Watercolor Flowers For Beginners - Layered Watercolor Floral Painting

1. Introduction: Hey everyone, my name is Alicia and I'm an artist here in San Jose, California. In today's class, I will show you how to paint the simple watercolor layered flowers, following simple steps and techniques. We will go over the materials, basic watercolor techniques, layering and washes, as well as some standard brushwork. You will then paint this watercolor painting step-by-step. So let's begin. 2. Materials: Alright, so the materials that super-simple today, April for water, a paper towel. I only use two different kinds of brushes, thereby a brand called Zen art. I don't think they'd sell this exact brush anymore, but I will maybe find something similar and link them below. Always I am using the RT is a paper pad and I cut mine into a six by eight inch along with our teaser palette, which comes in 36 colors. I have listed the exact colors that I use down in the description. So you can find them in the projects and resources tab below. 3. Exercise 1 - Techniques: So before we start, I just wanted to go over some basics with you. I'm not going to overwhelm you with a lot of techniques and brushwork, but I'm just going to cover the techniques that we will use in today's class so that you can get a more practical approach for this. So the two most common watercolor techniques, or wet on wet and wet on dry. For the wet on wet paint is applied to wet paper. You can layer different colors on top of existing wet paint, which will create this blurred out expansion effect, where you will notice the colors bleeding into one another. The second technique is wet on dry paint is applied onto dry paper. It is as simple as that. So let's look at the effects that these gave us, right? So now the wet on wet gives us soft edges. It's more blurred out. This is great if you want more delicate, softer paintings, great use for backgrounds or far-away objects. You can also blend easily while getting an effective gradient and also creates a misty effect. It is also unpredictable and hence, not so much in your control. The very opposite of the wet on wet is the wet on dry, which gives us sharper edges. So you can definitely have more control where you can get well-defined shapes. The wet on dry also allows you to lay your paint as much as you want. We will go through layering in the next step. 4. Exercise 2 - Layering: So here I'm going to show you how you can layer your paint in watercolors. I'm going to show you three different kind of washes here, each one with a little more pigment to show you the effects of layering. If you want well defined shapes and it comes to layering, you will have to work on this wet on dry. So I'm drying out my paper with a blow dryer to speed up the process before I begin to layer my shapes. Okay, once you're painting has dried, layer your shapes little by little getting darker each time. But also wait for your painting to dry in-between each layer that you add. So as you can see, the lighter your initial wash is, the easier it is to build up on layering. So keep that in mind when you are painting with watercolors, you always have to work light to dark. Unlike acrylics, where you can get away with working from dark to light, I think watercolors as a medium does require you to be more patient. 5. Exercise 3 - Wash: Let's go over some basic washes here. So for the first one we have a flat wash where your pigment is even all around. And then to get a gradient, I'm starting from a light wash with less pigment and will slowly increase my pigment intake as I move downwards. You can also, you can also start dark and then gradually lighten up. Your wash as well. Too toned is where you combine two colors and merge them together by blending. And to blend them, you will lightly brush your colors in between. 6. Exercise 4 - Brushwork: In this lesson, I wanted to go over some basic brushwork that can be applied to any watercolor painting. So I'm going to start with a nice big round brush. Again. All of these brushes are linked below. If you are interested in them. I literally love this brush. You will see me using this brush for Mozi, the entire painting almost 95% of the time I'm gonna be using this one brush. It is super versatile because you can get extremely tiny lines with this as well as big ones. Holding your brush is straight up. Using its tip can give you thin strokes. You can also use the side of the brush. And then obviously using its belly can give you larger strokes. This next brush is a long, thin brush, which can give you extremely fine details. I usually pull this brush out at the very end when I'm wrapping up just to add last-minute final details to make an impression and to add a few, just a few marks here and there. Okay, So this last brush that I'm gonna be using is the old brush. I like to use this to get some really cool dry brush effect. You can also make this brush yourself by taking any old around small round brush that you have that you do not really care much of the state on any surface to make the bristles span out. But like I said, I use this brush to get some dry brush effect mainly on my trees. What this means is that you want less water and more pigment for this brush technique. Using this can give you very natural brushstrokes and somewhat, it's somewhat unpredictable and adds to that loose painting style effect. You can also get a dry brush effect with your regular round brush. So usually in a good watercolor painting, you should have all these techniques we went over to add interest and make it impactful. So as you move on to today's lesson, you will see me using all these techniques we went over and I will show you how you can turn a simple landscape and make it interesting by adding a variation of brush marks and details. 7. Painting - Layered Flowers: Alright, so I'm gonna be starting here with my first flower. I didn't have a reference that I was looking at, but I simply painted as they went along. But I will post them for inspiration pigs down below, which can be helpful. I'll post them in the projects and resources tab below as well. So I'm thinking of pansies or just like puppies in my head right now. I'm starting with this Oxford blue color. You can use any color that you feel like. I'm using a number four round brush and I'm starting out with a nice simple flat wash. And just kinda wiggling my brush a little bit like this. But making this, we like I'm shape, making sure that this layer is very light. I like to gather some extra pigment of color at the base, so I'm just dropping in some color that directly working with it but on wet. Alright, so now I'm doing the same thing, but on the opposite side, this flower is the one that's open and it's facing us directly. Now I'm dropping in some more color at the base. Now, this is where we kind of have to wait for the layers to fully dry before adding in any layers on top. So this is a great time to play around with other flowers here to get that started as well. Rinsing off my brush, I am now taking in magenta and adding in my first base petal here. Same exact technique. I'm also like mentally keeping a composition in mind as I paint along to figure out placements and also where and what direction I want my flowers facing. I decided that before I even start painting each flower, I decided I wanted to add one more flower on top here with violet. This time. I'm getting in just a basic like, almost like a triangle. We squiggly shape for the puddle. To lift off any color. You can simply dab your brush onto your paper towel and back to the area that you want to lift off to get it to be more lighter. Once I get more layers. And you will understand how this will turn out. But for now, it again, you just have to wait because I have to wait for these layers to fully dry before I can move on to the next step. Because all my other petals will be overlapping these existing petals. You can either naturally let it air dry or to speed up the process. You can also use a blow dryer if you have one handy. But we can go back to the first flower that'd be painted because that one is fully dry. I'm getting out OK. So blue again and adding a pedal over the, over this one right here. Just overlapping the layer, slightly dabbing in some extra color at the base. For some more definition. I sometimes like to add that color to the top or side of the petal as well. So doing the same exact pedal on the other side, making sure to overlap it a little bit. Alright, so I cannot do any more layers for this flower yet. I will have to wait for this layer to dry first. So this is the perfect time again to hop on to the other flowers. Using violet, I am going to layer a pedal. Here's the overlapping it towards the right. So these two flowers, the purple and the pink, that you see there going to be facing off to the side and not facing us directly. So the positioning of this will be slightly different. The big blue one that you see. For some variety of interests and color. I'm dropping a little bit of cadmium yellow at the bottom here. Moving into the bottom flower, I'm taking in magenta and overlapping a layer pedal to the side as well. It's very similar to the purple one right above it. I'm going in with some golden yellow, which is similar to a bright orange, and just dropping in that color at the base for some interests. Going back to the top flower and taking in wireless to add in a layer pedal to the left here and making shapes slightly irregular to make it look more natural. Now that my blue flower is dry, let's finish those petals off. So I'm just going back in with Oxford blue and I'm filling in those two gaps with overlapping layers on each side. So I hope you're getting the hang of this and you realize that painting this is merely about patients and water to pain control consistency. So as long as you understand these two, painting, these flowers are a lot easier than it may seem. And don't be discouraged if you did not get them right the first time. Keep practicing and you will become a pro added. So now that I got these three flowers, I knew that I wanted to add more, but I wasn't too sure about the composition, so I decided to first fully finished these three before adding different meanings. So I decided to add a yellow flower to the left hand, right force imbalance. So I'm using lemon yellow and getting in my first petal base. Here, I'm just dabbing some of that paint off to lift the color more. Getting one small pedal on the opposite side. And don't forget to drop in that extra paint at the base for that pop and definition. So while that dries, I'm gonna go ahead and paint my mass flower to the right. I'm gonna do that a very similar three-layered pedal, like the pink and the purple. But except I'm gonna be facing this one towards the left. This time. I'm going to wait for that to dry before adding the next two layers. 8. Painting - Center Details & Stems: In the meanwhile, I'm going to go ahead and take my number to a bigger brush to give my flowers darker, finer details. So going in with black, I am dotting that color in the center. So as you can see, my flowers still damp. So it can spread a little bit and have that wet on wet effect. So the pink one here is all dry so it isn't spreading like you saw in the purple and the blue one. To blend that edge a little bit more, you can add some more water to the edges and spread it upwards. I'm dragging that color and just pulling it downward to add my stem. All right, so let's go back to those two yellow flowers to finish them off. Same exact technique, overlapping a layer on top to just fill in those gaps. I'm adding in a bit of orange to the center for that pop of color by the base. So the orange is also called cadmium yellow. I'm taking in cadmium yellow to add in the two layers of this flower on the right. So filling in the last two petals for the flower at the bottom. Going back in with the fine rigger brush to get the darker color at the base and stems. Sometimes I like taking the dark color and defining the individual petals for some more definition as you see me doing right here. So little details like this can really bring in more attention and it can also separate your layers a bit more. 9. Painting - Background & Final Details: To fill in these empty gaps around, I decided to add a small bud with a stem, if you'd like. You can also fill it in with some leaves or some more flowers. So this will not only add more interests to the composition, but will also break up the flower shapes. So I'm using a combination of foreign green and black. And I'm using my fine rigger brush to add a squiggly line here for the stem. I'm filling in that oval with a spring green. And like always, adding that extra color to the base. I'm just going to randomly place these little bugs wherever I feel, like it looks best with my composition. I wanted to add just a couple of leaves to these flowers, some using phone green. And I'm simply making basic leaf shapes. Nothing complicated. Last but not least, going back in the center of each flower to add that extra detail of dark specks in the middle there. And we will be done. This, my friends completes this loose layered watercolor flowers for today. Hope you enjoyed, and I cannot wait to see what you'll come up with, share your projects. I would love to see them and to not forget to leave this class interview. Ask me any questions in the discussions tab below. I invite you to explore that classes I had created for you. Classes and watercolors, as well as acrylics are available if you want to learn more. So do consider following me so that you do not miss out on future painting classes from me. If you enjoyed this painting, follow this class up with a loose watercolor, some fabric painting or a roast painting. I will link some of these classes down below. Thank you so much for your support over at my website and also my Etsy shop, you can find original art prints and much more. The links are below. As always, follow me on Instagram to keep up with latest updates, giveaways and all that fun stuff. Thank you once again. And happy painting.