Painting Watercolor Hydrangea Illustration in Procreate

1. Introduction: Painting flowers is a joyful way to explore color and texture and also have fun in procreate. Hi, I'm Eva, and I'm full time artist. And in this class, I will share with you how you can paint the beautiful hydrna flower. The bloom of this flower can feel very tricky at first glance, but we will break it down into simple shapes. We'll begin with loose practice sketches so you can see how to simplify the flower head and each petal using just a handful of confident strokes. Once we go over these warm up sketches, you will feel more confident to tackle the whole illustration with color, depth, and details. And during the process, we will also look at few color options. Then we will move into the illustration itself, first painting the flower shapes, then building the depth. And after we are happy with our values and colors on our flower, we will finish with beautiful details, leaves and small touches that make the hydrangea illustration and even if you are a beginner, I will guide you through every step. Grab your iPad, open a new canvas, and let's start. 2. Petal shapes: So let's start with practicing the petal shape and overall shape of the flower by just sketching without color. We will move on to the color version later on. For sketching, I will be using a soft pencil brush, but you can use any brush that you prefer. So to start with these flower petals, the best way is to start with a circle. If you're not comfortable with drawing circles, you can just draw a circle, tap on the canvas, and procreate will help you to create perfect circle. Now when you have a circle, create points on the edges, and then you can connect these points. So you are creating kind of like a target. And now you can create a middle of the flower, and then you can just create these type of shapes to connect to the circle in the middle. We are creating a little bit wider on the edges and then going narrow towards the middle. Kind of like a teardrop shape. So you will connect all of these points, and at this point, we are not creating any overlap, even though in real life, the flowers are overlapping. I mean, the petals are often overlapping. So now what to do after you have this simple flower shape? Well, you can rotate this circle in many different angles. So depending under what angle you are looking at the flower. So the circle can be more like ellipse when it's more squashed. So it doesn't have to be perfect, and you can play around with different shapes. So let's fill in one of these shapes when we are looking from the side. You will do the same. You will add these points on the edges. Then you will add the middle. I will start with this petal, which is further away from us. Then we can add also this and the one next to you is a little bit different because we can see side of the petal as well. You'll do this kind of half oval, and then you can connect the petal. So every time the petal is kind of closer to you, you can connect these points. And the petal closer to you will look a little bit more like folded or with a bend. You can do that also on these other ones. So now you can already start with this folded petal if you want, you can play with the shape and then just connect to the middle. So you can practice doing this few more times. So sometimes you can create the fold bigger and sometimes smaller. And you can also try adding the lines kind of coming from the middle of the flower to create the veins, which you can often see on the petals. You can also test out the overlap. First, I will do that one petal, and then I can create another one just here on the side, and the second one will be a little bit hidden. You can play around with a little bit of distance of the petals and that overlap. But you can keep the petals also as they are so they don't need to overlap. So you can stay within the circle, or you can also go a little bit outside if you want. And when you are happy with your flowers, you can reduce the opacity of this layer and you can redefine the flowers with more sharp brush. I like to use a flat pencil brush and then just draw over these shapes. I need to make the brush bigger. And you can vary the pressure of your brush as well. It really doesn't have to be perfect. I like the wonkiness as well because we are not trying to be geometrically perfect. All right, perfect. And now, what about the whole flower head? So let's move on to the next part and I can show you how you can construct the flower head. 3. Flower head: All right, so now I will hide this layer. I mean, both of these layers, you can also group them. And now I will create a new layer where we can sketch the overall shape of a hydranga. So the overall shape is usually round, but how would you arrange the flowers there? You can again start with the circle and you can get the help of procreate, especially if you are drawing bigger circle. And then you can duplicate this circle and make it smaller and just make it fit within this other one. We are trying to align them. You can see these alignment guides to help you. Now you can draw those other ellipses or circles within the first central one. We will have bigger flowers in the middle and then you can do the same as we previously did. And draw those four petals within each circle. So we will see most of these flowers from the front, so you don't have to draw that folded petal. Now you can add those other petals on the outer edge with those more tilted and slanted ellipses. So you already know how to draw those. So you can just fill in the shapes here with the folded petals and you can play around with the sizes of these petals. Here I'm just creating very rough sketch because I know that I can adjust it on a separate layer. Same as before, I can select I can reduce the opacity of these layers because they are just my guide, and then I can create a new layer where I can redefine the sketch even more. And if you want them to overlap, you can make them much bigger. And you can also delete these parts. And of course, you can start sketching bigger flowers from the start, so you don't have to make them bigger, especially if you don't want to end up with pixelated lines because you want to make sure if you are drawing in a bigger scale and you want to keep lines, especially, the lines are kind of crisp from the beginning. But because this is just a sketch, I don't mind if some of these lines are not super precise. You can also rotate them. And then just fill the whole shape. Now I can just move these layers and I can show you one more layout idea. I will swap back to this soft expressive brush or another expressive brush that I like, which is quite soft. If you want to have a side view of a hydrna, I need to move this little bit higher. Now I will create a new layer. If you want to have that side view, you can create this mushroom overall shape. So basically, something like that, then you can put the leaves here. And then you would put one of the bigger flowers here in the middle and then you will create those ellipses here on the side. Also here in the back, creating that overlap, especially if you don't want to have too many flowers or petals on the flower head. The same way, you can add the leaves to this one as well. Of course, Hydranga has very specific leaves, and I will show you how you can create the leaves in the colored version in the following lessons. Now let's move to the next part where we can test out different colors. For 4. Color: All right. And now let's talk about colors that you can consider for your hydrangea flower. So very often, you can see the hydrna flowers in this type of realm of colors. So from blue turquoise to purple violets and pink color shades. So for this part, I would swap from sketching brush to a painterly brush, but you can choose any brush for this type of color marking, so you don't have to use the same brush as I'm using. So to start with kind of bluish purple tones, we can think about this type of hue range between green turquoise and blue colors, and you can move the slider somewhere on the top right of the value wheel. And you can test out if you like the color. So this one is quite nice desaturated blue color that you can consider for your flour. But if you prefer more saturated blue color tones, you can also move the slider a little bit here to the left towards the greens and move the slider also a little bit higher up to the top right and test out that color. So this is also very nice blue color tone. But if you are still thinking, okay, I want to have even more saturation, you can move the slider more to the top right. And test out that type of very nice rich, light blue color. So this is something you can consider for your blue color shade. And if you prefer using more purple colors, you can move the slider towards the purple and violet color tones and test out purple. And here we can move the slider more to the middle. And test out this type of purple, kind of nice hue valurne. This is quite saturated and rich purple color, which I really like. Now you can also think about, oh, maybe you would like your flowers to be very light purple, this pastly color shade. You can consider this type of pastly very soft look as well. Then you can also move towards the red tones and think about, like, Oh, maybe you want to have a very nice and pink hydrangea, because you can see these beautiful pink shades as well. And you can even push it more towards the red tones, if you want to have very nice warm light pink. And this can be also very nice color choice for your flower. So think about what color hue you would prefer for your hydranga. And I really like the purple color tones for this type of illustration. So I will be using purple color spectrum. For our project illustration. But as I said, you can test out different color hues and go for your favorite and still follow the same process. But you will just use a different hue for the base color, and then you will build from there. All right. So I will be using purple color tones going forward. So now it's up to you to choose the color. As I said, I will be using purple color tones, and now we can move on to the next part. 5. Brushes: Before you start with the project illustration, you can test out different brushes that you potentially use during the project illustration. So you don't have to use the same brushes as I will be using. So that's just one example. So now I will show you different brushes that you can consider. So if you open brushes and existing brush sets that come with procreate, you can, for example, try out wet acrylic brush. So you can make brush bigger and test out painting simple petals. With this brush, and you can try to vary the pressure. So it will create this nice opacity. So now I didn't lift the brush, and you can see that there are different brush strokes created within these shapes. And you can test out also smaller brush and painting five petals. For the simplified flour, because we will be creating different flower shapes, and you can decide if you want to do four petals or five petals. So you can kind of alternate how many petals you add for your small flower heads when we will be building the whole hydrna flower head. Now, if we move to the artistic folder with different brushes, you can test out, for example, brush called Old Beach, which is quite nice as well. And again, try to vary the brush pressure when you are painting these petals. So pressing harder and softer to fill in these shapes. So it's nice warm up exercise as well. So now I can paint five petals. And you can try different shapes, some longer petals and shorter. Practicing those shapes that we looked at in previous lessons. Another brush that you can try is the wild light. Let's find it. It's here on the top. You can also try creating different shapes. Let me make the brush a little bit bigger and can sample lighter purple with a soft pressure, you can test out creating petals. So this one gives you this JGI edge, which is very nice. Then another one is this one, the Plymsle, which is also quite interesting because it has this nice overlap. Let's make it bigger again. Okay, not as big, so you can test out also size of the brush. So this one has that nice texture. And you can really play with the size of the petals and the shape, so it doesn't have to be geometrically perfect. Now I will take this darker purple, just stepping on the pencil where it activates my eyedropper. You might have a different shortcut for that. Then I will go to the brushes again, and now I will take this one, which also the name is hard to pronounce, so I will not try, but this one is also quite nice. So you can test it out and you can see with different brush pressure, you create a little bit different texture. So not lifting the brush, and you can create these interesting brush strokes. And you can see all of these flowers look quite different from each other because we use different brushes, right? So you can test out the brushes that you think you would like for these type of petals. For example, some brushes that you already have or the preexisting brushes that come with procreate will be using my favorite brushes. Again, you don't have to use the same brushes as I will be using. Just test out which brushes you like and try to use your favorite brushes so you can see how the flowers will look at the end. When you have your favorite brush selected for painterly brush strokes or more textured look for the flowers, let's move to the next lesson and we will start painting the flowers and the petals. 6. Painting flowers: Alright, let's paint. And because it's quite complicated flower with lots of details, we will make our life easier, and we'll start painting with just a few flowers, and then we will add the details. And you can find all the brushes that I will be using linked in the description, but you can use any other brushes that you prefer. From the colors, choose purple, pink or blue color as a base for your flour, and then you can also adjust the colors later. So from the brushes, I will be using the brush number nine from the watercolor brush set. And we will start with a few petals, which will be overlapping a little bit, but I am not lifting the pencil or the brush, so I have a little bit of the texture there left. So now I will create another petal here. I'm not painting over the other petal, but a little bit of overlaps all right. Here there will be another petal, I'm leaving some space for that. The last one will go here. Now onto the next one. We want to have a little bit of variety in those. Now I will start with one petal, a little bit shorter than one little bit bigger and slight overlap. And this one is a little bit more like a triangle or two triangles. And then this one will have a slight bend. Then I will add a smaller one here. Still not lifting the pencil. Now we will create another one which is tilted a little bit more so we see the petals more from the side. Okay, let's do another one like that. All right. And let's paint another one. So now I will take a different brush just to add a little bit of detail in the middle of the flower. And for that, I will use slightly darker color, and I will do that on a separate layer. So I will draw lines coming out of the middle of the flower just to mimic the details and the veins that are kind of in the middle of those petals. I'm using these radial brush strokes, and I'm also varying the pressure from lower to stronger pressure, lower to higher pressure. So you can kind of create that variety there and create these radial strokes going in the middle to each of these flowers. Okay. This one is a little bit different because this one is sideways. So we are creating these lines going to the edge here. Perfect. Now I will also blur these lines a little bit and I will use the brush number 19 still from the watercolor set just to reduce the sharpness of the strokes at the end. Perfect. Now I will go back to the layers and I will create another layer and I will create more definition on the edges of the flowers. I will use the sketching brush, as you might know from some of my other art that I like to add a little bit of definition, especially where there is a little bit of shadow. These petals are overlapping here, so I'm adding a little bit of the definition to some of these areas. I'm using also soft and higher pressure and lower pressure. You are creating these type of brush strokes, soft, high soft pressure. All right, so almost done with this part. Perfect. Now we can zoom out and we can select all our layers and just move them a little bit higher because we'll be arranging them into a circle or a ball how the hydrangers are growing. Before that, we have to add a little bit of the background here, and I will select this layer with the flowers. Tap on the icon, click on select. Now we have the area selected. And on the layer below, I will drop the white color into the object. You can see the threshold. I will use the highest threshold possible, there is the opacity there. I will fill each of these flowers by tapping on continue filling, and this should fill all my flowers. Here you can see the flowers are there. Now I can deselect and I can duplicate this layer a few times. There is enough opacity if I want to paint under it. Let's check. I will swap two different color. And now the opacity is better, and we still have texture from our brush. 7. Arranging flowers: All right. So now you can group these layers, and you can duplicate the whole group. So I will hide this group and I will flatten this one. So we have the flowers as one object. So now I will select each flower, so I can have them on a separate layer, swiping down cut and paste. Now it's on a separate layer, so I will do that for the other flowers as well. Now I can rearrange these flowers. So they create this half circle or full circle if you want to create this ball of hydrnger. So I will use these flowers on the edges. So I will rotate them and put them on the edge, but also at the bottom of these other flowers. I can duplicate this one, rotate it, duplicate Perfect. Now I have this flower, which also fed on the edges, and I will duplicate it again and rotate as well. Then we have these main flowers which are quite big, and we want to have them on the top. And the same goes for this one. We can also make them a little bit smaller so we can create these gaps in between. And you can also use the warp tool. Perfect. So now, 8. Adding depth: Perfect. So now I will merge all of these layers. And now I will paint under this layer and I will create the shadow layer showing some of the flowers in the background. And for that, I will use a loose war brush, and I will paint with darker blue color. And I will loosely paint behind these flowers. And I can also alternate and use a purple color. So we have more colors in the background. It's already starting to look great. But let's add few of these petals just in the background where we are missing some part. So I will create new layer. I will use slightly darker color than we have on the other flowers already, and I will go to the original brush that I used for the flowers, and I will just add few more petals. Perfect. Now let's create more volume. So I will create a new layer, and I will choose a darker color. So like darker blue or purple color. And now on the separate layer, I will paint on the bottom half of this hydrangea. And you don't have to be super precise. Just select half of it and trust the process. But make sure you are on a separate layer. Now, go to the layer and set the layer to multiply. Then let's merge all of these layers together, and now we can set this layer with a clipping mask by tapping on the layer and selecting clipping mask. Now you can reduce the opacity a little bit and you can smudge the edges with grainy smudge tool. So now we imagine that we have light coming from the top left. I will reduce the opacity of this one even more, and you can test out different blending modes. Also, this very saturated one looks quite nice or darker color. 9. Color variety: Now, create a new layer and we'll add a little bit of color variety. I will select a lighter orange pink tone, and I will draw on few petals on the top. For that, I will swap to more flat brush. Bush number brush number 30, in this case, and I will paint on top of some of the leaves. And this will be quite subtle, so you don't have to be very precise in this one. So after you paint it on few of the petals, you can go back to brushes and set the layer to overlay. We'll reduce the opacity slightly, and now you can play with few of the other colors. So you can add something a little bit more orangy are also very pink. And then you can also just blend it a little bit. So it's more subtle. And we can add also a little bit of the blue because I think that's a nice addition, and I will do that on some of the petals here more closer to the bottom. And it can be even darker blue. You can add also some lighter blue on some of the petals, and I'm keeping the lighter color closer to the edges of the petal. And we can blend it together with the other colors again with the same smudge tool. Perfect. And now to add a little bit more detail, we can add the middle part of the flour. It's easier to have that on a separate layer. So I will use the brush with a little bit more detailing, and I will use this either light blue or you can use a very light kind of almost yellowy beige and draw a circle in some of the flowers. So you are kind of doing these movements with the wrist. So there is a little bit more variety, and you can kind of vary the pressure as well. So here we don't see the middle, so I'm not adding the white or yellow dot there. Perfect. And to emphasize the middle part of the flower, you can add a little bit of this dark blue close to it, and I will add that with this brush, which is more like flat brush. I need to make the brush a little bit smaller, and I'll just paint a little bit closer to some of these circles. Just to add slide the definition there. But this is very optional step, so you don't have to add that. Perfect. 10. Painting leaves: We can add leaf, so we have some nice detail around. To do that, I will create a new layer. I will use the same brush as I did for the flowers and I will draw a leaf with this jiggeryhard or broken edge. I will feel the shape with the brush strokes because I want to keep some of the texture. I will repeat that with two more leaves. And I will duplicate this layer to increase the opacity and on a separate layer, I will create more colors. So something a little bit more blue. So I'll paint on this side of the leaf. And then a little bit here, and also on this leaf. Then I will add a little bit of this desaturated red color, almost brown, and then also warm green and also darker purple just under the leaves. Now I will set the layer to color burn and reduce the opacity and also smudge it a little bit. Now I will add details to the leaves. On a separate layer, I will take the pencil brush and I will softly draw these veins of the leaf. And and now I'll reduce the opacity and it looks already pretty great. But we can add few more details like we have these lines on the flowers. So we can add few of those lines also to the edges of the leaves. So I will create that on a separate layer with a sketching brush. I will add a little bit of line here as well. Perfect. 11. Adding details: And now I will create new layer and we can add some watercolor splitters. So I will sample the color from the flour, and I will add some splitters around, and I will try out a few different ones. So there is slide variety, and I will also add all the details in different sizes, just tapping on the canvas, and I will also add few green ones and also a little bit of yellow, and I think that kind of adds the super nice detail. You can always delete a few if you feel like maybe you have too many. When you are happy with all the details, you can select all the layers and group them. And if you have enough layers available, you can just duplicate all of these layers and everything becomes even more vibrant. Or you can keep it with these textures. I can flatten this group, and I can also uncover the paper texture and art texture because I was working in my paper texture template. You can always import this artwork into the paper texture template to have additional textures. So you can have these textures on top of the art. So if I have this duplicated artwork, everything is even more vibrant. When you are happy with everything, you can duplicate the canvas and you can also merge these layers, so everything is even more vibrant. We can also go to the adjustments and you can go to curves, and we can move the sliders slightly. So we can adjust some of the vibrancy here. So as you can see, you can play around with this part slightly. Perfect. I quite like how everything looks now when it's even more vibrant. I'm happy with this one. All right. Amazing. Now to mimic the focus of camera where something is more in focus and something is a little bit more blurry, we will smudge some of the parts of the flower and to do that, I will duplicate the layer so we can adjust the intensity, and I will use the smudge from the brush number 19, and I will smudge some of the edges here. So I will keep this part more in focus. You can see that this one is smudging little bit outside so we can use the clipping mask and clip it to this part. Perfect. Now I will reduce the opacity. You can see now it's very sharp with zero opacity, something like this in between. All right. I hope that you enjoyed this illustration with color, depth, and details. Please take me if you share your artwork, if you followed this video.