Transcripts
1. Introduction: Did you know
watercolor paintings can be this vibrant
and detailed? Paint this flower with
me, and I'll show you how to make it look like
it's popping off your paper. I'm Anna Mason, an
artist and educator. I'm best known for
my larger than life realistic
watercolor paintings. I'm self taught,
and since launching my online school and community nature studio over
ten years ago, I've taught my four step wet on dry watercolor method to tens
of thousands of students. In this class, we'll paint this glowing three D cosmos
flower together. I'll talk you through every
step from start to finish. We'll build up the
painting in layers, allowing each to dry
before applying the next. The painting will
go from looking pale to rather disjointed, then it'll all come together
in a realistic finale. By the end, you'll not only have a beautiful painting that will
make you think I did that, but you'll have learned a
watercolor method that you can go on to apply to your
own independent projects. So join me now, and
let's get started.
2. Getting Set Up & Making the Drawing: Hello. In this class, we're going to use our
six paints to paint this beautiful cosmos flower
complete with pretty bud. We'll begin by painting
the lightest colors to each part of the
flower and stem before applying some shadow
colors to give shape to the petals and then working on the detailed
flower center. And then applying the
darkest colors in the painting and darkening
up the stem and bud. We'll then make some
more tonal adjustments and add the all
important final details. This is going to be
loads of fun and really uplifting with
these joyful colors. The paints I'm using are artist quality watercolor
paints by Windsor and Newton. And you can find a list of
the six colors on this page. These colors are transparent, which makes them suitable for building up the
painting in layers. The brushes are pointed spotter brushes which
are short haired, so don't carry a lot of water. When working realistically, the drawing is really important. So I recommend that you trace yours from the one
that we supply. I'm using an arches block
of hot pressed paper, and that kind of quality is going to get you
the best result. Make sure that you check over your drawing and
compare it to the photo and make sure it's
nice and faint so it won't be too visible
through your paint, especially on the petals. You can see the dark dots in the center that I've
made really dark, though, as those are going to have black paint
on top of them. Okay, once your drawings
ready, we'll get painting.
3. Lightest Tones: Okay, let's begin the
painting by applying a dilute pale version of each of the colors
that we can see. The very lightest tones within the painting are in the
pale pinks of the petals, as you can see more clearly when we turn the photo
black and white, and then turn those
areas yellow. So for that, let's mix. Some of the permanent rose, which is our closest color to the pink that we
can see in here. I'm using my five brush,
which is my biggest brush, but I'm going to
want to cover quite a big area on the petals. So I've just taken some of that and watered it right down. But it's not as purple
as we need it to be. So to mix the purple, I'm going to add in
a tiny little bit of the French ultramarine, so I'm just going
to take a little bit of that onto the palette there and then pop some in because it's
just a tiny amount. And I'm going to need
more paint than that, so I'm going to just
pot more water, more of the blue in, so
I've got a bit more to work with. That
looks about right. It's so watery that we can
adjust this as we go later, but I want this to be a match
to those lightest colors. Some of them were in there, so I'm just going
to test this out. And that looks really good
as a lightest version. Now, what we can
do is we can apply this light color right the
way across these petals. So it can go right the way
down to the yellow center. It can go into the
areas that are kind of very vibrant pink
and also almost that black color
in there because this can sit underneath and
it won't cause a problem. It won't create an unwanted mix on the paper when
we layer up on top. So it can work as a kind
of base color for now. And I'm applying in
the direction of form. So I'm applying as if I was painting on the petals and I'm going in from the center
right the way along in lines. Now, by doing this, if we get overlaps
with our paint, which we will, and that's fine, they're actually going to help because they're going to be in the same direction
lines as some of those little vein markings that you can see
on these petals. So it's just a really good
practice to get into to apply in the direction of
form as you paint, even in these early
layers because the paint is so watery that it is
kind of spreading out, particularly on this
absorbent paper. So I'm actually not
getting much in the way of overlaps
with the paint. But as I say, if I
do, it's going to work for me and create
some of that veining. And I'm just working
within my pencil boundary. You can see I'm kind of using the brush much like
I would kind of pen. So I'll work my way around and just do this to all
of those petals. Now, if you need to remix the because you haven't
got enough paint, don't worry at all about getting
the mix exactly spot on. You know, do your best,
but it doesn't matter because we are going to be
layering up on top of this. So if it is a bit different, you're not going to notice
that in the final stages. In fact, if we were
really observant, we'd probably notice a bit of variation between even
these lightest tones. So yeah, just don't
worry about it. Just do your best to
get a similar mix and just continue applying. So while that's drying off, I'm going to turn
my attention to the greens and get a lightest color of
that down on those. So for that, I can start
with the green in my palate, but it's a very, very
luminous kind of green. It's quite a blue green. So we're going to need to
add to it plenty of yellow, and then it's still
way too vibrant. We want it quite vibrant for this lightest version,
but this is too much. I'm going to add to
it my red neutral, which is burnt sienna. And that just makes
it have a little bit more of a kind of
olive look to it. I'm going to add a
little bit more of that. A little bit more of that. Don't want it to be too pale even the lightest
versions of the greens within this area are not as pale as what we had
going on in the petals. So let's work with that. I'm actually going to
go down a brush size. Gonna go down to my three brush. And going to be really simple. I'm just going to try and apply neatly again
in the direction of form and just
pop a layer down. Basically, I think this is
feeling like a good color. It's a good match to the
lights version down here. So I'm just going to apply that even
into the darker green, what are going to be
the darker green areas. It'll be a good base for that. We can easily layer up on top. And again, don't worry
if you get patches, we're going to be darkening up. So I'm just going to go ahead and apply this
over all of the greens. I'm going to leave a little
there's a pale line there where that sepal is sort
of in front of this stem. So I'm going to try
and leave that. Those kind of little details can end up making a
difference later on. So I'm paying close attention even
while I'm doing this to looking at the reference photo
and then looking back at mine and trying to match. Because you might
even spot errors in the drawing that you
might want to correct. So it is worth always
keeping looking, getting in that habit
of continuously looking at your reference photo. So I'll go on and
apply this green over all of the green
parts down here. Okay, if you need to remix, just do your best to
get a similar color. We're going to be layering
up on top of most of this, so it really doesn't matter
if it's not a perfect match. Okay, now, these petals
have all dried off, which means I can apply
a sort of base coat, lightest tone coat
to the center, which is predominantly yellow. So for that, I'm going
to use my Windsor lemon. I have two blobs of Windsor
lemon here on the palate, one which I mix with greens and one which I
mix with more of the, like, reds or browns so
that it doesn't go green. So I'm going to use
some from that side. If you've got just one, then just make sure it's
really cleaned off. And then at this point, I'm just going to
use it really pale. I think we will need to take
it all probably much darker. But for now, I'm just going to use this neat and I'm just going to
get a layer down. Really, this is almost
like a map, as well, so that we're looking at where do our colors go
within the picture. So it's just good to have a layer down just
making it really, super clear where is the edge. We've got our pencil line, but it just makes it so much clearer once we've got
a layer of paint down. And I'm just using
the three brush. My three brush has
a very crisp point, so I'm using that a lot
when I'm up against the edge because this is all
dried, it's not bleeding in. And I'm sort of
still thinking about the direction of form because
that's that habit that I've got into L
in this instance, we've got little lines where the little stamens and antha kind of come
out from the center. There's a sort of
hole in the center, and then they come out. So that's the direction lines. So it's still good to start to get a sense of those even
as we apply this layer. And now, coming back
to look at the bud, the green has dried
off, which is good. So make sure yours has, too. And then I'm just going to
use another purplish mix. But the colors
there are not even the brightest lightest ones are not as light as what
we had on the petals. So I'm just going
to use the paint ever so slightly less diluted. But I want to keep it
as vibrant as I can. We are limited with
how vibrant we can go when we're
using just six paints. But I'm gonna try and
keep it pretty vibrant. So I don't know. Something like this.
Again, we're gonna be adjusting this as we
do our darkening up. So for now, something like this, using the white
palette like this, we can just spread out and see what the mix is
going to look like because we can adjust how
much we put on the paper. You can see if I spread it
right out, it's really pale. But if I apply it a little bit thicker or a little bit heavier, don't let it spread out so
much, then it's darker. So you've got a bit of
adjustment that you can make while you're
applying the paint, too. I think there's a little
green patch there, which I've missed,
but that's okay. We can adjust that later. Main thing is the
green has dried off, so this isn't going
to bleed into it. Let's make sure that that's all totally dry and we're
gonna add some form next.
4. Petals: Shadows: I'm going to have us work on the shadow areas
within the petals, the purplish gray areas that you can see here. Let's
turn them yellow. We'll be working with
watery mixes for this, which is why I want
us to work with it now before we work with
the thicker paint in the flower center and the
really dark areas around it so that we have less chance of those colors bleeding
into each other. So for this color, let's mix. Of the permanent rose I
spread out with it over here. And then I want to darken it, but I want it to be slightly
more of a gray purple. So I'm going to use some
of my Paine's gray. Now Paine's gray is
really potent, very dark. So we can just pop a little
bit on the palette and then use a little
bit of it over here. And it's just finding
that balance. I want it to have that
grayish quality but not be overwhelmingly gray. But I think if we just
keep it watered down, we can always adjust later.
That's the key with this. If you keep it pale, you can then add another layer
to darken up later. So Okay, so we're
going to apply this. Let's start with somewhere that we know it's quite
dark like on an edge. And, of course, it looks
really like probably too dark because we're comparing it to how pale we've
got the paint there. But I think this looks
about right, actually. If you're in any doubt, though, just water your
paint down so we can always just water down a bit. I'm going to start to
apply this wherever I can see these darker lines, but I'll hold off of anywhere that I think is lighter
in tone than this mix. So it's applying where the
color is this hue and tone. So this color or tone or darker. We can go into areas
where it's darker, but we want to hold off from
anywhere that's lighter. So here, you know, it does get darker here, but the color changes what I call the hue
part of the color. So we go into the
bright pinks in here, so we want to hold off from
applying in that part. And I'm using my three brush here because it's
got a nice tip. You could go down a brush size if you haven't got
such a crisp tip to your brush because you want plenty of control to
create these lines. I've got a few of them there with pencil work to guide me, but a lot of it. I'm just kind of popping in as I look at the
reference photo. But it's quite pleasing on this reference photo and you do find this a lot in
botanical subjects, that the edges are actually
quite a bit darker, and that really helps with
giving the flower some form. But again, don't just,
you know, think, Alright, I'm going round all the
edges and just kind of do it without looking because
it gets paler there, for example, so we want
to hold off of that. And we just want to
really pay attention. That's what this whole
process is about slowing down and really paying attention to what's
in front of you, not what you're imagining is in front of you, but
what's really there. And that's what can be so relaxing about this is
that you can kind of really get in
connection with what's here and not be thinking
about anything else. So I've got another line
just looking at that. It's like there's
another line that comes in kind of here, which wasn't in my
drawing, but it's quite dark. So I'm
going to pop that in. So I'm going to go around these remaining petals and just pop a bit of this dark color
in where I see it. So already, you can
start to see that by getting the direction
of these lines correct. So really paying attention to where they are and
the angles of them, we are starting
to build in form. Already, it's starting
to feel curved. That's what these
direction lines, these veins can do. So just keep paying attention
and making sure that you're getting them as close to the right kind of angles
and things that you can. And I'm just leaving
a lighter gap there. There's a little lighter line. Those sorts of
details are really, really important with realism. So just trying to tune into that level of
detail in your picture. I'm just coming
back to this area and popping a little
bit more in there. But we can come back and make lots more
adjustments later. So this is just really for
this initial stage to show us those different colours and to just start to give it some form it's just fun to start
to give it that shape. Let's let that totally
dry off and turn our attention to the
detailed flower center.
5. Flower Centre: The flower center is
a vibrant yellow, and because the color
is so saturated, it often looks lighter
than it actually is. If we turn the photo
black and white, you can see that the
yellow center is actually quite a bit
darker than the petals. So let's not use our mix
too watery for this. The goal of this stage is to get this as dark as we
think it needs to be. So we've already got
that base coat down, but that's too vibrant. There's probably a couple
of bits like over here, I see a couple of
flecks that may be at this level of bright and light, but everything else needs
to be a bit darker. So let's create a thicker, much thicker mixture of
the winds are lemon, but we need to mute it down and we need it to be a little bit more orangy and also muted. So for that, we'll
use this red neutral, which is burnt sienna. It's a very reddy brown. That means it's got some
kind of blue in as well. It's basically a neutral will contain all the primary colors, and that's what makes
it more muted as well, so it's not as vibrant. So just creating
that thick color. And let's test this out in the sort of darker
area down here. So down here, we've got lots of these darker black sort
of flecks in there, but we've also got this
kind of rich orange color. So that looks quite good. I'm going to what
I'm going to do is just kind of stipple
it for now so that I'm getting a bit of texture
as I apply in here. Again, I'm using my three brush, I'm using the tip, but we could. In fact, let's go down to one brush because that will
give us a bit more control. And I'm just going over
here by stippling, we do get a few of the lighter colors still
coming through. And although I think they're
going to be too light, it's quite nice to be able to
create this visual texture of lots of little bits
by leaving the gaps. Go to put that whole
section darker. And then as we come
up, it's lighter, but there are a few
of these darker patches kind of up here. And then I'm going to lighten this by just adding some
more of the Windsor lemon. So we're kind of going
with a mid tone mix now. Again, because I just
don't want it to be too, we know from looking
at that photo that it isn't I'm just going
to use this color with less of the burnt
Sienain to darken up in here and I'm going to go right up to the
edges a little bit more. So it's still
really quite thick. And just stippling a little bit up here where there's a few flecks that might
be a bit lighter. And then just going to fill in most of those
lighter areas there. So we've still got a
bit of texture, though. And then what I need to do
is just let that dry off. So with that pretty
much dried off, I'm going to use I mean, you do want it to be not watery. I was using the paint
quite thick there, so it's sort of touch dry,
which I think should be fine. I'm going to mix up
basically a black color, which is going to
be my Pain's gray, which is really, really
dark. But that's quite blue. So to just balance
that, I'm going to add in a bit of
the burnt sienna. And that creates
pretty much a black. And then using my treble zero, which is the smallest brush
as maximum control over this. I've got the little pencil
markings to guide me. I'm gonna keep looking
at the reference photo. And I'm not trying to get
each marking exactly right. I mean, you could, if you've got the time and you fancy it, but I'm just trying to get
the sort of overall pattern and how close and how big they are so 'cause what we've got is a kind of band along
here, haven't we? Which is darker and
more of these markings. And so I'm just trying to get the shapes of them
about right and yeah, how spaced out they are. I'm not trying to be
too formulaic, though. As I move up a bit, I'm
going to just water down, add a little bit more brown just to change that lighting
it up a little bit. And we've got these slightly
longer markings here. And what that does,
straightaway, this is a really good
demonstration of what this whole
process is about. It might have seemed like
those yellows and the sort of brown yellows that we were using down here
were dark enough. But as we put this dark
dark colour in place, we can see that these blubs are standing out too much against
the colors around them, so we're going to
need to darken those. That is because tone
or how dark a color appears to us is dependent on how dark the
colors around it are. So until we've got these
lighter colors darker, it's kind of hard to judge. Now, before I move on, I'm just going to
water that mixture, that blacky brown mixture
down quite a bit, and I'm going to pop
in a few lines here, which I guess they're
these sort of stamens. I think that's what
we'd be calling them. Doesn't really matter
what they are. We're just recreating the
little shapes that we can see. So something like that. And now I'm going
to come back to this thick color down here, but I'm going to use a little
bit of this mixture in it, perhaps more of
the burnt sienna. Now, that's too brown. So let's grab some of the
Windsor lemon, take away. We're not going to
need much paint, so I can just use a little
bit of that dark mixture. And I'm going to sort of
try it out down here. Is that a bit darker? No, I think it still needs
to be even darker. So I'll use some more of that
burnt sienna mixture in it. If we apply in a kind
of stippled way, we can still get flex through
of that lighter color. That seems to sort of make
the contrast levels feel a little bit better there and adds even more texture,
which is good. A bit more of that up here, too. And then just going
to water that down a little bit and just apply it right the
way over here. I'm feeling like even the center is feeling too bright now. So just gently
applying this so it doesn't bleed too much with
that colour I just applied. And what we'll be able to do
is come back and work in and adjust this a little bit more once we've got
the flower painted. I'm just going to
go in with an even darker sort of brownie mixture here and just try and darken
that up a little bit more. So I'm getting more
of that distinction between this section
down at the bottom. And I expect we're going
to want to come back in with the black color as well to pick out
a bit more of that. But for now, just
do a little bit more stippling like that. It's a little bit in here. But I think for now, that is about right, and then we can come back
and work on it some more. With the center darkened, we're going to work
on the darkest tones to the whole painting. Oh
6. Darkest Tones: Now the flower center is done, Let's darken up underneath
it and add the dark, almost black color that we
can see here and in the bud. Painting these colors next will put us in a
great position to be able to paint
the mid tones in the painting and get
it looking real. So for this, let's mix some of that black color
that we had before, which was the burnt sienna and Pain's gray combination
when it nice and thick. But I want to give it
a bit more richness and a little bit of a
hint of some purple, so I'm going to just going
to wash that off a bit. I'm just using a zero brush, and I'm going to add in
some of my permanent rose. I think that feels about right. It's gonna be really thick and going to come in and apply it. Let's test it out in this
really dark part here. The yellows have dried off. They were not very watery. That paints, so it's
dried really quickly. Make sure your yellow
has. But here we go. So it's a case of knowing how far to take this out because it transitions here into
a lighter color. So what we can do is feather the edge like that
using the tip. And then when we apply a
lighter version over the edge, it's going to help to blend it. And I'm just needing to yeah, keep keep my concentration here because actually,
that's a lighter part. So again, even at this point, you've got to really closely
look at the reference photo. And I'm just getting more on my brush
there because it was, you know, as it was
getting used up, it was getting much lighter. So just pay attention
to how dark it is. You want it really rich and
dark to go around this base. And it will tend to dry a
little bit lighter as well, so we'll probably find that
we need to come back to it. So I'm going to go
round and apply this to the remaining
places on the flower. And now coming down to the bud, I'm going to use
the same mixture. It's really dark down here. So this was actually,
I'm going to go on top of the green that
I painted before. Haven't got much in the way
of drawing to guide me here, so I'm just, again, paying attention
and just getting these shapes about right. Doesn't need to be
completely perfect. Really dark there as well. And then dark little bit
there. Dart patch here. You see it just really throws
those contrast levels, which if you're not used
to working in this way, it's going to feel
quite disjointed. But this is exactly how it needs to be for
right now, so that's fine. Once you trust the process, once you're used to
working in this method, it's just really fun
because you get to see that powerful contrast
level just starting to pop. And this was that sort of
green bit I missed before. There's a slightly
dark bit there. But we can pick this out later. We'll be coming back to
work on the midtones here, but it's just nice to have these really dark parts just
kind of marked in for now. I don't want to
go into any areas that are potentially lighter, I think for now, that's good. The paintings looking pretty disjointed now, but
please don't worry. It's going to start coming
together really soon. Let's work on the greenery next.
7. Stem and Bud: The stem and the bud are some of the darkest parts of
the whole painting. Getting them painted
next will put us in a strong position to then
darken up the petals some more. So let's begin with these darkest greens
around these Well, there are sepals, I
think, around this bud. We'll do those and
these dark bits here. So for that, we'll go back to the sort of colours we
were using before for green, but we will darken it up. So we'll have some of the
Windsor green yellow shade. We'll have some of
the Windsor lemon. And then we want some
of the burnt sienna. Mm hmm. Plenty of that, in fact. That's too much. It's always just a juggle to get
it as we want it. So a little bit more of the
green. But that looks nice. That looks about right.
It's a rich dark green. And what I always say is it's more important to
get the tone right, how dark it is, than the exact shade right. It
really doesn't matter. You know, your subject would look different under
different lights, and there's natural variation
between them, as well. Now, I'm just feeling
like my point on that brush isn't quite enough. So I'm going to go right down to the treble zer because we've got some sharp points
to these sepals, so I'm just going to use that resting my
hand on the paper, so I've got lots of control. And again, it's a
case of applying this to every area
that's this hue and tone or dark about holding off from
anywhere that's lighter. So there's a lighter
patch there. I'm going to leave it. You can see that's actually
got a little bit lighter as the paint
was less thick, which is fine because it's just trying to match to what you see. So here there's a dark edge. There's a dark center, but there's a little bit of
lighter patches in between, so I'm just trying
to leave those. Again, here it's quite dark but not totally
dark at the edge. Just going up to that. Well,
actually, there's a gap. Got that darker patch. I'm not going to
go up to it there. This feels like it's
a little bit lighter, so I'm just holding
off from there. So I'm going to go round
with this dark color and apply it around these sepals. Just going over that transition there just over the
edge where I had that very dark purplish
brown to help blend it. It's hard to see
what's going on there, but just creating a line here. Again, it doesn't
have to be perfect. It's just really trying to tune in to the
lights and the darks and creating some texture that's going to give
that sense of realism. So I'll carry on. Now, as I come down here into the stem, it's really dark underneath this bit where it's in shadow. And then going to water the mix down and add a little bit more of
the Windsor lemon to brighten it to touch. But as we look at the stem, it's noticeably darker where it is in shadow on this
right hand side. And it's really
important to try and get a straight, crisp edge here. So I'm resting my
hand on the paper. I'm just trying to achieve that. It's the sort of thing
that gets easier as you practice your brush skills. So that is darker down there. Kind of right the
way down, really, not as dark, and then the
same on the other side. And my drawing
wasn't great there. I'm just going to
sort of slightly broaden or widen
that stem there, so it looks a little bit better. And it's a bit textured. So I've got a sort of darker
line on the left side, too. And then I think all
of this part here, if I just water down a touch, could be not the darkest
color I was using, but it's the kind of
next darkest color. So let's just go over
that. Using the brush to just neaten up and get the
shapes looking right too. And then, going back
to the darker mixture. I got a dark color here. Which again, we can sort
of come back to later. And then I need a
lighter version again, so let's pop more of the
winds or lemon into that mix, perhaps a little bit
more of the green, so it's got a bit more vibrancy, a bit more of that green glow. And then with that, always water down if
you're in any doubt. But we can just look at coming
in here and darkening up. So again, I'll leave, like, a few flex through to
the lighter color, but we can see now that this lighter color that I
left up here is too light. So it's a case that
we can go over, you know, once we've got this mixture and we
think this is right. Well, actually, I don't
think that is quite right. So let's more
yellow, water down. Let's come back to
these lightest tones at this point and just pop
a layer over those. So I'm just going
to pop a little bit more of the burnt
sienna in here. It's just looking
a bit too vibrant, but I'm going to use this to
darken up this stem here. I don't really see any areas that are this lighter color
that I've got underneath, so I can go over
the whole thing. But when I come
down to the bottom, I do see a bit of
tonal variation. I see a bit lighter down there, so I'll leave that for now. What we can do is come
back with a second layer. Like, that was almost
a second layer. I was just darkening
it slightly. That's the beauty of working
in layers like this we can adjust incrementally and get our tonal range just
where we want it, which is absolutely
key to the realism. So I'm going to plop this
all the way over this one. Again, just broadening
the drawing here. I got a bit too narrow, so I'm just adjusting that. There's a lighter patch
down at the bottom so I can leave a gap through
to that lighter color. And then using it a little bit thicker and darker
from the palette here, I'm just going to pop a layer over the whole of
this little leaf section. I didn't know so just going
back up here to the bud and I didn't finish off just sort of darkening up the
lightest tones in here. So just really
gently, so I'm not getting bleeding
of those colors, just trying to layer
up on top of that. Brings it together. So where it was looking
really disjointed, it starts to come
together some more, and we can do another
layer in here. So any area that seems to
need to be a bit darker, like in here, we can have a slightly darker version
of the mixture on the go. Something like that. And
just darkening up in there. Might need to let this
dry off actually, it's just losing a bit
of definition there. So we can come back
to this later, do a bit more detail work. The main thing is
now just trying to tonally get it
looking about right. And then just looking
at this stem, darkening up on that edge a bit. Perhaps the whole
of this section needs to be a little bit darker. And adding in a bit of texture, there's more line
detail on here. We can do this in
the later stages. But if we see it now, then it's good to pop it in
at this point, too. Just watering that down
a little bit and just go to come in darken this
stem a little bit more. Now I'm just going to apply this water down a bit over both. So I'm bringing it
together by unifying it, but I'm also going
over the dark again, so I retain a bit of the
tonal variation there. Again, we can come back to this and just get it
as we want it later. But for now, just a bit
of extra darkening up. I can see it needs to
be darker, I think, up there a little bit wider. And again, I'm just going
to darken on this one, because as it dries, again, it does tend to dry a
little bit lighter, so adjustments are more
obvious as it's dried. A little bit over
the whole of that. So I'm still getting a bit of that color
variation in there, but just darkening overall. Now, just coming
back to this bud and just going to
darken up in there. So I'm going to create
a purple mixture that's quite muted and
got some brown in, so it's going to be burnsi
in a permanent rose, and let's pop in a little bit
of the French ultramarine. For something like that, and just going to
extend out from there, just apply this in a
few areas on the bud. We want the green
to have dried off, really, so we don't have
this bleed into it. But we're just going
to pop this on. So this is our sort of darker
mid tones within this bud, and we'll leave areas where
we've got the lighter. We want some lighter,
brighter pink coming through. Now, I have got that
green bit on there. I'm just going to see my
head was coming in again. I'm just gonna pop
this green bit in because I sort of missed that before. You may have done yours. And then back to this color, which is really nice for here, and you can just establish those edges of those
sepals in front, as well by neating that line. So you can see it
sort of, again, it's standing out too much, but you can see you're starting to get
that shape and that curve by getting these
different tonal lines in. And then those sort of lights we've got in
there are too bright. But we want to keep
them nice and vibrant. So let's apply this
I've got this mix here, which was just the permanent
rose with a tiny bit of the French ultramarine. I'm just going to use that to just adjust, keep it vibrant. But have them a
little bit darker. This might not be
perfect in terms of the hue, here, actually, I can see if we just
water this down, it's probably more of
a muted color there. But I like having that
vibrancy in there. And we do lose a bit of
that as it dries, as well. So better to have
it too vibrant, what you think is going to be
too vibrant in the palate, but when it dries, it's
a little bit less. Great, with the stem
and bud darkened up, we can focus back on the
gorgeous flower next. Oh
8. Petals: Pinks and Adjustments: Now for the step I've been
the most excited to do, let's darken up the vibrant pinks around the flower center. For that, let's clean off
the palette first of all. Want to get rid of those
greens I've just been using. Get rid of those yellows. So we've got plenty of
space for our pink colours, and we don't want any of
those other ones mixing in. I'll leave that we can use that. So I'm going to go back to I'm gonna go to
my three brush. I'm going to start
with the vibrant, vibrant pinks, the
really dark rich ones. So what I've got
in my palette with the six colors is
permanent rose. That is as vibrant as
I can really get it, but I think it is slightly
just slightly too red. So I'm going to add in some
of the French ultramarine, just go to get some here
and just add a teeny bit. But that's enough because
that's going to sort of darken it and make
it less vibrant. So I'm going to keep it really rich like this, nice and dark. And I'm going to
come in and go over the top of that dark
color I'd applied before. Then using the tip, and I'm
going to do the same thing. We're going to create
these little lines, sort of feathering the edge, trying to get the direction
of form right as we come out. Now, the color is going to
slightly dry, less bright. So I'm just going to add
I think I'm just going to almost stick to permanent rose. Going to stick to that. I want to try and keep it as
bright as possible. Now, if you've got more
colors to play with, you could add in if you've
got some opera rose, opera rose is so vibrant that it's really well worth
adding a little bit in. But I want to just show you
that you can still achieve really vibrant colors with a
limited palette like this. So as that's coming
out, I'm aware that it's just as I'm
sort of pulling it out, I'm pulling in some of those
darker colors into it, so it's losing a
bit of its glow. So I'm just going to try working kind of
more the other way. I just watered down a touch, using the paper color to
add brightness there. And let's actually go
down to brush size. I'm gonna go down to the one, but I'm just going to have
to clean it right off, because I think it had some
of the green on from before or yellow. Make
sure it's cleaned. So just paying attention and
again, just drawing this, pulling this out
wherever we can see this depth of color and this hue shade and applying some detail by
adding these little lines. We can see that's not really quite as vibrant as I'd like. Let's get some just
neat permanent rose. I think that that darker color had kind of bled
in a little bit, which is fine, but we're
going to just try and get on the edge there some
more of this vibrant color. And again, here, so
I'll just be careful not to drag that
darker color out. Let's go round. I'll just apply this in a few more places. Okay, so now we're going
to make some adjustments. We're going to go back
to our five brush, which we need to make
sure is nice and clean. And we're going to make
this feel more solid. So we need to take these
lightest colors to a darker state and just only leave the areas which
really are that light. So let's create that mix again, which was permanent rose and a little bit of the
French ultramarine. And we'll take it a little bit darker than
we had it before, but this will be another
layer, so it will get darker. Let's try this mix out, say down here and it might
be a touch tube pink. Let's add a little bit more of the French ultramarine.
Water that down. And then, actually, I'm tempted to just go
with the three brush, and that's because I don't want too much paint going
on the paper at once. And if we have the
smaller brush size, we have less of it going on. That means it's going
to dry quicker, and we can layer
more quickly, too. So again, going to work
in the direction of form and only leave gaps through where I really feel
like there's a lighter color like there is this lighter
line, for example, here. Kind of between those two. It's between two petals there. So I'm going to try
and leave that. And I'm going to adjust the hue as I think I need to I I think it needs
to be more purple, I'm going to add in a little
bit more French ultramarine. And if it's more pink, then obviously more of
the permanent rose. And working with this,
you know, again, it's just applying anywhere
this hue and tone or darker. As I come up here, it feels
like it gets lighter. So let's water down and let's work with
something even more watery, which we can apply
to bigger areas. And we can always
do another layer of it where we need to
darken up some more. So perhaps a little bit more
French ultramarine up here. But again, really pale, and we can go over those
shadow lines that we've made before if we feel they can be taken
a little bit darker, which I think they
all can check yours, though. So I think all of that. But this is really
light in here, so I'm tempted to just water
that down even more and just leave a patch just there
that is that initial layer, but just softening and making a graduated transition
into this shade around it. And perhaps this needs to be
a little bit more purple. He's to say, it's less important
that our hue is right. It's more important
that the tone is right. So we're going to work
really pale like this, and we're going
to do a couple of layers if we need to darken up. So I'm going to apply
this here just leaving with just a few gaps through to that lighter
mix that's already there. What's going to happen is
we're going to see that those shadow areas that
we painted before are, for the most part, all gonna
need to be darkened up, and that's totally fine. So if we just apply, I can see that color will need to be a little bit
darker in there. So if we just apply
that in over that, what it means is the contrast
levels now too flat, but it's what we need to do is darken up these shadow areas. So that's our This is
this tonal juggling. This is what we
need to do. And if we do it gradually like this, we can get it
looking right, which is why these layers
work so well. And again, where we're transitioning into that
bright vibrant pink, we can just gently work
over that with these mixes, and it'll just slightly spread in and give us the kind
of look that we want. Again, as I apply
this over here, I can really see that
the shadow areas are going to need to be darker. Quite light in there,
but let's just water and just
slightly darken it. So coming over here, I want to work all the way
over that shadow area. And, you know, probably
could be useful to have a five brush
at this point. You might want to swap. But it's also nice
to just work in these lines so we can start to build some of that
veiny texture. So I'm just going
to carry on with this mix to the
other two petals. Okay, now we're gonna let that completely dry off before we come and work on those
darkest shadow areas again. Okay, so let's mix the
shadow color again. I'm gonna use the I think I'm gonna use the three. Let's start off with the three. And let's go with
some of that Pain's gray and permanent rose. It looks quite dark. If we
water that down a little bit, let's try it out on a really
dark area like over here. I think that's good.
We can start to get a little bit more
confident now on how dark we actually need
to take the petals, and I think that
works quite well. So what I'm going to do is I'll be adding in
a little bit of extra detail as I
go at this point. I'm going to adjust
it if I need to. I'm going to go
around, and basically, I'll be going over much of that shadow color that
I'd applied before. Careful to sort of spread it out to thin it
out and make it a little bit lighter where I need it and just apply
it a little bit thicker, let it pull a little bit more on the paper where I
want it a bit darker. Your shadow color was
applied a lot darker before. If you had your mix quite
thick, then just review this. You might not need to
darken up as much. You might want to use
a more watery layer to darken up or you might not even feel you need to darken up. So do be sensitive to your
own painting at this point. But certainly, if
you've been following this and you've been using the same sort of
consistency mixes, then you're going to find
that as we've darkened up those lightest tones with
this tonal juggling, we now can see that
we need to darken up the darker color. So let's just go round and
I'm going to apply this to those darkest shadow area Okay. So having done that little
bit of darkening up, which we can come back
to if we've missed bits. But now we can do another gradual darkening of different parts of the petals. So let's go back
to the French ult, marine and permanent rose watered down,
something like that. And again, really watery. And I'm just going
to concentrate on the petals that seem
like the darker ones, like down here, for example. Again, I'm going to apply
in the little lines, and I'm going to sometimes leave little gaps just to try and create some of
that visual texture. And that's the beauty. With the layers,
you can start to see that we're capturing that. So I'm going to go round
with this and apply this to those areas that
I think could benefit. I can water down a
touch if I think an area like there needs to be darker but not too much darker. So let's go around with that and just apply not everywhere, but to those areas that we think need to be a
little bit darker. You can go over the top of the layer that
you've just applied, making sure it's dry. Mine's drying quickly
because I'm using the high absorbency
cotton paper. If you're working
in a sketchbook or something that's
less high quality, you might need to
give it a blast of a hair dryer or just wait a
little bit so that it is dry. But with it dry,
you'll find that those markings underneath
don't lift or don't lift much. The paintings looking
really complete now, but let's take a tea
break at this point. This will refresh our
eyes ability to see what our paintings need next
and refresh our brains, too, by giving them
a little rest. Oh
9. Final Adjustments and Details: Okay, at this point, all our paintings will need something a little
bit different. So do check yours
before doing what I do. I'm going to make a
few tonal adjustments and then add some more detail. So when I look at
mine, having done that adjusting to the main
parts of the petals, I really want to come
in here and darken up and neaten up in
the center some more. So I'm going to go with, let's go with a I mean, I could just go
with a treble zero at this point. It's
quite tempting. And I'm going to
start with, I think, some of the neat permanent rows, and I'm just going to
kind of darken up. So yeah, I think
pretty much the whole of this stage well, much of the stage is
gonna be done with this treble zero
brush because we are looking to add
detail and realism. And for that, this tiny
brush is our best friend. So making lots of
little line details to try and match what
I can see there. Keeping looking at
the reference photo. So I'm going to add
some of this in. Yours may not need
it if you were kind of heavier in your
application of it before, and don't forget it does
dry a little bit lighter. So I'm going to do
this color first. And now I'm going to go in with that rich brownie
black color again. But I'm actually going to have a version with a bit more of the permanent rose in it, and I'm just going to pick out a little bit more
detail and go in here. I haven't got enough of this. And I can just let it
blend there on the paper. But I can also use
this as a way of outlining and neaatening up
some of that flower center. I can even use this
to just pick out a few more details in here. So now just using this dark
brown and I'm going to go in and darken up some of these details in here as well. As the outside of
the the outside of the flower center
has got darker. Can really see that these bits need darkening up some more too. And that just helps
have them pop forward. I'm going to make the
black color again. Pain's gray burnt sienna mixture and just really darken
up around the edge. So we've got this almost
black edge outlining it. And now just coming back
to threes go clean it off. And I just want to darken
the petals a touch, but I want to keep them
as vibrant as I can. So I'm going to use just
the neat permanent rose. But really watery.
So we're making super subtle adjustments
at this point. And yeah, see that
seems too much. I'm going to spread that out. But my sense is that it does
dry a little bit duller, and I want to keep as much
kind of vibrant glow as I can. So I'm just going to
really gently apply this, for example, here, and
just scraping it out. So watering it down even more to make a sort of hue
correction, if you like. It's just a really pale glaze to just lift it towards pink. This petal has less of that, but, like, a little bit
down here would be good. Darkening up against
that edge again. So I'm going to apply this
watery pink in a few places. And now, with that done, just
back to I'm going to go to my one brush and I'm going
to go with the shadow color, the pain's gray and
permanent rose mix. But keeping it fairly watery, I'm making subtle
adjustments at this point. I'm going to go around
and just darken up the areas that I think
need to be darker with this. So particularly down here, this shadow work
needs to be darker. You could use even the
treble zero for this. You just definitely
need a crisp point. So I'm going to darken up the shadows where
I think I need it. Yours might need
something different. Better if you're
working on dries. So actually, let's
just take a pause. I'm going to make sure mine's
dried off before I do this. This is an opportunity
to add detail too. So I'm really looking at
the most detailed level now before I was kind of
a little bit zoomed out and kind of trying to
look for the larger areas. But now at this final stage, I'm really paying attention
like at the edge here, there's more fine
lines to add in. And it really is this
level of detail that just takes it to that next
level. It's really fun. This stage is so much fun. You've done the hard
work of the painting. This is the sort of little
details that all add up. So just take your time
with it, enjoy it. And try and add in what you can. Whilst I was working, I just
noticed this section here needed to be more vibrant
pink. I'd missed it before. So anything you miss, just take your time
to pick it out now and try and get the contrast
levels looking right. So just going back
with this pink, and I'm just going to sort of soften some of
those transitions, just add a little bit more of this glow into a
few more places. It's really quite dilute. All of these adjustments are basically pretty
subtle at this point, but they do make a
significant difference, a disproportionate
difference, actually. So well worth doing. Back to the shadow color. I'm just going over
more of these shadows. You can go in with another layer to any of them as
they've dried off. To just darken them up and
bring them into balance. What you need to
do is kind of step back and see it as a whole. So taking the whole
picture, often, that means actually
physically moving backwards and looking at the whole thing so
you can identify Ah, down here needs to be darker
in a more general area, and then you can go into
looking at the details. So although this stage is
really detailed focused, it's also about taking that overview periodically
so that you can identify any bigger areas of the whole that need to be darker to be brought
back in balance. If any areas go too dark, you can always just use water on your brush and just
lift the paint off. Working in the layers like this, you can usually do
that pretty easily. And then it's just details. So it's just looking
at each petal, looking for extra veins that need to be added in that
you haven't done before, doing it with subtle
watery paints so you don't go too dark, but making sure
there's plenty of this line vein detail that's what gives it
that lovely realism. Before I do my final sort of check over and going
over on the petals, I'm just going to turn my attention back down to the bud here and do a
little bit of the same, really, neatening up more details, darkening
where I need to. I'm going to it's more
purple, but as I said before, hue is less important than tone, and I want to keep a nice
bright vibrant color there. So I'm going to use predominantly
permanent rose and just sort of darken up and just pick out some of those
brighter details, leaving still some of the
lighter color coming through. And then I'm going to
go make sure I'm with my treble zero brush for this and just use the same colors that I
have used there before, but just doing a little bit of neatening up and darkening up. This is, again, the same stage
as what we were just doing on the petals, just
defining edges, adding a little
bit more linework, a little bit more
detail as I see it, using that mix that's got a bit of the
permanent rose in it, but it was mostly pains
gray and burnt sienna. But yeah, just
picking out details, and I'm going to do the
same with the greens. Now, here, there's some
little dot details, which I kind of deliberately
excluded before, but I'm just gonna pop those in. All these little extra
details just help. And then I'll just
remix some green. So burnt sienna and
the Windsor green, yellow shade and a bit of the Windsor lemon and just having a nice dark version
and just gonna pick out some of those
darker details again. And just watering it down a
bit more windsor lemon and just darkening up any of
the mid tones that need it. And then I'm just going to
use quite a watery mix of green to just pick out some
of these tiny details, little hairs on the stem. And I think in so doing, I'm going to do a little bit
of darkening up as well, primarily on the right side. But just the very tip,
not much paint on the brush to just create that hairy look that
the stems have. Again, just going
around with the darker green and
just picking out any areas I think need to be
taken a little bit darker. And now, stepping back and just looking at the whole again and I'm just going to look at
the flower and the petals. I'm just going to use
neat permanent rose, watery, just make a
few more adjustments. And a few more of
the shadow areas. But just using French
ultramarine and permanent rows. I just want to keep things
a little bit brighter. And now just treble zero
brush and just a few more of the darker shadow areas
just on the edges just to neatn and add
a few more lines. If you have any little
water marks where the paint has kind of pulled to the edge where it was
perhaps a bit wet before, like I've got here,
if you need to, if you feel like they
stand out too much, you can just take a
little bit of water on a small brush and
just gently work into them and blend them so that they're not standing
out too much. So you're probably
getting a sense how slow and time consuming
this last stage is, and you might be tempted
to rush through it because you're not
seeing big differences every breath stroke you make. But using the paint like this, fairly watery, making
subtle adjustments. I'm hoping you're going
to see it just makes all the difference
to the realism. So often you might feel like at that almost complete stage, like, Oh, it's not that great. But if you carry on making
these subtle adjustments, neatening and tonal juggling, getting things looking
right, you can really bring a painting
on to feeling good. And it's training your
eye ultimately to look. It's almost like a
spot the difference between your reference
photo and your painting. And that does take time
to train your eye, but it gets a lot
easier with practice, and it's just really enjoyable. It's totally relaxing. You're just in
another little world, looking for those details and those areas that need to be
darkened on your own work.
10. Conclusion: I've loved painting
this vibrant flower, getting it looking just right. I hope you have,
too. Please post your version for us to see, and I can't wait to see
you in another class soon. I hope you found this a new and empowering way to
enjoy watercolors. Were you surprised
at how much control the small brushes gave you and how well the layering
process worked? The great news is that
the same technique can be used to paint any subject
in a realistic way. Let's take a moment to recap the method we use
by applying it to a couple of other
flowers so that you can see just how it can
be put into practice. These flowers are
available as step by step classes at naturstudio.com. It's my online art school and
community where there are hundreds more long format
classes from me and selected other artists all with traceable outline drawings, though I also teach
drawing there. Let's start by looking at this really simple little
forget me not flower. Step one, I begin by painting the lightest tone colors to each area of the flower
with watery pale mixes. Step two, with that dry, I go straight in with the
darkest tones to the petals. With the lightest
and darkest ends of the flowers tonal
range in place, I can start step three, which is to work
on the mid tones, beginning with the
darker mid tones that connect up with
the darkest tones. Then working on the
rest of the mid tones. Before beginning step four, which is to make
tonal adjustments. Because we perceive tones as relative to the
tones around them, it's only when we
gradually darken up that we can see what areas
need darkening more fully, which is why after darkening
up the dark center, I do another round of tonal
adjustments to the petals. Now let's look at a
more complex flower. This vibrant sunflower to see the four step process
is just the same. Within each distinct
colour area, I work through the four steps. Step one involves using watery pale mixes to apply
the lightest versions of the yellows to the petals and the many different shades
of brown to the center, already starting to achieve the texture to that area
with my brush strokes. With that dry, I go in with the darkest
tones for step two, painting the black
browns to the center. I then work on the mid tones
of the dark flower center, which was step three for
that part of the painting. Next, I did step
two to the petals, applying their darkest tones, and then step three to the
petals, their midtones, starting with the
darker mid tones, and then applying the
lighter mid tones. Getting these tonal
values right was a lot easier because I completed
that dark flower center first. Next, I did step four, which was to zoom out and make tonal adjustments
to the whole, as well as adding extra
details where I saw them. This is always so
much easier with the lightest and darkest
colors established early on. Practicing using
this method will enable you to tackle any
subject with confidence. As nature studio
member Wendy put it, Anna's method of painting
gives me a roadmap, so I know the next
step I need to do regardless of what I'm
painting or how complex it is. I really hope this class has whetted your appetite
for creating watercolors with Wow and capturing the beauty of
nature on your paper. If it has, do come and
check out natustudio.com, my online art school
and community, where there are hundreds
more long format classes, and I have a watercolor class you can take for
free there, too. So hop over and sign up for
it now. Thanks for watching. And if you want to
find out more about my art school nature studio and the free class that's waiting for you there, keep watching. If you haven't taken your free, full length watercolor class
yet, you're missing out. Step by step, I'll guide
you through painting a three D pair that looks real
enough to pick up and eat. I'll explain not just
what to do, but why. So you'll learn a reliable
method you can use for painting all kinds of subjects
that make your heart sing. You'll discover
that you're already a better artist
than you thought. And like thousands of others who painted their free
pair before you, this discovery might just ignite a spark in you that wants
to take this further, which is where nature
studio membership comes in. Joining gives you access
to hundreds more classes that'll help you develop your skills and
grow as an artist. And in addition to the
classes, when you join, you become part of a
global community of like minded creatives who can support you and offer you feedback
if and when you need it. Get the free pair class now and enjoy discovering wherever
it takes you next.
Anna Mason, Artist & Educator
