of all the supplies I used for this painting. Feel free to use your favorite art materials. You don't need to have the same supplies as I have. You'll also find a reference photo and my finished painting for your reference. And most importantly, you will also find a line drawing. The line drawing comes as a JPEG file so you can resize it however you like. But I've also prepared three PDF files with the line drawing three different sizes so that you can simply download the file with the size that you want to paint, printed out, and transfer onto your watercolor paper using your preferred method. Of course, you can also draw a free hand. I painted my flower in nine by 12 size, but you may want to paint it in a different size. If you have any questions along the way, feel free to ask anything in the discussion section. I'll be happy to answer all of your questions. And when you finish your painting, I encourage you to share your results in your project section to get appreciation and feedback from other students. And for me, of course, I also strongly encourage you to first watch each lesson to get familiar with the subject with what we're going to do just to be better prepared for what you will expect. It will help you to paint with more confidence and comfort. In the next lesson, I'll show you how I generally prepare my drawings for paintings based on reference photos and how I prepare my paper before I start painting. So let's move on to the next lesson. 3. Sketch and Paper Preparation: Hi. So we're going to start the upper punch at today. I'd like to show you the process from the beginning, including preparing a sketch. Also, I have printed out my reference photo. The size is 12 by nine and it's on two sheets. To split the image into two sheets and have it in the desired size. I used a program called split print available on Mac. It's a very user-friendly, simple program, very helpful because the image is on two pages. First I have to combine them. So I'm using taper that. Now I'm using a fine liner to draw lines in places I think would be difficult to see through the watercolor paper. I'm going to use a light bulb. Areas which don't have big contrast may be difficult to see. Some drawing distinct lines to make sure I will clearly see where to trace. I am placing the printout at the back of my watercolor paper, and I'm attaching it with tape just to ensure that it won't move around while tracing. I'm turning on my light pad and I'm placing my paper with the print attached to the back on it. I'm going to use a regular HB pencil for the sketch. When the lights are off, I can clearly see the image and I can easily trace it. My additional fine liner lines helped me to see even better where to trace. I like to place a piece of paper towel under my hand at this stage. I do this for two reasons. The first one is that I don't want to leave any oils from my hand on the paper. This could result in uneven washes at a later stage. The second reason is that I don't want to smudge my pencil lines. In the end, I'm marking four corners. This is really important. Thanks to those marks, I will know where I should attach masking tape later to form the exact rectangle that measures 12 by nine. I'm making sure that I traced everything and I'm making appropriate corrections. When the sketch is ready, I remove the image from the back. I'm going to use a gator board as my paintings support. Don't confuse gator board with foam board. Gator board is much stiffer. It's more sturdy and it's waterproof. Before I stretch the paper, I have to make sure that my sketch is correct. If there is anything I would like to erase. This is the time to do that because applying water will make the graphite permanent. So later, I will not be able to remove any lines, any pencil lines. I also use a kneaded eraser to make my sketch lighter. I just roll it over my drawing and it catches the excess graphite, making the sketch lighter but still visible. Now using clear water and a big 1.5 inch flat brush, I'm applying a water layer at the back of the paper. First, I make sure it's covered evenly. Then I turn it over, place it in the middle of the board, and wet the front. If I can see any air bubbles under the paper and bulges, I leave the paper and wet both the paper and the gator board again in that place. This way I removed the warping and the paper is flat. I leave it for about a minute or two. And in the meantime, I cleaned the board around from the excess water. After around 2 min, I staple it down to the gator board. I use a regular office stapler and place staples around 1 " from each other. I leave this stretched paper to dry overnight. The next day when the paper is completely dry, I tape it on foresights. I use a scotch masking tape for the delicate surface, the lavender one. Thanks to the marks on four corners, I know exactly where to put the tape. And I know that my painting, we'll measure 12 by nine. Let's check if it's really 12 by nine. It looks like it is. So now we're ready for the next step, which is applying the masking fluid and painting the background. 4. Masking and Background: We're going to mask out the main subject. I will use a Winsor and Newtons masking fluid with a yellow tinge. This is my favorite masking fluid. I also need an old cap, a piece of soap, and a brush for applying masking. This is an old synthetic brush that I use only for applying the brisket. Never use your good brushes for that. I'm pulling a bit of masking into the cap and I'm quickly closing the battle. We don't want the oxygen to get into the bottle. I'm wetting the brush and rubbing it on a piece of soap. The soap will prevent the bristles from sticking together. And now I'm ready to apply the masking. I'm applying it to the edges of the flower. In the illustration that you can also find in the class materials, you can see where exactly I applied masking fluid. If you accidentally spattered the masking somewhere where it shouldn't be. Like here I got a drop of masking in the background. Don't panic. Leave it to dry completely and just remove it when it's dry and before you start painting. When the masking fluid is dry, I can remove that unnecessary spot from the background. I also like to make sure that there are no holes in the masking. If there are any. I feel them with the masking again. If I didn't, the paint would make spots in those places. When I finish applying the masking, I rinse my brush, rub it again on a piece of soap, and rinse it again to clean it. Thanks to soap, the bristles are clean and they are not glued by the masking. Let's prepare some nice juicy colors for the background. Remember that you don't need to use the same colors. Use similar colors if you don't have the ones that I'm using or use the colors that you like and you think will look nice, make it your own. I think I'm going to start from green gold. If you don't have this color, you can also use a mix of transparent yellow with Winsor blue, green shade. The result would be very similar. Green, gold is my starting point. I'm adding a Winsor blue-green shade to make it more lively and fresh. On the other side of the palette, I have a puddle of Windsor blue green shade mixed with a tiny touch of burnt sienna. Winsor blue and the burnt sienna create a nice slightly muted down turquoise, which I am going to use in the bottom-right corner in the painting. We'll also need something really dark. I'm mixing Payne's gray with a Winsor blue. Perhaps my main green is a little bit too light and too saturated. So I'm going to add a touch of burnt sienna and Payne's gray to my mix. That combination of burnt sienna and Payne's gray will mute down my mix, my green mix, and at the same time, it will darken it. So this green is a mix of green, gold, Windsor blue, burnt sienna, and Payne's gray. We can shift this color to any of those four ingredients anytime. Now with a big brush size 12th, I'm applying a water layer on the entire background. Make sure that you are using a big brush for this. When you paint wet on wet backgrounds like this, it is best to use the biggest brush you have. This way you make as few brush strokes as possible, which is crucial. Apply clean water to the background. Make sure you cover every square inch. You shouldn't see any dry spots. Can you see the difference in wetness? On the left side, we can see a high sheen. On the right side there is a low sheen. So we have a difference in wetness. We aim to wet the paper evenly. When you apply the first layer, don't hurry, clean the edges, and wait until the first layer settles down and soaks into the paper a bit. Because I'm filming this. I know that I waited 2 min after that time. Apply another water glaze. We're applying two layers of water to ensure that the paper will stay wet for a bit longer. We'll have more time to work wet on wet, and we won't have to worry about paper drawing in some areas. Think about it this way. The first water layer soaked into the paper, making the paper wet from the inside. And now the second layer will stay on the surface because there is no room for it to soak in. Now we can see a high sheen on the entire background. This gene is not disappearing quickly because the first water layer prevents that. Now we can start applying the paint. I'm starting from the upper-left corner and I'm moving downwards. It is essential that you can move around your painting at this stage. When you apply the paint, TLT or painting to get the paint moving, let the colors mingle on the paper without the help of your brush. That's the key to a successful wet on wet background with smooth color transitions and no brush marks. Of course, change the color along the way. Try to use similar colors as in the reference photo, but remember that it doesn't have to look exactly the same. More important are always tonal values. If you still see a high sheen on the paper and you should, because now we have a lot of water on the paper. You can add more paint to make the color darker. I aim to paint the background in one go. So I have to make sure that the colors are dark enough. Now. Keep in mind that the paint will dry much lighter. So now it should have a darker tone than in the reference photo. I added a touch of permanent rose here to add some interests, but also to reflect some colors from the main flower. Now I added enough paint everywhere, and for the next 5 min, I'm going to tilt my painting and forced the paint to move on the paper. I'm doing this until I can see that the paint is not moving anymore, that the paint settles down. Before we leave it to dry, let's clean up the edges. Remove any blobs of paint or water from the masking tape. When I do this, I also like to catch wet edges of the painting with my paper towel and soak up the excess paint from those edges. This prevents forming any blooms at a later stage while the background will be drying. I left it to dry overnight. As you can see, my painting is super flat and that's thanks to stretching the paper. We can remove the masking fluid now. And I'm using a rubber masking pickup tool. It's a very useful tool and we're ready to paint the cactus. So see you in the next part. 5. Initial Green Layer: We'll paint the green parts of the cactus in a few stages. I think we can start by applying the green on the main body of the cactus. It is divided into three main parts. One on the left with the purple bud, the main part, and the bottom part. Let's focus on one part at a time. I'm going to use a brush size 12th. I still have my colors on the palette. So now I'll just add more paint to have a bigger puddle. Again, I'm using green, gold, and Winsor blue. The darker green is a mix of green, gold, Windsor blue, and Payne's gray. This part of the cactus has this nice sunlit edge. While applying the paint, we need to leave that edge weight. We could apply masking fluid here, but I think it's not necessary. We can just not go up to the edges and leave that gap between the main body and the background. My pencil drawing is not correct. I can see important lines, so I'm adding them now. Let's apply a water layer to this area. I'm not sure how those little things are called correctly, but let's call them spines for our purpose. While applying the water, tried to go around those spines. Don't forget to leave an edge that should stay white. I hope that when I tilt the painting you can see where I apply to the water. The surface of the paper is now nice and wet so we can add some colors to it. I'm using our basic green and I'm adding more pure green gold in a few areas. The idea is just a very the green color. I'm changing the brush to a size six because I want to paint a bit more precisely close to the right edge. Now I'm using my dark green, so a mix of green, gold and Winsor blue with the addition of Payne's gray. I'm dropping in the dark in a few places, may make close to the spines. The surface is still wet so I can drop in more paint. Now tilt your painting, allow the colors to move in, blend, give it a few minutes to settle down. When the paint stops moving and the high sheen is gone. We can repeat the process on the bigger area. We need to do exactly the same thing. So I'm starting by applying a water glaze, which is not clean anymore. But that's fine because this area will be much darker anyway. I remember hearing about not painting up to the edges and leaving that white stripe on the edge. I'm not painting around this spines this time because they are much darker than the green anyway, in the previous area, the spines are purple and a bit pink even. So we had to paint around them. Here. They are almost black. So we can apply the green to the entire area. I'm preparing more of my main green, green, gold, and Winsor blue. That is a very lovely fresh green. I'm starting by covering this whole area with green. I keep tilting my painting to move and distribute the paint evenly. On the wet surface. I can see a touch of blue on the left side. So I'm using a Winsor blue there on the edges. I'm using again a brush size six. Once this layer has been applied, use a big brush size 12th. Pick up the dark green and drop it in places where we have those spines. Let the green spread a bit. Those dark spots are indications of indentations in those places. Those dark green spots don't have to be exactly around the center of the spines. More important is to create a more or less regular pattern here. Here is how this pattern should look like. This helps me to judge where I should drop in the dark green. Now, tilt the painting and let the paint settle down. Before moving on to the bottom part. Both upper parts must be bone dry. I didn't leave it to dry overnight. I let it settle down. And when the machine has gone off the paper, I used a hairdryer for about 10 min to dry those two wet areas. The bottom part is the easiest. First we need to apply a water glaze. Remember about leaving that white edge? And then we can drop in our greens. I'm starting by applying the water. I'm observing the reference photo and I'm leaving the white edge where the highlights are. We don't want the paint to go there. And first applying green gold. And then I'm adding darker colors close to the edges. I'm using a brush size six to carefully create that nice irregular green edge. Finally, with a bigger brush and a very dark green. I'm dropping it in, in places where I can see shadows. Finally, I'm tilting the painting to get the paint moving again. And I'm leaving everything to dry. 6. Left Bud: In this part, we will finish the little fruit of the OpenShift on the left-hand side. Make sure that everything is completely dry. And let's prepare some colors. I'm cleaning my palette because we need a different color family. So I don't want to mix the colors on the palette. I'm picking up Permanent Alizarin crimson. We'll need this red to create deep purple tones. I can also see some pinks on the spines. So I think we'll also need some permanent rose on a separate palette. I want to mix a deep dark purple. I'm mixing a Winsor blue with Permanent Alizarin crimson. This gives a very nice deep purple, which is muted down because Windsor Blue has a green undertone. So when it's mixed with the red, it meets down the mix. I'm also trying a combination of alizarin and Payne's gray. This gives an even darker and deeper purple and it may come in handy too. That's a really nice mix. When I mix two colors, I like to leave pure colors on both sides of the petal. This way, when I'm painting, I can pick up more reddish purple or more bluish purple depending on what I need that at the moment. This time I'm switching to a much smaller brush. I'm going to use a spotter brush size to the unfolded flower. Here is a small area, easy to paint wet on dry. We don't need to use wet on wet technique here. I'm starting slowly by applying a light tone of pink. I'm using a mix of permanent rose and alizarin crimson. I'm now trying to apply this color on every little pedal. More light is going through the petals. On the right-hand side. They just catch more light there. So they are lighter in tone and also warmer when it comes to their colored temperature. While I'm going more towards the left side, the petals are more in the shadow. They are darker and cooler. On the left I'm using more purple sign, either mixing permanent rose with Winsor blue, or I'm even using my dark purple mixes. Those petals will be very dark in the end. I can be braver in tonal value because eventually I'll have to darken all those places anyway. Now I'm mapping out the colors using a light or middle values to get a sense of what color goes where, and to create that underlayer for the next layer. Notice also that I'm leaving all white areas lit by the sun. If it's difficult for you to assess where you should apply paint and where you should leave white paper. Take a break and look at your drawing. Make sure it's accurate. Feel free to make a more detailed drawing if you need to. You can clearly mark where the highlights are, where you should not apply the paint. A good drawing is always a huge help. Apply the purple on all spines. Now we have to leave it to dry because we are painting wet on dry and we're using a small amount of paint, it should dry quickly. In this case, I'm using a hairdryer to speed up the drying time. We have a nice foundation, so now we can build more layers upon it. When at least one layer is already applied, it is easier than to build the colors and tones. It's nice to have that foundation. It gives a sense of completion. We just need to darken all colors with the second and last layer. I'm now using dark tones and intense colors. I want to achieve this same tonal value as in the reference photo. We can start from the darkest down first and then add a lighter tone and blend both colors. Or we can apply a lighter tone first, e.g. Alizarin crimson, and then dropping the dark tone on top and blend those colors. Sometimes it's easier to start from the dark tones because they are more prominent. And it's easier to determine where we should paint them. But on the other hand, there is a risk that we can go too dark. So we have to be careful. Don't worry about colors to match. Always focus on tonal values. When you know that there must be something really dark, then you'll naturally choose the right colors to get the dark tone. It doesn't have to be exactly the same color, but when you get the right tone, everything will look fine. I'm leaving the edges of those petals white. But then while the paint is still slightly damp, I'm pulling the paint from around to cover those edges with some colors. Not all of those edges are totally white. Here I'm starting from Alizarin crimson, and then I'm switching to the dark mix of Alizarin crimson with Payne's gray, or alizarin with Winsor blue. If I need a different, a bit lighter shade of purple paint also, all of those spines start from this strong red accent and then build a darker purple tones on it. The red underneath show through creating that lovely warm glow. I can see here that a dark circles surrounds those spines. Some first painting, those dark circles, painting around the triangular shapes. And then I'm adding reds and purples on the spines. On the right-hand side where the spines are more lit by the sun and warmer. I'm dropping in just a tiny touch of Winsor yellow deep to add a bit of that warmth. Finally, I'm working more on the green parts. I'm adding shadows here and there with a darker green tone to create the form. I'm applying the paint wet-on-dry. Then I'm rinsing and blotting my brush with a clean, damp brush. I'm trying to soften one edge of the mark. I just did. This way. I'm creating a kind of a fold that is present in the form. I'm also using a big round brush size 12 to darken some green areas. I'm applying the paint and then I'm quickly trying to soften the edges before the paint dries and creates hard edges. If the green part is completely dry, you should have no problem applying more layers. But if you didn't make sure that the previous layer is completely dry, you may disturb the pigment from the previous layer and make a mess. You can make an even washes and weird spots here and there may show up. So always make sure that the previous layer is completely dry. The bottom, I'm adding a very dark green to paint the shadow. Of course, I'm softening the edge with a clean, damp brush. I'm also adding the dark green into other places to indicate possible spine spots. 7. Main Green Part: In this part, we will focus on the main part of the second bigger arm of the cactus. Our objective now is to paint all of those dark spots which are placed where the spines are. And perhaps add a bit more form to this part by adding more shadows. The green paint I applied earlier covered my pencil drawing entirely. I can see where to paint those dark spots. So before I start painting, I want to make sure I will add the spots in the right places. First, I tried to draw helpful marks with my pencil, but I noticed that I couldn't really see my pencil lines on the green paint. So I decided to use green color to mark those spots. Again, I keep in mind the pattern that they create. I can use much darker paint. When I know exactly where I should paint the spots. I'm picking up my dark mix of Permanent Alizarin crimson and Winsor blue. I'm starting by painting the dark shadow on the left. I'm painting now wet on dry. And after applying the paint, I'm softening some of the edges. If there is a neat a majority of those dark spots have round shapes. I'm not trying to paint a perfect circle. Those are organic shapes. They don't have to have perfect shapes. More important is their distribution. So make sure that those dots create a nice regular pattern. The air placed slightly closer to each other on both sides. And the distance between the dots is bigger in the middle. That is also important because this helps to create that impression of a round form. I'm using a spotter brush size two. In the upper part, I can see some lighter colors in the middle of those dots, sam leaving the centers and painted now, and I will fill them with some purplish red in a minute. I also think that we can now add a shadow at the bottom. I'm using my darker green mix of green, gold, Winsor blue, and Payne's gray. I started with a small brush size to, but a big brush will be better for this. I want to suggest some organic shapes at the bottom, some round forums of the characters. And the shadow beneath. I'm applying the paint wet on dry. And I'm quickly softening the edges where it's needed. With a small brush. I would make too many brushstrokes. I could scratch the paper too many times. And I could easily get an overworked look with a big brush. It's just a matter of a few brush strokes and quick softening. Also a big brushes, more delicate. It's softer, so the brushstrokes are more gentle for a delicate paper surface. There is one more thing I want to do. I feel like the green looks a bit flat and the cactus lacks the forum and also a little bit of texture. I'm going to use a dark green tone to add some shadows which will help to create that way the surface of the OpenShift. I'm a wedding, a very small area, and I'm applying a dark green to allow the paint to spread. If we placed a clock on each of those dots, I could say that I'm trying to paint the shadows at 05:00. I'm adding the shadow diagonally, Starting from the dot and going down to the bottom right corner. I want to create a bit more distinct form, a width, some indentation on the right-hand side. So I'm adding stronger shadows and softening the edge on one side. The other side remains a bit lighter. That gives me an impression of a fold. Finally, I want to add more dark green around each dot with a smaller brush to create a better illusion of shadow and indentation. I'm using the brush as if it was a colored pencil. I'm pretending that I'm drawing with the brush. I don't mind getting any texture or irregularities in washes because the surface is not perfectly smooth. So any imperfections on the add more interest and a natural look. 8. Softening: Before we move on to paint the petals, I would like you to do one more thing. When I paint anything with a strong highlight, I like to soften the edges. This is something that I do almost always. There are two main reasons why I do this. The first one is that this process helps to achieve smoother edges and get rid of the edges that are too dark. Sometimes pigments are pushed away from the center of the shape during the drying process, and they gather on the edges. As a result, the edge may have a darker color than the object and it may look like a contour. Softening with a scrubber brush, lightens that edge and makes it smoother if it's too rough. The second reason is that the softening also helps to create that nice soft glowing effect. After every brush rubbing, Irene's it in the water to remove the paint I just lifted off. If I didn't do it, I would just transfer the paint from one place to another. We don't want to do that. We want to keep everything clean. Every time. I'm also dabbing that place with a tissue to get rid of the excess paint and clean the edge. There are spikes on the edges and I'm trying to create an even sharper tips of those spikes. I'm also lifting out the paint from the dark spots. I'm imagining that there are small spikes sticking out. I'm very gentle because the dark color is very easy to lift. I'm keeping my brush at around a 45-degree angle and I'm just touching the paint with the edge of the bristles. I'm creating a few lighter marks, very irregular. Each of them is in different direction to create that natural organic look. I'm also lifting out the paint at the bottom side to create more imperfections. Now we can move on to paint the petals. 9. Initial Layer on the Petals: The petals of the flower have a beautiful range of analogous colors. They go from light yellow to orange to red and very deep dark red and even purple. To achieve those rich colors and light on the petals, we need to keep in mind two things. First of all, we need to preserve the highlights. The lightest areas on the pedals are pure white. I didn't apply paint to those places. In other areas where the yellow is light. I just used the watered-down paint to keep the light tone of the color. In contrast with very dark petals in the lower part, we can achieve a sense of strong light. The second key to achieving rich colors is to paint everything in layers. We're going to start with the lightest tones and then will be slowly building up the depth of color. Let's first prepared the colors will need. I'm preparing a Winsor yellow. Winsor yellow deep, Permanent Alizarin crimson. I'm also mixing Winsor yellow deep with Permanent Alizarin crimson to get an orange. And finally, I'm also preparing Winsor red. I think I'll drop it in somewhere. In this part, we will focus only on the lightest tones. I'm going to use a brush size eight. I usually start painting from the upper-left corner. So I'm choosing the first petal on the left. My main yellow now will be a mix of Winsor yellow and Winsor yellow deep. I mix of those two gives a very nice sunny yellow. I think it will be perfect here because we are working with yellow color. I don't worry about uneven washes. Yellow is a very nice color to paint with because any imperfections are not really visible. That's why I'm going to paint wet on dry. This technique is also quicker than wet on wet and the paint dries faster. I'm observing the reference photo, keeping an eye on the area that should remain light. I'm applying the yellow in the darkest part. I'm rinsing and blotting my brush. And I'm trying to create a gradient from dark to light with a clean, damp brush. I'm pulling the paint away from that yellow. After every brush stroke. I'm cleaning the brush to not drag the paint from one place to another. I just want to make it lighter towards the edge. I continue applying the paint on every petal. I don't paint. Alternatively this time, normally I would skip one petal, but in this case because it's yellow and yellow washes usually look relatively even. I don't worry about any imperfections. I only keep in mind how dark I can go and the word the places where which I should leave white. In darker areas, I'm applying more yellow, more concentrated paint in lighter places. I'm using a moral watered down mix to make the tone lighter. Or I leave the whiteness of the paper. When it comes to the edges, I follow the reference photos. On most of those petals, the edges are smooth. I need to create a tonal gradient from dark to light with no hard edges. But there are also some dark cast shadows that have hard edges, some indicating them by painting a hard edge. I will darken them at a later stage. This little petal, I'm adding permanent rose in the upper part and my yellow in the lower part. We have to create that transition from pink to yellow. Continue applying the yellow on the lower row of the petals. Remembered to leave the whiteness of the paper in the whitest areas. The only pedals that are left are the ones in the third row. Those are the darkest petals and they are more red than yellow. We can suggest a different color here. I'm using Permanent Alizarin crimson with a touch of my yellow. Before I go to the bottom row of petals, I want to make sure that the yellow is dry. I'm using a hairdryer to speed up the drying time. I'm using a hairdryer to dry the paint. I'm covering the rest of the petals with mainly a light tone of Permanent Alizarin crimson. But I'm trying to vary the colors in the areas where the red is lighter. I'm also adding yellow. You will see that I'm not applying a flat red wash, but I'm shifting from red to yellow. This is only the base layer will apply at least two more layers here to achieve those rich dark reds. There are two highlighted edges on the right-hand side that I'm going to leave unpainted. Later. I'll probably add some colors there, but I'm leaving them white for now. Let the paint dry completely. And in the next part, we will apply another layer to deepen the colors, will focus on the middle tones. 10. Petals - Middle Tones: The first layer is completely dry. Now we're going to develop the colors and tones and make the petals more orange or red where it's necessary. I'm starting by mixing Winsor yellow deep with Permanent Alizarin crimson to get a nice orange. I'm applying it in the darkest areas on the first petal. I'm painting wet on dry. After applying the paint, I'm rinsing and loading my brush. And I'm trying to soften the paint towards the edge of the petal. I'm dropping in more permanent Alizarin crimson to make the color richer. Moving on to the next petal and using the same colors, I'm trying to build up the rich orange and red shades. Because this is the second layer of the paint. The colors are already very vibrant, but I keep in mind that they may look paler when they dry. So one more layer may be needed to achieve the desired depth of color. I'm just adding more yellow to make it deeper. In some areas. Even though we could apply one thick layer to achieve the deep dark tone we're aiming for. It's always better to build the colors and tones with at least two or three thinner layers. This way we don't lose the transparent properties of watercolors and the painting looks fresh and not overworked. I'm painting now mainly way the Winsor yellow, deep and Permanent Alizarin crimson. I'm shifting from one color to another. Here on this big petal, I'm starting by applying yellow on both sides. Then I'm adding Permanent Alizarin crimson in the middle. And I'm also dropping in that reach, Winsor red. I left the upper edge of the petal white because there is a highlight. This time before moving on to the next petal. I'm allowing this big petal to dry. I don't want to run the risk of paint flowing from one petal to another and creating a bloom. The next petal is darker in town, so the dark paint may flow into that lighter middle pedal. Here I'm starting from permanent rose because they think this petal needs a bit of that color row starch. Apart from permanent rose, I'm also using Permanent Alizarin crimson. The darkest petals are really dark. But again, we're slowly building the depth of color. I am now applying the middle value of a mix of permanent rose and alizarin crimson. The right side of the petal. I'm adding orange to shift the color more towards red. We just have to cover all those petals with the middle value. Later, we'll make those petals much darker. Now we'll leave everything to dry completely. I use the hairdryer for about 10 min and left it to dry for another 20 min. In the next part, we will add the details and we'll deepen the colors of the first two rows of the petals. 11. Dark Tones and Details: We can say that we are painting from the general to the specific. It's a top-down approach. We paint with more and more detail with each subsequent layer. Now it's the time to finish the pedals. We're going to assess each petal individually and think about what we can do to make it look better and closer to the reference photo. When I'm looking at the first petal, I can see that I need to add a shadow and create a texture on the pedal. I'm going to use a brush size six. I'm mixing three primary colors, Winsor blue, Permanent Alizarin, crimson, and Winsor yellow deep. I'm trying to get a neutral color that it can use to paint the shadow. This shadow transitions from light neutral color to a very dark red using a mix of Winsor yellow, deep end, Alizarin crimson. I'm also adding a texture to the petals. I'm just playing many small dots, one next to another. I'm going back to the shadow to add more color if I need to. I'm moving on to another petal. Now. I'm focusing on the on a small area and I'm trying to finish it. I want this to be the final layer. So I'm trying to achieve the end result. Now. I'm observing the reference photo and I'm trying to recreate what I'm saying. If there are lines, I'm painting lines. If there is a shadow that is not dark enough, I'm adding more paint to darken the shadow. I may come back to the same place a few times to make sure that I achieved what I needed. I'm also comparing the petal I'm painting now with other petals I have already painted. I need to keep the color and tonal harmony by comparing other areas with the one that I am working on. I know how dark I can go and how reached my color should be. There are many of those lines close to the edge of the petal. These may be creases on the pedals or perhaps statements in the center of the flower, casting a shadow on the petals. So now continue working on each petal. Think about what each of them needs. Sometimes we need to paint a cast shadow with a sharp edge. Other times we need to apply another layer of paint on the entire pedal to deepen the colors. Use wet on dry technique and soften the edges where the transition between colors is smooth. On this petal, I'm starting by applying Winsor yellow deep with a tiny touch of permanent alizarin crimson. And then I'm adding permanent rose to this mix to get that vibrant red in the middle. Now to blend those colors, I'm picking up yellow on my brush. And I'm trying to pull that red a bit towards the upper part to make that transition smooth. Because I have yellow on my brush, the yellow gets another layer and becomes even deeper. While at the same time, the transition between the red and yellow is smoother. At the bottom part, I'm adding Alizarin crimson to make it slightly darker. I'm preparing now a mix of Alizarin and Winsor blue will need this mix to darken the next petal. I'm loading my brush with permanent rose. And I'm starting by applying this color. At the bottom. I'm adding my dark mix of Alizarin and blue. And I'm trying to blend those colors. I'm applying one more layer to this cast shadow. I think it's too light now compared to the dark pedal I just painted. The dark petal is almost dry now, so I'm painting another shadow close to that pedal. The Yellow Peril looks too pale now. And two yellow, I'm adding a bit of orange there, and I'm blending it away. Finally, I'm adding the details on the petals. I can see some short lines here in the highlight. And the more elongated lines on the other petals. I'm painting them to add more texture and interests to the petals. They also help to determine the shape of the pedal. When the lines are slightly curved, they suggest that the petal is a little bit bent. Here. Those short lines are irregular and I'm trying to avoid the temptation of placing one line next to another in a two regular manner. They're curved shapes also suggest that the petals are slightly bent towards the center of the flower. The main petals are done. Now we can move on to the next part and paint the remaining darkest petals. 12. Darkest Petals: We've already applied two layers on the remaining petals, but of course, those petals are not dark enough. So we will add two more layers to achieve that deep dark color. We also have to make a distinction between the big petals and the smaller triangular shaped sepals beneath them will apply a layer of paint on all of them in the first goal. In the second round, we'll paint the smaller sepals. And in the third round, we'll finally dark and the petals. Okay, so let's start by mixing permanent rose with Winsor yellow deep. I will need this read in some areas. Start by applying Permanent Alizarin crimson on the left and going towards the right side, change the color to our red and mix of Winsor, yellow, deep and permanent rose. At this stage, the bigger petals and the sepals are united. I treat them both as one object and I'm applying the paint on both of them. In the next layer, we'll make a distinction between them. I'm mixing more Winsor blue and Permanent Alizarin crimson. And while the paint is still wet, I'm adding this dark purple color on the first petal. I'm running along the middle part, trying to slightly curved the line to suggest the shape of the petal. Then I'm adding more Alizarin crimson and read on both sides. I'm comparing this petal width, the petal behind it. And I can see that they are tonal values are very similar. So this tells me that I will have to darken the one in front with one more layer. I'm darkening other petals with Alizarin crimson and my dark purple mix. We need to leave it to dry. Now. We can clearly see that the color is not dark enough yet when it's dry. Let's now paint the darkest sepals to judge better how dark we can go with the petals. I'm using my dark purple mix of Windsor blue and Permanent Alizarin crimson. I like to use a mix of two colors because I can always shift the hue more towards one of those colors when I'm applying the paint. If I need more red, I'm using more Alizarin. If I need a darker purple, I'm using more Winsor blue. I'm applying this super dark color on all sepals. When the sepals are dry, we can finish the painting by applying the ultimate layer on the dark petals. I'm starting by applying Permanent Alizarin crimson. And then while the paint is still wet, I'm adding the dark purple mix of Alizarin where the Winsor blue. I do this on other petals to the dark purple is almost black. And mix of Alizarin crimson and Winsor blue actually creates black, but it has that purple shade. I'm also darkening the pedal in the middle. I think it's too light at the bottom. I'm not applying the paint on the entire pedal on the bottom part and on the left. I'm trying to smooth out the edges. Finally, I'm softening a few hard edges with a clean damp scrubber brush and the painting is finished. Okay, thank you very much for watching. I hope you enjoyed the tutorial and I hope you'll be happy with your result. Of course, please share your painting with others and with me so that we can all admire your artwork. Happy painting.