Spring Landscape in Watercolour: Paint a Lavender Meadow

1. Welcome to the Class: Spring is the season of renewal, the softness in the air, the gentle colors, endless feels of blooming meadows, and everything feels full of possibility. There's a sense of hope and new beginnings that makes this time of the year especially creative. Hello, everyone. I'm Asharia an engineer and a watercolor artist, and welcome to this class. I'm so happy you are here. In this new class, we are going to paint a dreamy lavender meadow in watercolor. This class is designed to be relaxing, beginner friendly, and joyful. In this class, I'll guide you through creating glowing spring skies, building soft layers of purple and green, and painting the delicate lavender stems that feel full of movement and life. We'll focus on creating depth atmosphere, and that peaceful feeling of standing in a meadow surrounded by color. Whether you're just starting your watercolor journey or you simply want a calming, creative escape. This class is your invitation to slow down, breathe and paint along with me. So grab your brushes, your favorite purples and greens, and let's step into a lavender meadow together. 2. Art Supplies: All right, so let us take a look at the art supplies. First up is the paper. So for this particular class, I'm going with the brand Saunders Water food, which is a 300 GSM, 100% cotton paper, and you can take a look at the texture of this particular paper. Now, it is not compulsory to go with this particular brand, but you can choose to go with any other brand, which is 300 GSM and 100% cotton paper. Okay, so to work on the wet on wet technique or for that matter, any other technique having a good paper is very important. Next, let's take a look at the brushes. You will need a larger sized brush to wet your paper. It could be a flat brush or it could be a larger sized mob brush. And later, you will need some basic round brushes, basically, size number eight, size number six, size number zero, and you'll also need a larger sized brush like size number ten or 12. Just keep all these brushes. We may not use all of them. But it's good to keep handy. Then a pencil and an eraser to draw the pencil sketch. Of course, you'll need a palette and paints, and the detailed section of the colors is done in a separate video. You can go ahead and watch that. You'll also need two jars of water. One jar of mine is broken, so I'm going with this plastic jar. But yes, make sure to have two glasses of clean water. And you'll need a masking fluid to mask the foreground lavender flowers. All right. So make sure you have that. And if you don't have it, just go ahead and paint it on top of the background. Then you'll need a cloth, and these are basically all of the art supplies and you'll need a backing board or a plastic board like this to fix your paper. So these are the art supplies. Go get them ready, and I'll see you soon in the next section. 3. Spring Colour Palette: All right, so let us take a look at all the colors that you will need for this particular painting. The colors are really simple and not complicated. First up is the bright blue for painting that beautiful, simple sky. And if you don't have bright blue, you can go with any shade of light blue, but I personally love to use bright blue in my landscape paintings. Next up, olive green, and if you don't have olive green, you can take a little bit of green, mix a little bit of yellow, and create this particular shade. This is basically to paint that meadow that is there in the background and also in the foreground. Then you'll need a darker shade of green that is the sap green and to make it even more darker, you can add a little bit of paints gray to it or you can add a little bit more of this particular same shade to create the darker version of this particular green. So next, for creating the sun rays and the warmth in your painting, you will need different shades of yellow. You can go with yellow and a mix of orange, but I'm going with Indian yellow and Indian gold. Both of these are from the brand white knights, and if you don't have absolutely, do not worry. A particular yellow or orange from your palette will also work. The next color is let from your palette. This could be any let. If you don't have bolet, you can go with purple and you can use the same mix to create lighter tonal values and darker tonal values. So to create darker tonal values, add a little bit of more paint to the same mixture and to create a lighter version, add lots of water and create the lighter tonal value. All right. So these are pretty much very basic colors, and last one is the paints gray. This is basically to add those teeny tiny birds, which is optional and additional. Okay, so prep your colors and Alcoson in the next section. 4. Pencil Sketch: All right, so let us begin with the pencil sketch. So the pencil sketch is going to be really simple. First, we will start by defining the horizon line. And for those of you who don't know what's horizon line, it is nothing but a line separating the sky from your bottom meadow or your grass field region. Okay. So basically, we want to divide the paper into two sections, not equally half, but somewhere like one fourth and the rest of the paper. All right. So that was the horizon line. Next, we are going to draw the lavender field. So I want some of the flowers to be in the front, and the rest of the background is going to be in the out of focus mode. That means it's going to be blurry. But the flowers that we are drawing now, those are going to be painted wet on dry. Okay, so yeah. Let us start, and it is very simple. So first, let me finish the complete pencil sketch. And once I have finished doing that, you can pause the video, take a screenshot, and then you can go ahead and draw the pencil sketch freely without any stress. This way, you will avoid rubbing your paper multiple times. Okay. And yeah, so I think the pencil sketch is going to be really simple. I know it may look a little bit complicated right now because, you know, there are some petals involved and all of that, but the petals are really simple. You have to just draw the petals in an irregular shape. Nothing has to be like perfect here because flowers are not perfect. You see the petals. They are of different sizes, different shapes, different colors, and all of that. Okay. Just be organic and natural and trust in yourself, and the end result is going to be unbelievably beautiful. All right. So yeah, you can just wait and watch for me to complete the pencil sketch. All right, so you can see how I have finished sketching out the first lavender flower. Okay, in the similar manner, we are going to draw a few more flows. So now, drawing these flowers depends upon you. You can draw as many as you want them, but I want to have a soft lavender meadow with some flowers in the foreground. Okay? So you can decide on that. You can either have a bunch of flowers or you can have something like I am doing here, and it's all up to you. Okay, so there's no restriction. You can see I am just drawing the petals in a very organic manner. I am not looking into the reference photo as of now because, you know, the reference photo is very detailed. So all I did was I went to Pinterest I just type lavender flower sketch, simple lavender flower pencil sketch. I got few references, and I combined all of those and created the pencil sketch. You can also do that because that's a really easy method. Sometimes the reference picture might be difficult, so you want to go and search for pencil images or pencil sketches, and that's how you can make your pencil sketch quicker, faster, simpler and easier. So let's continue to draw the pencil sketch, and yeah. All right, so I have completed the pencil sketch. I went ahead and drew four lavender flower bunches, and you can also pause the video right now, take a screenshot, take your own sweet time to create the pencil sketch, and I'll see you soon in the next section. 5. Wetting the Paper: All right, guys, so I went ahead and masked out the pencil sketch. You can also do that. And once it is completely dried, let us start by quickly wetting our paper. So since this is going to be a wet on wet painting, we are going to wet the paper thoroughly and nicely so that our paper stays wet for a longer duration Okay. So guys, paper is really important. Go with a 300 GSM, 100% cotton paper, and the second step is to wet your paper nicely. So take your own sweet time. I know it seems a little bit boring to wet the paper, but if you want to see beautiful results of the wet on wet technique, the only thing is to wet your paper multiple number of times. I'm going to take my own sweet time, do this, and I think meanwhile, you can go ahead and trip your paper as well, okay? And I'm repeating these points because I see a lot of times that students come to me and tell me that, they are not seeing the results. The wet on wet technique is not working properly with them, or the paper is drying out soon, or the paint is bleeding, and there are multiple reasons. But one important thing is it's not your fault. You are good with your techniques and your basics. It's just the art supplies. Maybe your paper is not good, maybe you're not wetting the paper multiple number of times or maybe it's the weather, and there could be a number of other reasons. But I believe if the paper is 100% cotton, 300 GSM, and if you wet the paper thoroughly, wait for the paper to soak all the water and then rewet it multiple times, then I think it should perfectly work. Okay? So just give it a try and yeah, let's hope for the best. Alright, guys. So my paper is nicely wet, and I think I'm ready to start my painting. I hope you guys have taken your own sweet time, and your paper is also nicely wet. And what are we waiting for? So I'll see you soon in the next section. 6. Painting The Sky: Alright, so now our paper is nicely wet and let us jump start into our painting. I am really excited to start this, and spring is such a beautiful season. It's the beginning of new opportunities, new hope, and the sunshine gives you a nice warmth and everything is so bright and so green during the spring, isn't it? So let us start. I am starting with the sky, and as you always know, bright blue is my favorite color for painting the skies, especially in the landscape paintings. And if you don't have bright blue, then no worries, you can go with any other light blue in your palette. Okay? So you can see, I am not adding this in a particular manner. I'm just going organically and just trying to drop the paint. And as usual, I'm always starting with the lighter tonal value. And as I move ahead, I build on the colors. Okay? So do not go with the darker color at the first place, start lighter, and then you can gradually build up the colors. All right. So you can see that right now there is no much water on my paper. It's nicely wet, and there are no large puddles of water. And on my brush, also, there's no water at all. You can see it's semi wet but not completely wet. Okay? This way, you will be able to control the paint flowing on the paper. All right. So yeah, just make sure to have a nice tissue paper so that you can take off the excess amount of water. And now, once you have painted the sky, let us start by adding some greenish meadows onto our paper. And this is also going to be in the background. That means it is out of focus, and we're just going to keep touching the tip of the brush to the paper and just let it bleed organically and naturally and create some bushes out there in the background. Now, this process is going to be repetitive. All you have to do is take whatever green is present in your palate like olive green, leaf green, or even sap green. I am going here with a mixture of sap green and olive green. Define the lighter and the darker tonal values because I do not want to have a single color for my bushes. Bushes are always of different greens, and that is what I'm trying to bring out here. So you can just watch and then you can paint it for yourself or you can follow along with me. All right, so now you can see how the bushes are taking its shape. We started with a lighter color, that is the olive green, and then we added a bunch of sap green, not entirely, but onto the inner and outer edges. Okay. That's how the bushes are looking at the moment. I know it may look a little bit weird right now, but once you start building the layers, the bushes are going to look really beautiful. So just keep adding your paint, have that patience and do not worry about how your painting is going to turn. Just trust the process and, you know, just pour your heart out into the painting and just wait for the end result. Okay? So let the paint flow and do the magic. Just make sure that you don't have too much water on your brush because in order to have control over your paint, you need to have very little to no water on your brush. Okay? So if you feel like your paper is getting dry, then you can go ahead and, you know, just slightly wet your brush and that region of the paper, and you can just continue to work. All right. So yeah. All right. On the right hand side, we are not going to paint the bushes because there we are going to have the sun and the sun rays falling on the bushes. So to paint the sun, I'm going to go with a mixture of Indian yellow and Indian gold. And if you don't have these shades, then you can go with any basic yellow that's present in your palette and you can add a little bit of orange to it to make it like a nice golden yellow. So the sun is, again, really, very simple. I'm using my flat brush. I think this is the half inch wash brush, and, you know, I like this to kind of create those sun rays. It's really very easy to do it with this kind of brush instead of a round brush. But if you don't have this, you can just take your round brush and go ahead and paint it. And each time you go over the bushes, make sure that you're not lifting that green and putting it back onto the sun area. Otherwise, it's going to turn green. So every time you go over the bushy region, just make sure to clean the brush and again, come back and create those rays. So creating these sun rays is really easy. Just make sure that your paper is nicely wet and you should have a minimal water on your brush and a little bit more paint. And then you can create these rays by pulling the paint outwards. Okay. And each time you pull the paint, make sure your brush is nice and clean when you go around with the next time. It's really very simple S. For those of you who do not have the flat brush, I started using the round brush. So with the round brush, also, you can create this sun rays effect, and it is really simple. Okay? So you need not worry about the exact same art supplies that I am using here. Just go with whatever you have, and it's about the technique guys. It's not about the art supplies. Once you get the technique right, you will all be good to go. Okay? So, yeah. All right. So now that we have added the sun rays, I feel like this is going to turn a little bit lighter when the watercolors are going to completely dry, so I'm just going ahead over it, but this time with Indian gold. So I'm picking up a slightly lighter version of this Indian gold, and I'm going to go over those sun rays that I had created earlier. So you can see I accidentally picked up the green and, you know, I put it there, but you can cover up your mistakes quickly because the paper is still wet. If your paper has dried, then you cannot do this. Okay? So the magic of watercolors is when it is wet, you can fix the mistakes, but again, you have to be really, very quick and the timing is really important in watercolor guys. So if you get it right, everything is going to be beautiful, and if not, it's going to get ruined, and that's fine. We can all start it all over again. It's not about, you know, quitting and, you know, just saying that, Oh, I cannot do this. Because if you're stuck there, then you'll remain stuck there forever. So that's not our end goal. The end goal is to keep trying and trying and trying, and the someday there we are going to get everything right. Okay, I think more than the painting, I'm giving you a lot of life advice over here. But I feel that's really important, not only in our painting, but also in our real life. And I feel that is a game changer, okay? So the sun rays are looking really beautiful. The green bushes over there are really looking gorgeous, and I absolutely love creating the sky. And now, let us go ahead and paint the meadow in the next section. 7. Lavender Meadow - Part 1: All right. So now that we have painted the horizon, let us quickly start by wetting the meadow region, and we want our meadow region to be nicely wet because we are going to work on the wet-on-wet technique. So we want our people to stay wet for a longer duration of time. Okay? So you can go ahead with your larger sized mop brush, round brush or a flat brush, and continue to rewet your paper. Okay. So take your own sweet time and do this because we are working on the wet-on-wet. And I keep repeating this because I don't want your paper to dry faster and, you know, you getting frustrated later. So just take your own sweet time, re wet the paper multiple number of times, and then let us quickly start. So I'm using my size number six brush, and I'm picking up the lavender shade. Basically, this is not a lavender shade. I use the dark purple from white nights, and I have diluted this mixture and created a lighter version which resembles the lavender color. Okay, so go with any let or any purple from your palette and add lots of water to it and then bring this color to the lavender shade. Right now, I'm just going to go ahead and drop this paint onto the paper, and you can see that I am just touching the tip of my brush and I'm trying to create those tiny little lavender flowers. I'm just creating, you know, leaves of those lavender. You can see. There's nothing really to explain. It's just like a straight line, a stem in the center, and on the either side, you have the leaves. So I'm just trying to create a blurry lavender meadow that is there in the distant. And once this all dries up, we are going to take off the masking fluid and then add the main focused flowers onto the foreground. So this is the basic idea. First, we are going to start with very lighter tonal value of the color, and as we progress, we are going to keep on building. Now you saw the background was light. As I come towards the foreground, I'm picking up more intense color value of the same violet or purple that I took earlier. I'm trying to create more depth into the painting. Now, this is going to remain same and we're going to fill this entire background with the same procedure. You can just keep watching me and then you can follow along with me. All right. It is just very simple. Pick up your brush, load it with little amount of paint and note that there should not be too much pain. There should not be too much water. Otherwise, you're going to lose control. Everything is going to mix flow into each other and create a mess. So we don't want that to be happening. Also, you can keep a tissue or a cloth handy so that whenever you feel like there's too much paint or there's too much water, you can just wipe out the excess amount, and, you know, you can just paint it like stress free. Okay. So I'll just keep doing this and you can just watch and paint along with me. All right. So this is how the background looks like. I hope you also have painted the soft background, and I'm hoping that you had a very good control on the water as well as the paint. Okay, so it's really simple. And if you are having any doubts regarding this particular technique first, I encourage you to try it on a scrap piece of paper. Basically, you want to take a paper wet it nicely, and then take the same let shade and go with your any smaller size round brush and try to practice painting these lavender flowers. And once you get the technique right, you can come back to your original painting and start painting. That way, you will not commit any mistakes, and you will have more confidence. Alright. So this is how the background looks like. If you want to add few more lavender flowers, you can go ahead and do that, but just make sure not to make it too much crowded. Let us start by painting the meadow region. So I'm picking up my sap green. You can go with a mixture of olive green or any lighter green first. So we are always going to start with the lighter. And as we move towards the viewer, we are going to make the color more darker and more intense. And this is how we create the rule of perspective and we also add depth to our painting to make it look more natural and more realistic. So I am adding this green from the middle, and I'm going to take it all over towards the bottom. Okay. So remember, all of this is being done while the paper is still wet. So this is going to be the wet-on-wet technique, and later once the paper dries, we will be adding more and more details. So again, this is going to be a repetitive step. Just go on picking your any lighter shade of green. At this point, it's going to be very and we are going to keep building it. Okay. So go ahead and do that. You can see in between, I'm also using a little bit of warm shade of that green. So to create that warm shade, I'm mixing my yellow with my green. I'm sorry at this point, the palette cannot be seen here and there was no much space, but I'm explaining all the colors that I'm using here. Also in the beginning of this particular class, I had a separate video for the colors that we're going to use for the painting. So yeah, there's nothing to worry about the colors. Alright, so now that we have added the base layer of this green shade, I feel like I should add more lavender flowers, and I just went ahead and added that. And if you feel like you have added enough, then you can totally skip and wait for the next process. All right. So this is how it is looking at the moment. I know at this point it might look a little bit weird, but like I say, always, trust in the process and the endings are going to be really beautiful. Okay. So if you want to add more flowers at this point, you can go ahead and do that. And if you want to add a little darker lavender flowers, you can go ahead and do that, but just don't go overboard, okay? So keep it minimal as much as possible. 8. Lavender Meadow - Part 2: All right, so now coming to the next step, we are going to build the layers of green now. So let us create some grassy patterns at the bottom. I'm picking up some fresh olive green and a mixture of sap green again. You can go with any green of your choice. Just make sure not to go with a bold green in the first place. Go with a lighter tonal value, and then as you progress gradually, you can increase the tonal value of the green. Okay, so you can see I'm using the same brush and I'm trying to create some grassy patterns, some strokes, some upward movements you can see. So if you are not sure how to do this, again, you can practice this on a scrap piece of paper before you begin the painting. And of course, later, you can come and, you know, just put it on your main painting. Okay. So if you're not confident, just practice the techniques first. And once you get it right, you can come back and do. Okay, so it's really simple. You need not worry about the direction, how it has to be because grasses do not have any direction. They can just grow in any way they want. And that's how the nature is, right? In the nature, if you see, there is nothing perfect, no tree, no leaf, no flower is perfect. Everything is so beautiful and so unique. And that is what we are trying to capture in today's painting. So now you can see from olive green, I have switched to Sab green, and in some areas, I'm adding this particular green, and in some other areas, there's a different green. So we want to play with different tonal values. We do want our painting to look really flat. We're just going to introduce multiple shades, do a mix and match, and create a nice, beautiful organic painting. Alright. So you can just keep watching and you can paint along with me. All right. So now that we have added a bunch of grasses, now it is time to add a little bit of depth. I'm going with a deeper green this time, the same sabgreen. And if you don't have darker green, you can mix a little bit of paints gray to the same green mixture and create this darker version of the green. Okay? There's always a way out, so you need not worry about a particular color not present in your palette or you don't have a particular art supply. Just forget about all those things. Just work with what you have, enjoy the process, and that's it. So yeah, now you can see it's all about layering the greens and creating those beautiful grasses. And now I'm switching to my smaller sized brush and I'm adding these teeny tiny delicate stems to our lavender flowers that are present in the foreground. Forget about the ones, those are in the background. Those really don't matter because they are not standing out really. The ones that matter for us is the flowers that are present in the foreground. So when I mean thin and delicate, it's really very thin and delicate. You don't want to have thick stems over here. Okay? That's not the so just be mindful about that. You can go with a rigor brush or you can go with your size number zero brush, but just make sure the line is very thin and very delicate. Okay. So this is how it is looking at the given moment. And I feel like the paper is still wet and we can work a little bit more. But if your paper has dried, you already know what needs to be done. Okay. Now I'm going with my rigor brush and I'm trying to create these grassy blades and they have to be, again, really very organic, very natural. They do not have a particular shape. Just go with your intuition. So I felt like rigor brush is too thin, so I switched to my smaller sized brush because I feel like that is more comfortable for me. But it's up to you. You can go with any brush of your choice. So we're just going to define these grassy blades. I don't know what to call them exactly, but they look like grass blades, and that's what we are trying to create. So just create different shapes and patterns. Add it randomly. I need not be at a particular place. You can just go ahead and add it anywhere. Just make sure not to cover too much. Okay. Just keep it nice and delicate and beautiful. All right, so let's keep adding these. All right, so you can see that our painting is taking such a beautiful shape. At the beginning, everything was weird and out of place, but now you can see the moment we added that green, it is just popping out and everything is looking so beautiful and so gorgeous. So you can see, I have added those grassy patterns everywhere at the bottom, and I went with a really darker tone of green on top of the light green. That is why we go with a base layer first, and then we add the darker tonal values onto the lighter ones because it gives a nice depth to our painting. All right, so I'll see you soon in the next section. 9. Adding Foreground Details: All right. Everything is beautifully dried. Now it's a big relief. You can take your own sweet thy because we are finally working on the details, basically the dry on dry. Okay, so we'll start by adding the lavender flowers that are present in the foreground. So starting with a very light cobalt blue, if you don't have cobalt blue, you can go with any darker shade of blue, but make sure to go with a lighter tonal value. We'll add the base color, and then on top of that, we can add the actual let color for the lavender. All you have to do is just go ahead and fill out the shape that you have drawn with your pencil. So make sure to remove the masking fluid nicely before you start the painting. Okay? And there is nothing really to explain much over here, but just for the few flowers in the beginning, I'll just try to explain and guide you. And after that, you can just follow along with so I'm just going ahead and picking my smaller sized brush. You can see already. It's a size I think size two or size zero. I don't actually remember the size, but it's a smaller sized brush. So you can just pick up the paint, the lighter lavender that you used for your meadow in the background. The same shade, you can just go ahead, and I started from the bottom, but you can start from the top as well. So whatever is comfortable, you can just go ahead and do that. So you can see, I'm just filling out the leaves on either side, and I'm just trying to create that flower. And these flowers in the foreground should be standing out from the background. And that's the reason I said go with a very lighter background so that we can have these lavender flowers popping out. And standing out in the foreground. All right. So it's going to be a similar process. You have to just keep adding these flowers. Take your own sweet time. There's no rush. There's no hurry. And once you have done with your background, you don't want to spoil the foreground. So, guys, please have a little bit of patience. If you're feeling bored, turn on a podcast, go for a coffee break, or just do a little bit of exercise. Just wake up from your desk and, you know, just take a short break. Come back and then add your flaws. All right. So that's going to be the whole process. And yeah, so you can paint and watch along with me. All right, so I have added all the lavender flowers. I just cut short the video because it's the same process, and I thought it would be unnecessary to add the repetitive process. So, nevertheless, we'll quickly start by defining the stem for these particular lavender flowers that we added in the foreground. Just as you did it in the background, again, we are going to thin delicate stems for these particular flowers in the foreground as well. Again, you can go with a rigor brush if you're comfortable with that, or you can switch to your smaller size brush like a size number zero. Note that the stems have to be really very delicate, guys, and I'm repeating this multiple times. Otherwise, you're going to lose the perspective of the painting. The lavender flowers in itself are very delicate and the stem has to be very delicate. Okay? So yeah, these are the beautiful stems. Now let us go ahead and draw the grass blades for these particular flowers in the foreground, just as you did it in the background. In a similar way, you're just going to create teeny, tiny grass blades or teeny tiny leaves onto either side of the lavender flowers. You can just watch me and then you can create it for yourself. And Alright, guys, we did it, and I'm really so happy with the painting. I think one more last lavender flower is left. So let us quickly go ahead and add the leaves and do not go overboard with this, guys. Just keep it minimalistic. The more simple your painting is, the more beautiful it is going to be. Alright, so I'll see you soon in the next section. 10. Have a Happy Creative Spring: Alright, guys, and I'm really excited to show you the final painting. Just take a look at the warmth and the beauty of this painting. Everything is looking so soft, so delicate, yet so beautiful and natural. I hope you really enjoyed painting this beautiful lavender meadow along with and if you did, then I highly encourage you to post your beautiful, wonderful, unique creations into the project gallery of this particular class, and I would love to share it with the other students on the platform, and I would also love to give you the feedback, which would be very useful for your future paintings. And if you do have any questions and queries about a particular technique or in general about this particular class, then you can just start a discussion in the discussion section of this particular class. And before we wind up for today's class, I'm truly grateful for everyone who made it till the end. So I will be coming up with new such beautiful paintings in the future. Until then, keep creating and happy painting and have a great day.