Radiant Roses in Watercolor: Painting with Modern, Loose and Expressive Strokes

1. Introduction: About ten years ago, my illustration background and my new found gardening hobby collided, forming a complete circle for me, painting botanicals. I found the joy of process through studying the plants and sketching and the therapeutic side of mixing color and completing the final painting. Looking closely, observing the beautiful shapes, colors, and patterns provided a deep appreciation and a stronger connection to nature. Every time I found a new plant or even a piece of a plant that was interesting, I just had to paint it. Hi, friends. I'm Jenny Ka, also known as Living Pattern, a watercolor artist with a focus on botanicals. My artistic journey has led me to fun collaborations with brands like WestElm, Chronicle Books, and Paintbrush Studio. I offer originals, prints, and Licensed start like repeat patterns. You can also find me teaching local watercolor workshops. I love spreading the joy of painting. A recent trip to a local rose garden left me completely inspired. Today, I'm going to show you how to paint these modern intuitive and expressive roses in watercolor. I'll guide you through everything step by step. No worries if you're a beginner that has never picked up a brush. I've got you covered. We will start with a quick sketch composition using only see curves and lines. I'll keep it simple to follow a promise. Then you'll watch a demonstration of basic watercolor techniques, color mixing, and mark making. After that, we will explore the different perspectives of roses and how to achieve them. Then we will practice the final tiny details and surrounding foliage. Once you've got those steps down, we will bring it all together as we paint a rose floral composition. By the end of this class, you'll leave with more than just a finished piece of art. You'll carry with you a deeper understanding of modern watercolor techniques and a new appreciation for the timeless beauty of roses. I'm so excited you're here, and I hope you enjoy the class. If you're ready, let's paint some radiant roses together. 2. Class Outline & Materials Needed: There are lots of flowers that I love to paint, but few are as iconic as the rose. I'd love to paint them because there's a certain calm, but deep emotion when I look at them. Their shape is really quite unique as well, the way their petals curl and their form changes as they bloom. We're going to try and capture that form, and even some of that emotion using water colors and a series of simple steps I've developed. Let's start by going over some of the supplies you're going to need. For this project, I recommend arches, 140 pound cold pressed watercolor paper, a mixed media pad. Watercolor tubes. I'll be using permanent rose, Joan Brilliant and olive green, a size four and a size ten round brush. Three vessels of water, two watercolor palettes, a squirt bottle, a foam brush, a spray bottle, a rag, a metal cork backed ruler, an HB pencil, and an eraser. I'll leave a list of these materials in the class description as well so you can refer back to the metro convenience. 3. Preparing Watercolor Paper: In this lesson, we will go over the basics of watercolor paper and look at some key steps to take before starting our painting. My favorite brand of watercolor paper is arches, 100% cotton rag for its absorbing qualities, paper color and weight. It can be sold by the block or by the sheet. Today, we're using a 16 by 20 sheet, and we will be cutting that down to a couple of nine by twelves. In the watercolor world, people either use hot press, which is smooth, or coal press, which is rough. So why are we using cold press? Cal press has texture, which creates little ridges and valleys for the watercolor to sit into. This gives it less chance to move around the page, and you can get those bleeds and funky marks that we love. Let's cut our paper down to size now from this sheet. You may have seen watercolor with a decold edge before. And if you've wondered how to get that decorative look, I'll show you how. You need your cork backed metal ruler and a pencil for this. So here is what our final painting size paper is going to be like. It's just a nine by 12. And then here's our 16 by 20 sheet. One thing I want to say, before I do the cutting down. You need to make sure you're using the right side. So the way you can tell to use the right side of the paper is arches will have a little mark where see, it says arches. So you can read arches on the wrong side of the paper. So this is also going to be smoother. So you're gonna want to flip that over, and you're going to feel for that rough texture, okay? So the rough texture is the right side of the paper, and the smooth side of the paper with arches written on it is the back side of the paper. So we're going to make our decled edge, and we're gonna cut size our nine by 12 paper size out of the back side of the paper. So backside up. So just grab your ruler. We want all the decod edge to be the same. So what we're going to do is we're going to take an inch. Let's take an inch off one side, okay? So put your ruler right there on the edge, mark 1 " and put it on another edge and mark 1 ". Alright, so put your ruler. Cork side down on the back of the paper, and hold your ruler really, really, really solid. Like, just like that, and grab the corner of the paper now, while holding your ruler down, start to pull up. Alright? And you'll see You'll start to get that cool decled edge. This is so simple. And it makes it look so much more expensive. But yeah, so this is what you're left with. Save this for scrap paper. This is awesome for watercolor testing or scrap. Alright, now you got one side. So what we're gonna do is we're going to go back in. Now we're gonna measure for our nine inch mark. So put your roller down. Nine inch. And roller down again and nine inch. Same thing. Alright, except this time, since we want our deckle edge to go that way. We're going to put our roller there on the inside. So this is our paper. This is our scrap. Now, take the paper up just like that and pull. And pull it C how pulling it away, so towards the other side, kind of coming into the roller, that'll give me a tight deckle. Then you left with this. There's one edge. Last thing I have to do is measure out 12. Be All right. There we go. Now, here we are. Last ugh. So now we're going to line up just the same way, on the inside. So on the paper part of the marks. Now on that side, 'cause we want our decled edge to be. Alright. So push down and pull back just like that. There you go. And that's it. That is it. Oh, yeah, look how pretty that is. Now you'll know why I did it on the wrong side 'cause see you get that little line. This is the wrong side of the paper, and this is the right side of the paper. So you want to cut coming up off the wrong side of the paper. And this looks really good in a shadow box frame. Have you heard of watercolor paper sizing before? It's a thin layer of gelatin put on the surface of the paper at the mill during production. Sizing is used to alter the absorbent qualities of the paper. Watercolor paper absorbs paint directly into the fibers like a sponge without the sizing. So it's best to remove for achieving super vibrant colors. Now I'll show you how to remove it. So for this, you're going to need your spray bottle and your three inch foam brush. You're going to want your foam brush to be just a little bit damp. So what I'm going to do because this is completely dry, I'm just going to take my sprayer and spray the front and the back just lightly, and then I'm going to push the water around, and get it just lightly damp. The reason I'm doing that is because if it's totally dry, there's a chance it'll be a little abrasive on the paper, and it'll start to pull up the cotton, and you'll see a little cotton balls. Alright, so we're on the painting side of the paper. Don't forget. This is the rough side. And we're going to take our spray bottle, and we're just going to give it one light wash spray. Like, seven or eight spritzes. Alright. So put the bottle aside, and then you're going to go top to bottom, just taking that water and smoothing it on the paper and also removing it. Alright, I'm going to kind of, like, kneel down and look on the side and see how much water is on there. I want just a little bit more. So let's give it just a few more spritzes, especially on the top and bottom. And I'm going to do one more run around the edges and one more top to bottom. Alright, now our paper is totally prepped and ready for painting. Join me in the next lesson where I'll show you how to mix your paint, one of my favorite parts and set up your palette. 4. Mixing Your Paint Palette: Before we start painting, I want to review how I set up my palette. I've got one mason jar, two smaller bowls of water for rinsing my brushes, and a little squirt bottle for adding water to my palettes. We're going to be working with three colors. Permanent rose, Joan Brilliant and olive green. We're going to be using two palettes, one for warm colors, and another for cool colors. Now, let's start mixing. We're going to start off by adding a little permanent rose, one dab into one of the wells of my porcelain palette. Just about that much. A quarter teaspoon will be fine. Then we're going to grab some of this join brilliant, and we're going to put it on the exact opposite side of the palette. One quarter teaspoon, just like that. Now, we're going to take our squirt bottle, and we're going to put about half a teaspoon of water in each of these four empty wells. You can leave this middle one alone. We're going to mix up the dark rose color first. And then we're going to gradually get lighter. So grab half of the permanent rose on your bust, just like that, and start mixing it into the next well. So we clockwise. It's okay that it's starting to spill into that. That's just fine. Water color is simply water plus pigment. So you really want to get all of the globs, like, all of the blobs and globs completely stirred because you're just combining that pigment and the water, and you're leaving a nice smooth. Like, this should kind of look like milk, like a milk consistency. Alright, so let's stop there. Now, a bunch has spilled into this well, which is totally fine, and now we're going to not rinse our brush. We have some permanent rose pigment on there, and we're going to mix it into the next one. So, see, that gives us a nice gradiation of color. So I want this to be very, very, very light. So I'm going to put water almost to the top and mix around. All right. Now, let's test where these colors went. First, we're going to swish of rinse off our brush here in this jar. And then one of these is for warm colors, and one of these is for cool colors. So let's rinse again. L's just like a double rinse. Dab off, and now we're going to test our colors. So this is just the pigment out of the tube. Let's see where this is. Alright. Oh, yeah. That's pretty. That's one of my favorite colors out of the tube. Alright. Now, let's keep that pigment on the brush. Let's give this one little swirl. I don't like to waste pigment in the water jar, so I always try to pull it back into the palette to get it off. All right. So let's see where this color landed. Oh, that's so pretty. What a nice. That's perfect. That's like your mid ground pink, okay? Now, I'm going to swish off. Once and twice. Get it nice and clean. And I'm gonna grab this light color and see where it went. Oh, that's so pretty. Okay, perfect. So this is good. You have your dark, dark, your middle, and your light. Alright. Let's rinse that off. Rinse it off twice. See how much pigment is still in that brush. This is why we do like a two ns. Alright. Do a little dab off. Now we're going to go to the peaches. We want these two colors to almost be married. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to pull a hint. This goes a long way. Just a hint of this permanent rose. If you can even see on the brush, how much that is. It's barely on the tip of the brush. And I'm going to go into this peach color here. So see what I'm doing. I'm just adding like a bare hint of the rose to my pure pigment, Jane Brilliant. What that's going to do is it's just going to make it cohesive. You're going to wipe off that extra pigment. Now, with that still on your brush, you're going to go into this next well. Ooh, see how it gives it that, like, just a little bit of a pink, and you can drop some of that water back in here too. I'm going to completely get that pigment off. And now I'm going to go without washing my brush off, go into the next one. So that's just going to create that lighter color. All right. So again, I want a lot of that to work with, so I'm just going to add a little bit of water. Alright. There we go. Alright, now, let's go ahead and test these out. Alright. So here's the one brilliant, permanent rose kind of mix we made. Let's put it at the top. That's so pretty. Love that. Okay, now, just keep this on your brush and, like, load it into here. Let's try to see what this color L. Oh, yeah. Oh, that's perfect. See how it's got just a hint of that in it, but it's far enough where it's going to give some cool depth. Alright, now, let's do a rents cause we want to see what that lighter value really is. One, two, and grab some of this. Oh, yeah. Look at that. Gorgeous. Just a hint. So, we're only using olive green through this. We're going to use a dark olive green, a middle ground olive green, and maybe two light greens. Okay. So I'm just going to load this in my palette. I'm going to use a lot. Alright, so, same thing. We're going to take our square bottle, and I'm going to work clockwise. Alright, so grab about half of that and start mixing in a circle. And if it starts to pour in, that's okay. One, two. See, I didn't even rinse my brush. Stir stir, stir. See that. And and now to this one, see, I'm not rinsing my brush. This is such an easy way to make a quick palette. Now we've got pure, dark, medium, light, and ultra light. Okay? Now, you're going to want to rinse this off. Rents in the main jar. And then go back for a second wash. This is going to be our cool ns off jar. And look how cute it is. All right. Now, let's test these. So this is our dark. Oh, yeah. That's our dark dark. And actually, let's throw that pigment in there. Kind of wipe it off. Okay. Alright. Let's rinse that off. And we're going to go here. It's pretty. Rinse off again. Alright. That's one, two. That's a night. That's good. I'll keep that transition. That's a little strong of a transition, but this could be really good in the long run. Alright, and then super pale. Alright. Perfect. Now we have our palette ready. Our colors are completely swatched out. Next, it's time to put our brush to work with some practice mark making. H. 5. Practice Mark-Making: Now, let's practice some mark making before we move on to our final painting. A practice pad is great to have around because with watercolor, once a mark is made on the final painting, you won't be able to remove it. You will often want to test out marks before adding them. It's also a great place to get to know your brushes. So let's start with an exercise to learn our brushes and all the marks they are capable of making. What I'm using here is a size four and ten round brush. These are made by silver brush, and they're from their black velvet collection. They carry huge amounts of color and then release in a slow controlled manner. There are lots of brands of watercolor round brushes that will be fine to use. I just personally love silver brushes. Now I'm going to show you the different ways to hold the brushes for different marks. You can follow along with me if you're ready. We will fill up a whole page here. Don't worry about what this looks like. This is just preliminary, and you're having fun. We're going to start up top with the vertical hold. Now let's start off with some 1 " little dashes holding the brush up and down, just like this, and let's kiss the paper just like that. I just want you to see what we can do using the vertical hold and this tip of our brush. Now, I'm just pushing my arm in a circular motion, almost like I'm pedaling a bike. See, it's just one little mark. My elbows not on the table. My hands are not on the table. Just one little d d, d. Alright, that's what the tip of the brush can do. Okay? Now, let's load up. You only need to load up one time for each row. And let's go the opposite direction, and now let's start pushing the brush at the top, pulling it, and making a wider mark at the bottom. So we're gonna, like, push down and do a little of that. Okay. Do you see what one db down can go? Like tip down, push, and lift, just like that. Quick little marks. Oh, cool. See, and you can kind of be a little aggressive, pushing really hard or being quick and fast, just like that. Alright, now, let's combine those two little movements I showed you, and let's swirl left and swirl right. Okay? So my arm's totally off the table, and I'm going to go hook left hook, right. So push down with the tip and up with the tip, down with the tip, up with the tip, and we're just going to make like, backwards parentheses marks, almost. Just like that. But you're just practicing, turning the brush while pushing down and lifting up. This is such an awesome little exercise if you're a beginner because it's so important to know your brush, and filling this whole page up, will just increase your skills fast. Right? So Twisting, and turning left and turning right, just like that. Alright. That's our next row. So let's grab a little bit more pigment. Now I'm going to show you holding a little more of a flat hold, what we can do. Now we're going to start push down and pull up, almost like that. Same, turning a pedal. Right? I'm I'm not touching the table with my arm or anything. So angle your brush down a little. Like, we're at like a 45, and then push down and lift up. Push down and lift up. See how they're kind of, like they're squares, but they're atle bit rounded. That's what we're going for. So There we go. Perfect. Boom. And I haven't loaded my brush yet. So it's kind of see the dry brush, too. I love that. Alright, now grab a little bit more pigment. And now I'm going to show you how to combine that one with the previous one. A little bit higher than a 45 degree angle. And we're just going to put the tip down here and twist and lift up. You see that? Twist and lift up. So that's just like a nice wide mark. These also look like leaves. We'll go back into these again. And in the other demo. So in connect them also so you can see how the paint interacts and bleeds. So that's just point down and pull up. Those cool little edges. Point down, pull up. Okay? There's that row. All right. Now, let's switch our brush out. Let's go to the four round. This is the same brush, just a different weight. Grab some pigment on him, and we're going to do the same thing. Vertical hold, one third up. And we're going to do some quick little dashes. And you can see, I want you to see how fine of a line you can get, and then how thick of a line you can get. See? Isn't that amazing? Look how much of a variation you can get with one brush? And this is a four. So how thin, thin, thin to thick. Okay? Alright. Now, let's continue. Alright. Let's do a really long horizontal line. Alright, so I am holding my brush. One third of the way. Let's just do some thin little horizontal lines. Now, I like broken little organic lines like that. I think it makes you know, the stems and everything look very real. Just practice that. Oh, look. Some of them are bleeding into each other. Pretty. Alright. Alright, let's start now with almost this exercise again, with the four. So just side to side, tip down and pull up. Okay. Tip down, pull up. Grab some more pigment. Let's just do that whole mark all the way across. And by then, your hand movement is going to be really good. You're gonna be loosened up at this point. Alright. Alright. Alright, last, but not least. Let's do some ss. We're going to start with the little one, and then we'll go to the big one. I'm going to show you what the weight of the brush can do, going 4-10. So point down, and let's just do a little hook. Okay? This little little ss. Okay. This will just get you to understand how to move the brush. So see how I never even lift the bristles off the paper. It's almost like you're mopping. Think of it like that. I just pushing the pigment around. We're just making ss. Alright, so that's the thickness of the four. We're going to rinse him off, set him to the side. And now we're going to grab some more green, and we're back to our ten. We're going to make that same mark so you can see how big it can get. Okay. A little sea mark. Sea mark. So don't lift, carry all around, 'cause I want you to see how much ground you can cover with that one brush. And that's it. Now that we know our brushes, and we're comfortable with mark making, we're ready for the next lesson. We will sketch out a quick composition. 6. Sketching Your Composition: Before we talk about composition, I do want to mention that for anyone that wants to jump right ahead to painting, I'm making my sketch available in the class project resource section. I'd suggest either tracing lightly in pencil or keeping it off to the side so you can refer back to it as you move through these steps. Now, let's talk about composition. I'm going to be working with a marker on villain paper here, so it shows up on camera better, but you'll be wanting to work in pencil. Make sure to use an HB so you can easily erase your marks from the watercolor paper. You'll want to have some inspiration in front of you. You can either have live reference or you can use Pinterest. We are lucky to have some perfect roses here to sketch from, so I'll be using these today. First, I found that compositions of flowers in general are more interesting in odd numbers. So one, three or five roses on a page will be more interesting than two or four. I'm going to add a few circles here. Some of these will get dots in the center. These circles with centered dots will be for the roses that face forward. We want some variety with where our roses are facing to bring a little more depth, just like we'd see them at different angles in real life. So I'll add some circles with dots off center. These will become the roses that will be on their side to bring in depth. Next, I'll add in one tear drop shape for a closed rose bud. Lastly, I'll start drawing lines for the directions of stems, leaves, and fillers. I like those to be a little bit more expressive and intuitive, so I won't add in much. Just focus on the direction of the marks here. Take a moment before moving on and visualize this composition you're creating for just a minute. This sketch you just laid out is going to be the guide you'll be following throughout this class project. Ask yourself if you want the roses clustered together or a little more space depart. If you need to make changes, just erase your marks, then move around circles and lines until you feel like it balance as well. You'll only want thin, soft graphite lines on your paper for this. So take your eraser and pull off thick dark graphite marks. After your sketch is lightly added to the watercolor paper, it's time to proceed to my favorite part, adding color and making beautiful marks. 7. Painting Roses: Now we're ready to start painting roses. Okay, so we are going to start right here with the focal rows. We're going to get our brush a little bit wet. Dab off. And we're picking up some of the pale pale permanent rows, and then I'm also going to be using the pale wan brilliant that I mixed with just a slight hint of permanent rows. Se it's got that pink tint. And we're going to start on the outside of the rows, and we're going to move inward. Okay, so let's pick up that color. And we're going to lay down a significant amount of water color. We're going to keep it nice and wet. Now, I'm looking at this rose here. This is my reference rose. So nice to have that live reference. Alright, so I'm just making marks. See, I'm going to drag my rush to mimic those petals, and I'm going around in a circle while I'm picking up the permanent rose wash and the one brilliant wash. That's going to give us effortless depth to use them both at the same time. Alright, so just go right in a circle. And I'm just checking out my petals here. Letting that dance around. Now I'm going to start to fan that just a little bit around in a circle. Pick up both colors here and there. Kind of make those nice petal marks and leave a little bit of white space. Just a little. So we're just working in a circle. The All right. We're getting closer to the center, and I'm going to start adding in a little bit darker of a color. But right now, we're just laying down a lot of watered down pigment. So when I get to the center, it has places to bleed. Alright, and I've left some white space just to see. Alright, so now we're at the point where you want to pick up this medium wash of permanent rows, and we're going to start here, and we're going to start fanning it out. So it'll start to bleed, and you'll see this row will come together. So just see those little marks I'm making. Everything's very wet. This whole area is very wet. All right. Now grab your dark dark rows and start to make these tiny little sea curves at the very center, indicate the center of the rose. Okay? And just stop at that. Now, keep on going with that loaded pigment and do a ns off. So this is all still very wet. I'm going to keep working to give it a little depth. Now I'm going to go into the medium one brilliant. Do a couple little flicks of my brush like that. So I'm looking at where the depth is on my actual rows. Now I'll grab a little bit of that medium. All right. See how I'm just adding in the depth, a little wash out and leave a tiny amount of pigment on your brush if you want. Just going to grab a little here. See how I'm giving it depth, pulling on and off and mixing the two colors at the same time. There we go. Alright, so this is just moving the pigment around as it's drawing. Oh, my gosh, that's coming up nice. Right. So occasionally, you kind of want to lean on your side a bit and look at the overall. But that's looking very pretty. Alright, I see a couple of spots that need a tiny amount of peach thrown in, right? Here. You'll give it a little hook. Any kind of mark you make like a little mark like that will show up. Right? I feel really good about that. I'm going to leave this as is, and I'm gonna let it keep drying. And I'm gonna move on to my next flower. Which is going to be right here. All right. So this is still a little wet. So let me get another rose here. Okay, this one's nice. Let's use this one. As I start here, I'm going to get some of this pale wand brilliant. And I'm going to start shaping this. And I'm going to since this is so wet, I'm going to bleed them together for a nice overlap here. Right? And same thing. I just go to pick this up. I'm also keeping an eye on this. Like, if I wanted to add any more in, I can while it's still wet, but I kind of like I kind of like it as it is. It's really personal preference. A, so there's that bloom. Keep in mind where your circle is from your drawing. But, you know, this is a little intuitive as well, so you just want to kind of do what feels right. If you let fear take over, it's going to ruin your painting. Alright, so at this point, I'm going to I'm looking over here, and I want to add just a hint of dark. You see that? It's still a little wet. So I just added a little hint just to give some depth. And now, use that same medium permanent rose, and I'm going to start to shape the center of this out, too, just to give myself placement. Okay? Let's wash that out. Let's grab some of this mid each. See, that'll be fun. Okay. Wash that out and keep on going in a circle and start to let those areas bleed together. Very nice. See, it's nice to leave some of those white spaces. Okay. There. Okay, Let's dry that off. I got some puddling. I'm kind of going to pull up. I like how these areas are reacting. Okay. Now, I'm going back in the center with my deep, deep dark right out of the tube permanent rows. Okay? This is all wet. So I'm going to craft my center just like that. There we go. I'm going to see. I'm just going to take my brush and kind of work a little bit, like that. See, that's the effect that I'm going for. There's just a hint of that going on. It's nice. Alright, so I'm gonna leave it light in there. I kind of lucking that. I'm gonna add a couple of little marks there. Alright, I'm good. This feels great. Alright, I'm gonna wash off here. That color is actually gorgeous in my jar. And now I'm gonna go here to my side. Alright, let's grab both. Now we're here. Where's my side flower? Okay, so I'm going to use my side flower as my reference point. Painting them on their side is a lot more difficult than face up, but just keep practicing, and you'll get better and better and better. Okay? I like how this one bud is kind of dripping off the side. I some to keep that going. And then this also coming out a bit. And I don't know if you notice how I'm, like, twisting my brush and pulling it down and see how all those marks look. That's from that brush. Alright. So now, I'm going to come in here. Now, this is the This is kind of the center. So I'm going to shape a little bit of that in. Ooh, those marks are nice. Oh, yeah. There we go. See, that's my center. Okay. Let's grab a little bit of that. Peach. The one brilliant. See. Just little wispy, dot, dot. Alright, now I'm grabbing some of my pink that pale, pink washed to kind of blend it all together. So just leave some white space. You don't have to leave a ton. You don't want to look too sketchy, and don't forget to bring your brush back back through for those really fun marks. Okay, so I like this. I'm not gonna touch it much more other than adding the darken, so it feels very much like these. Okay. So here we go on our side, the dark points are up here, and I'm going to make that a center and this kind of unfolding there. Okay. Wet that just a little bit. Toss that in. Now, see, I need to get just a definition there. That's a too wet, so I just dried my brush off, and I'm going to just to hit that a little there. Alright. Alright, I'm gonna let this do its thing. See, it's going to continue to keep bleeding. Alright. T. Okay, I'm leaving that rose as is. Alright, now, let's move on to the other side of rose. So keep in mind the balance of these roses. Okay. So where's my ra? Here, we're going to use this one. Oh, I love having the live reference. It's perfect. Alright. So start on the outside, Pale washes. And I'm just mimicking those petals with my brush. Pan, perhaps some pink. Right? Now, let's start to work in a second. Go this form my outer edge. Okay. Now, this is my center. So, same thing. I'm going to grab this mid permanent rose, and I'm going to form the center just like you saw me do that. Alright. Let's print that. Let's grab a little bit of this one brilliant, just to get the depth in. A little too wet. I'm dry rush pull off a little. Put some movement marks in there. There we go. And now, I'm going to go to my dark for the center. Okay. Little ss. And I don't know if you notice, but my brush is completely upright. This. I'm getting the e. I can push down if I want some more control, but I'm getting, like, really nice. Marks. Okay. Just a couple little couple little marks there. And yeah, that that's looking good. We're just about done with our roses. Okay. Now, I see just a couple of places here that I wanted to have some of that peach happening in, the one brilliant. So let's throw just a little. That's it. Okay, if you know me and you know me well, you know that was not it. To add just a little bit dark in there. As it starts to dry with watercolor, you'll notice that it gets a little bit lighter. So you might need to go back in. Alright, there we go. Now, we're at the final step of painting the roses. We have to add our beautiful bud right up in the corner 'cause working with five. Odd numbers is best. Okay. So let's grab a little bit of the pale wash again. And we're going to go right up here. I mean, you can barely see it, but it's there. And then when I add that dark through it, it'll come together. Okay. Okay. Now, grab some of this dark dark and just lay it right into the bottom and let it run up and let it do its thing with a few of these little wispy strokes. See? And you don't want to overdo it. That's good. Good for the permanent rows. Let's throw just a little of this medium one brilliant. Pretty. See how that gives it a little depth? Gives a depth without going too far. Okay. Perfect. There we are. Join me in the next lesson where we will continue filling in the composition by adding in the leaves and foliage. 8. Painting Leaves & Stems: Okay, now that we have our roses down, it's time to tackle our stems and leaves. If you have your live reference, like, I have these gorgeous roses here to paint from, But the night before you start your painting, grab a few leaves off of your plant and put it in a book to flatten overnight because then you can use them alongside your painting while you're painting, and you can kind of turn them and shift them, and I'll kind of show you as I go. But it's just a cool little thing to do. It helps with form and composition, and just understanding the plant makes your painting better. So yeah, Anyways, let's get started painting the foliage and the stems. I'm going to put this little guy over here. Alright. So I'm using two brushes now, a ten and a four. I'm going to kind of simultaneously use them. The four is going to be for the tinier lines, the stem, and then the ten is going to be for all the leaves. So, let's get going with this four, and let's start laying in some lines. Alright, I'm going to start up here at this corner. Now, that is a perfect little thing to have here. So I can kind of turn it in the same direction that I need. So I'm looking at this, and I'm painting here. So load your brush with some of the medium olive green, and you want to keep your arm nice and loose and your hand nice and loose and throw in a quick little mark, just like that. It could be two little broken marks to keep it nice and natural. Putting my four down, and now I'm going to grab my ten and throw some of these beautiful leaves in Now, see. Leave the Let the brush do its thing. I love overlap. I'm gonna ad to overlap, just a little bit. Perfect. Let the brush do its job. Okay? Push down and pull right up. Get that nice little rose kind of jagged tip with pulling up the brush like that. All right, I'm going back here. And I'm going to let this fall off the page just like that. Now, if I want a little bit of a darker color, I can grab some of that dark and throw it in here and there. See what that does. It just gives a little depth. All right, so rinse that off. And then we're going to grab R four again. I just love making the little stems with four. And I'm going to add a couple, so a couple little details. See? And now I'm going to go for my rose bud here. I'm going to do a little bit of that. A couple of little lines there. Let's grab some of this dark. There we go. Kind of swish that through. Grab my medium, give it like a point to play on. And give it, like, a little bit longer of a line here and there. Oh, that's so pretty. Okay. Now, let's look at that stem. I'm just going to add a couple of little lines there. Okay. Just like that. And let's throw a leaf over here. Like a suggestion. See the movement that I made in pencil. So let's just go right through there, just like that. And I will have another leaf. Perfect. Just a couple little marks like that. Alright, now, we are keeping with the movement of everything. Let's keep moving in a circle this way. So here's my medium. Green, I'm going to make a couple little broken lines up that way. I'm gonna start at the top, and I'm gonna think about, like, a cool little curve this might have. Perfect. I'm gonna leave it like that. I like that little white line in there. Now, this is looking just a little bit dark, so I'm going to pull some of that off, maybe add it over here. I kind of keep moving. Color around as you're working. If it's still wet, feel free, grab it. There we go. And I'm going to throw a little bit more color in there. Ales. Same thing. I'm going to work off the page. Right? Let it overlap just a little. Oh, yeah, that's looking great. Love it. Okay. Now, let me throw Let's say this little leaf wants to come off on its side. So take your brush and kind of S, look, this is a perfect time to use this reference. Brush. Kind of go swoop and do another swoop. Okay? So that gives me some nice painterly marks. You can always go back like that. Touch like that. Alright. Alright, so just keep in mind all the directions you're working. Let me add in a little touch point there. It just helps to have a couple of lines like that. And here's our other line for direction. Let's go down. So I'm going to grab some of this. Medium green. Let me grab my four. Try to use two brushes. It'll give you a variance in your mark making. All right. So there's my four, and I'm going to just pull out like that. So that's my little guideline. I'm going to go back into it with the medium green, just like that. Now, with my ten, I kind of want to intersect some leaves here. So I'm going to look At maybe intersecting that one with one that comes down a little bit. Let's do this. I'm to use my light light green. Yeah. I like that. Intersecting makes it pretty. It's not that hard. Alright. Perfect. Come off again. Let's turn this one a little up. And I'm going to actually pull this one like it's coming off to the side. This is really just about practicing like knowing where to put your leaves. Right? Let's grab some dark cause I see some areas over here that might need just a hint of some dark pigment. See? L a little depth. You can always drag your brush through, see? There. That'll dry really pretty. Alright, so let's give just a couple little, like, expressive marks. There and there. And then, again, in some of these pale colors. Okay. See, just kind of put two down and run. It helps makes it look like impressionistic. There we go. Alright, now we're gonna keep on moving around this way. Let me grab some medium green. I like the lights happening here and the darks over here. It looks really pretty. Alright, now, so there's my directional line. So I'm going to just add a couple little marks. Boom, boom here, just to show me direction. And then I'm going to overlap that. Okay, just like that. See? Now, a leaf is gonna come out here. So I'm going to do a quick. I don't really want it to overlap my rose. I want to keep my roses focal and on top. So I'm just going to do a little bit of that. Without totally going over it. There we go. So I'm leaving that as is. I like the way that looks. And I'm also kind of feeling that I need just a little something over here touching that. That's it. I'm going to leave that as is, too. I like those. Little Judge. If you see a line like that, you can just give it as oge. Alright, I'm leaving this as is, and I'm coming back over here. And I'm going to use this as the reference for the way that's shaped. So toss that there. And you can point your leaves in like that to give them see that dry brush edge, I love that. And then let's start another leaf here. There in, like, give it a flick up for that natural little rose leaf. Alright, now I'm going to go here. It's a little boop. Almost like it's completely overlapping. There. Now, this needs some dark marks, so I'm going to dug just a couple in like that. As they spread, you can kind of dry brush it out and pull out to get a little line like that. And then I'm going to leave this. I really like the simplicity of this. And I'm going to add a leaf right here on the end. Okay. And I will this be the tip, so it's going to be and let's make it very pale too. Like light sitting it. And now I'm seeing an opportunity to overlap a little bit. Let's do that. So here is this leaf here. I'm going to pull just a little color in, and I'm going to take my brush and go, whoop. Set it go back. There's some broken lines. Now, that came off there, and I'm going to add a leaf here. I like that for the movement back up and around. There. And then let's do another pale one back down this way. Okay? And then we'll do my little intersection trick. Alright, I'm gonna leave that as is. That's pretty. That's really pretty. Okay. Now, I need just a couple little things here. And just a little something to indicate that bloom, right? And now all we have left is up here. Put a couple little marks right there. Let me just add as you see fit what you need. Alright. There. Alright. Almost done. Alright, so there's my directional line. I'm going one up here and that way. And I'm going to come directly off here and just put some broken lines in, right? And let's Let's do set like that and that. Now I'm going with my medium green. I'm going to do some nice overlap here with the line. Okay. Let's see the pale green. Just play with it until you feel good about it. Okay. That's good for me. I want a little bit of dark in here, so I'm going to grab some, add it in. Alright, so let's go back up here and that leaf will do that. Just a couple little my little character marks. That's what I call them. Let's drag that through there. Alright, I like this is blending really nice. If it's still wet, you can still play in it, so you can add a little bit more pigment, if you want. Okay. Just like that. Alright, now we're here. So I think I like some of the white balance here with there. So we're only going to add, I'd say right over here. Add a couple little leaves over there. Alright? So let's start with a pale pale green. And I'll have one leaf. Framing. That. Yeah. And then let's take some dark up to the top. Keep rounding out. You just have to, like, know what to listen to in your head. Alright. This is kind of when I just step back. Let's take a nice look and see how we feel. This section. I don't want to overwork it because stems, you know, Stems come in, and there's nice leaf shapes. I love this area. I think I'm done. Oh. 9. Conclusion: Congratulations. If you've followed along through this class, you should now have your very own radiant rose floral painting. The techniques you've learned here can be applied again and again on your journey with watercolors. So please keep using them while exploring. Magic is found within experimentation. Now that you've completed this class, I want you to remember some of the lessons we've covered. You should now know at least two different ways to hold your brush, and you should have a good sense of the marks that these holds will produce. You should also understand how to prep your paper, select colors that will balance and complement each other and be able to mix those colors to create a palette. Finally, you should also have an understanding of how to use bleeds to begin constructing the forms and structure of your subjects in an expressive way. I'd like to encourage you to take a moment and just embrace what you've created. Try hanging it in a few different places at home and see how it makes you feel. I love hanging my newest artwork in my studio on the same wall as my previous artworks to keep building my painting style. When you're ready, jump back to the beginning to refine your techniques a little bit more and take some time to experiment. Maybe next time, try a new arrangement of roses painted in yellows or reds. You could do a different layout altogether by simplifying it to just a single rose with a few new leaves. Please make sure to upload what you've painted in class projects. Even if you haven't finished your project and you'd like to post a work in progress, I'd love to see it and cheer you on. I look forward to connecting with you all, providing feedback or just to say hi. Engaging with other students in the class project posts is an awesome way to support each other's journeys as well. And most importantly, just enjoy the process. If you want to purchase any of the supplies I've used today, there's a link on my profile to my Blick curated list. And most importantly, feel free to tag me at Living Pattern and use the Hashtag Living Pattern for a chance to be featured on my Instagram account. If you've enjoyed this class, please leave a review and share some feedback with me. I hope to create more classes based on your responses. Until next time, happy creating.