Painting Watercolor Flowers In A Loose Style

1. About The Class: Hi everyone. My name is Lisa and I'm a watercolor artist from Malaysia. I've been painting with watercolors for over six years. And flowers are one of my favorite subjects to paint. In this class, I'm going to teach you how to paint watercolor flowers in a loose style. We'll start with the supplies that are needed in this class. And next, you will learn the essential watercolor techniques for painting loose and relaxing flowers. We will then begin our class projects, where we'll be painting for loose and lovely floral compositions. You will learn how to incorporate watercolor techniques such as wet on wet, bleeding and pooling technique in your class projects. You will also learn how to add depth and dimension in your paintings. So by the end of this class, not only will you have for lovely floral paintings, you will also be able to apply all that you've learned in this class in your future paintings. Now this class is suitable for all levels and beginners are welcome to join. So grab your brushes and let's get started. 2. Supplies Needed For This Class: Okay, Let's talk about the supplies that you need in this class. So for paper, I'll be using this bow whole academy watercolor paper. This is 100% cotton cold press watercolor paper in 300 GSM. And for brushes, I'll be using these round brushes from silver black velvet. So I have a size 6.2, size eight. Now feel free to use any brand of round brushes that you have. I'll also be using these brushes here. So this is a Chinese calligraphy brush, and this is a size ten from Princeton snap. And this is a size two brush from the Vinci. Now these brushes are optional. So if you don't have these brushes, That's fine. Just stick to your round brushes. Now you need a pallet to mix your colors. I'll be using this ceramic palette. You will also need some paper towels to remove excess paint and moisture from your brush. And lastly, you need a jar of clean water. Okay? And these are the colors that I'll be using in this class. Now, if you don't have these colors, feel free to replace them with any similar colors from your palette. 3. Watercolor Techniques: In this lesson, I'm going to show you the watercolor techniques that are great for creating loose and relaxing florals. So the first technique is the wet on wet technique. So this is basically just applying wet paint on a wet paper. Now the paper can either be prevented with a layer of clean water or a layer of paint. Here, I'm just wetting a small section of the paper with a bit of yellow. And then I'm going to prepare to puddles of orange mixture in my palette for the first puddle or make it a bit more watery. And for the second part of our atlas water to it so that it has a thicker consistency. Now when we apply our orange to this wet surface, the color starts to spread and bleed. And this creates some lovely soft edges. Now let's draw Indiana mix. So you can see that this doesn't spread as much because this mixture contains less water and it has a thicker consistency. So if you don't want your paint to spread too much, just use a thicker consistency of paint. Or you can also remove excess paint on a paper towel before you drop in the color. Okay, Now I'll show you how to paint a flower using the wet on wet technique. I'll start with the petals. And then I'll add in a bit more paint to make sure that these petals, they went a bit longer. Now I'll drop in a bit of carmine to the center. So you can see that the color starts to spread. Okay, next, I'll darken the center with a bit of violet. But I do want it to spread too much. So I'm going to use a thicker consistency of paint. So you can see that the Violet doesn't spread as much because it has a thicker consistency than a combined mixture. Okay, Next, I'm going to show you how to create some color bleeds. So when we have two wet areas of different colors next to each other, one color will bleed into the other. So here you can see some yellow bleeding into the orange foramen. Let's try this again. Okay, now I'm going to show you how to create color bleeds in our flowers. I'm just going to pin a few petals using the same color. And then I'll use different colors to paint the remaining petals. So here we have some nice color bleeds where the petals are touching one another. Now we can also create color bleeds in the leaves by touching the wet petals. Okay, now the next technique is the pooling technique. So this is quite similar to the bleeding technique. So in this technique we can use water to pull up pigments from a wet area. Now ***** site flower, using this technique, I'll start with two orange petals. And then I'll use water to pull out the orange pigments to create a lighter petal. And I'll do the same for this petal. We can also use this technique to paint our leaves. So I'll start by laying down a very wet stem. Then we just water in my brush. I'll pull out the green pigments. So this creates some soft and lovely leaves. Now instead of water, you can also use paint to pull out the pigments. So these are all great watercolor techniques to use when you want to create some loose floral paintings. So do practice these techniques before you move on to the class projects. 4. Pink Abstract Florals: In this lesson, we are going to paint some ping abstract florals using the wet on wet technique for the base color. I'll use shell pink. Now if you don't have shell pink, feel free to use any pastel pink, or you can use a watery mixture of k. Let's start with the front facing flower. Now feel free to create as many petals as you like. They don't have to look the same. So you can see that I'm painting with a very wet brush because we want these petals to stay wet a bit longer. Because later on we're going to darken the center using the wet on wet technique. Okay, I'll add a few more layers just to make sure they stay wet. Now while the paint is still wet, we'll drop in some quinacridone rose to the center and let that bleed into the petals. If you don't have this color, feel free to use any written or pings from your palette. Okay, next, I'll mix a bit of ultramarine with quinacridone rose, and I'll add this popup mixture to the center. We don't want this to bleed too much, so make sure to use a saturated mix. So you can see that this doesn't spread as much as the quinacridone rose because we are using a thicker consistency of paint here. Now let's pin a site flower on the upper right corner. I'll add a few more strokes just to make sure they stay went a bit longer. Okay, now, I'll draw in some quinacridone rose at the Bs, followed by some purple. Alright, now let's move on to our third flower. We'll paint another site flower on the upper left corner. Okay, now let's drop in some quinacridone rose. Now that's a puddle of paint here. So I'm going to use my brush to gently spread out the pigments. And now let's draw in some of that purple mixture and let it bleed. Okay, now let's add in the stems. We will make them a bit curved and overlap one another just to add interest to the composition. Now for the leaves, I'm going to vary the tonal values of my green so that I can get some darker and lighter leaves. So this will add depth to the composition. Now we also make these leaves, coal and Ben in different directions just to make it look a bit more interesting. Okay, now let's fill in the empty spaces with some flower buds. And we can also add some lighter leaves in the background to further add depth to the painting. Okay, next, I'm going to use Naples yellow to add some statements to our front-facing flower. Now makes sure that the flower is completely dry. Before you add in the statements. You can also use yellow ocher. If you don't have Naples, yellow are darker, nice flower buds a bit more with some quinacridone rose. And for the final step, I'm going to add some veins on our flowers. Here. I'm using a very diluted mix of quinacridone rose. And I'm varying the length and thickness of these veins. Okay, so this completes our painting. I hope you've enjoyed painting this. And don't forget to share this in the project gallery so that I can give you some feedback. 5. Colorful Florals: In this lesson, we are going to paint this composition of colorful floras. I'll start by preparing a watery mix of Naples yellow. Now, you can also use yellow ocher if you don't have Naples yellow. And we'll start by painting a front-facing flower. So I'm just painting some irregular shaped petals. Now to make sure that this layer stays wet, I'm going to add in a bit more paint on top of the first layer. Okay, next, I'll load my size six brush with some quinacridone rose. And I'll drop this to the center and let it bleed into the wet petals. Also drop this on the edges of some other petals. Now, if you don't want the paint to spread too much, make sure that your mixture is in too watery. Or you can remove any excess paint on a paper towel before you drop in the color. Okay, Now let's paint our second flower on the lower left corner. So I'm going to use a yellow mixture as the base layer. And I'll touch this lower left petal. Now since the first flower is still wet, we can create a seamless blend of colors between these two petals. So for this yellow flower, I'm just going to paint four petals. And to make sure that this layer stays wet the bit longer, I'm just going to drop in a bit more paint before we move on to our next step. Okay, next, I'll load my brush with some burnt sienna. And I'll add this to the center. And also along the edges of some of the petals. Now to add more contrast in this flower, I'm going to randomly drop in some violet while the flower is still wet. So while these two flowers are still wet, I'm going to paint some stems and leaves here so that I can get some nice color bleeds. I'll touch this wet petal here to allow the pigments to bleed into this leaf. So here we have created some very nice scalably. And to make it look a bit more interesting, I'll vary the colors of my leaves by dropping in a darker shade of green while the base layer is still wet. I'll also add a bit of yellow to my green mixture to create a warmer shade of green. Okay, now let's complete these two flowers by adding some statements to the flower center. So I'm just using a bit of burnt sienna to fill in the center. Alright, now let's work on the upper part of our painting. So since we already have two front-facing flowers, Let's add some site flowers to this composition. So for the first site flower, I'm going to use yellow ocher as a base layer. And we'll paint this facing the upper-left corner. Okay, next, I'll add a few strokes of burnt sienna just to give it a bit of volume. Okay, now let's darken it with a bit of brown so that it doesn't look too flat. While this flower is still wet, we're going to pin in the stems and leaves so that we can get some nice color bleeds. Now, I'll drop in a darker shade of green while the base layer is still wet. This adds dimension to the leaves so they don't look flat. Okay, so here I'm just dropping in a bit of shadow green. Alright, I'm going to darken the flower bit more because right now it looks a bit flat. So I'm going to use a more saturated mix of brown. And I'm just going to add a few strokes here and there. Okay, now let's paint our second side flower. So to make our composition look a bit more interesting, we're going to paint this flower facing a different direction. Use a mixture of quinacridone, rose, and violet as the base layer and butane this facing the upper right corner. Okay, next, I'll add a bit of ultramarine to my mixture. And I'm going to use this to darken some parts of the flower to create some color variation in the flour. And I'll extend this petal here with just water on my brush. So I'm using clean water to pull out the adjacent pigments. Okay, now let's paint the stem and leaves. The leaves are very the tonal values by using the pooling technique, where I'll use clean water to pull out some green pigments. And then I'll drop in a different shade of green while the base layer is still wet. Alright, now let's add some statements. I'll use yellow ocher followed by some burnt sienna. Now to add depth to our painting, we are going to paint some muted leaves in the background. Here. I'm just using a watery mix of green and yellow ocher. Okay, Now for the final step, I'll add some final details on our flowers, where I will darken the statements on the pink flower with some burnt sienna. And for the yellow flower, I'll use a bit of violet. Okay, so this completes our painting. I hope you've enjoyed painting this. And don't forget to share this in the project gallery so that I can give you some feedback. 6. Pink & Purple Florals: In this lesson, we are going to paint these lovely pink and purple flower rose. Let's start with the colors. So for the base color, I'm going to use a very diluted mix of indigo. And for the pink color, I'll be using quinacridone rose. Now, if you don't have this color, feel free to use any pink or rent from your palate. And the next color is a mixture of violent and quinacridone rose. So this creates a pinkish purple shade. Okay, now let's switch out the colors. Okay, now let's start with our first flower. So I'm going to load my brush with my indigo mix. Next, I'll dip my brush in the water jar to dilute the Indigo. And I'll use this to paint the second and third petal. And now I'll drop in a bit of pink before moving on to the last two petals. Okay, I'm going to drop in a bit more paint just to make sure this layer stays wet a bit longer. And now I'm going to randomly drop in a bit of quinacridone, rose, and my pinkish purple mix. Now to create contrast in a flower, I'm going to drop in a bit of violet. So as long as this layer is still wet, we can continue dropping in colors. We can also extend the shape of the petals. And we can also use our brush to spread out some of the pigments. Okay, Now let's move on to our second flower. I'm going to touch the petal here so that I can get some nice color bleeds. And I'm going to pin a four petaled flower. Now for this last petal, I'm going to use quinacridone rose, and then I'll drop in a bit of quinacridone rose, followed by the pinkish purple mix. Alright, now let's paint some leaves between these two flowers. Now to add depth in a painting, we'll paint some leaves a bit darker and some a bit lighter. So we can do this by dropping in a darker shade of green while the base layer is still wet. We can also vary the tonal values of our green. Okay, now let's create a yellow center for flowers. So I'm just going to drop in a bit of permanent yellow deep while leaving a bit of whitespace. So while this second flower is still wet, I'm going to add a bit more contrast by dropping in a bit of file. Now, if your flower has dried out, a few free to skip this step. Alright, now let's add some leaves around our second flower. And again, I'll paint some a bit darker and some a bit lighter. Now for the third flower, I'll use a combination of indigo and quinacridone rose for the base layer. And again, I'll add in a bit more paint just to make sure this layer stays wet. A bit longer. Necks are randomly dropping a bit of the pinkish purple mix followed by some violet. Next we'll paint some leaves around this flower. Now while this flower is still wet, I'm going to quickly drop in a bit of permanent yellow deep to the center. So here I'm using a saturated mix of yellow so that it doesn't bleed too much. Alright, now let's move on to our last flower. We're going to pin a site flower on the lower left corner. So I'm going to start with a BBM. And then I'll load my brush with some indigo and followed by some quinacridone rose. Next, I'll tap in a bit of that pinkish purple and let them be on a wet pebbles. Okay, now let's paint some leaves along the stem. Next, I'll paint some leaves in the background. Here I'm using a watery mix of green earth and permanent yellow deep. Okay, now for the finishing touches, we're going to paint some statements in the flower center. So I'm going to start with burnt sienna and then I'll darken it with a bit of violet. Okay, so this completes our painting. I hope you've enjoyed painting this. And don't forget to share this in the project gallery so that I can give you some feedback. 7. Loose Anemones: In this lesson, we are going to paint a nominees in a very loose style. For the blue anemone, I'm going to use lavender as a base color. Now, if you don't have lavender, you can use a very light end diluted mix of blue, such as ultra marine or cobalt blue. And for second anemone, I'm going to use shell pink as the base layer. Now feel free to use any pastel pink or you can also use a very light and watery mix of. Okay, so we're gonna start with the blue anemone. I'm going to pin five petals using my lavender makes. Now we want this layer to stay wet. So I'm just going to add a bit more paint on top of the first layer. Okay, next, I'll add a few strokes of violet here and there while this layer is still wet. And also add this to the center. Next, I'm going to drop in a bit of ultramarine. So again, I'm just adding a few random strokes here and there. And I'll also add this to the center. So as long as the flower is still wet, we can use our brush to spread out the pigments. Okay, Now let's move on to our second anemone. I'm just going to transfer some permanent rose to my palette. Now I'm going to place our pink anemone here, where one of the petals is partially hidden behind our blue and nominee. So let's start with that petal. Touched this wet petal here, so that both colors can blend together. And then I'll pin the remaining petals. Now again, we want this layer to stay wet. So make sure that you're painting with a very wet brush. And you can also add a bit more paint if you find that some areas are starting to dry. Okay, next, I'm going to load my brush with some permanent rose and I'm going to add a few strokes here and there. And let that bleed into the wet petals. Next, I'll add some violet to my permanent rose mix. And I'm going to drop this on a wet petals. Okay, now let's pin a site anemone on the upper left corner. I'll add a bit of permanent rose to my lavender mix to create a lilac shade. This side and nominee will be partially hidden behind our ping anemone. Now to add some dimension to this anemone so that it doesn't look flat. I'm going to add some ultramarine to my mix to create some color variation in the flower. I'll add a bit of leaves over here just to fill in the gap. And then I'll complete arsenal nominee by painting the petals in the background. Okay, now let's add in the center. So I'll just tap in some indigo while leaving some white spaces in-between these dots. Alright, now let's paint some leaves in between the flowers. So I'm just painting some very loose and thin wavy strokes. I'm using a very diluted mix of green earth. And then I'll drop in a bit of shadow green to darken some parts of the leaves. So this creates more depth and contrast in a painting. Now let's paint some anemone butts on the lower-right corner, just the interests to the composition. So I'm using my permanent rose mix and then I'll drop in a bit of violet just to make it look more dimensional. Now let's add some stems and leaves. Now to create balance in the composition. I'll also add some leaves on the lower left corner. Also darken some of the leaves just to add depth and contrast. Let's paint another flower back over here. Now I'm going to extend the leaves on the lower left corner. First, I'm going to add some splatters of green paint. And then using a very wet brush, I'm just going to paint some very loose and random strokes. Now switching to my calligraphy brush, I'll use water to pull out some of the wet pigment. This creates a very loose and flowy effect. Now let's work on our flower centers. So I'll start with a light mix of indigo. And then using a more saturated mix. I'll add the statements around this center. Next, I'll darken some parts are the center, while leaving some parts and darken. This will create a bit of highlight in the center. And now repeat the same process for the second anemone. Okay, now let's add some veins on D and nominees. I'll start with the blue anemone. I'm adding a bit of permanent rose to my ultramarine mix to create a very diluted mix of violet. And I'll use this to add some veins on our flower. So I'm just randomly adding some veins here and there. And I'm varying the length and thickness of these veins. Okay, now let's move on to our second anemone. So here I'm using a diluted mix of permanent rose and I'm adding some veins on some of the petals. Now, moving on to our site and nominee, here, I'm using a mix of lilac and ultramarine to paint the veins. Next, I'll pin a few more veins on our first two anemone. Now for the finishing touches, I'm going to add some textures on our flower buds to make them look less flat. So I'm just going to add some thin strokes. Now the leaves on the lower-left corner looks a bit flat. So I'm going to add some darker strokes here. This will add depth and contrast to our painting. And lastly, I'll add in some random leaves here and there just to fill in the empty gaps. So this completes our painting. I hope you've enjoyed painting this and do share your projects in the project gallery so that I can give you some feedback. 8. Final Thoughts: So congratulations on completing the class. I hope you've enjoyed this class and you've learned something new. I look forward to seeing your paintings. So please upload them in the project gallery so that I can give you some feedback. And if you have any questions, just post them in the discussion section and I'll get back to you. Now if you find this class helpful, I would really appreciate it if you could leave a review for this class. So thank you for taking this class and I hope to see you in my next class.