Watercolor Flowers: The Ultimate Beginners Guide

1. Introduction: If you ever wanted to create beautiful floral paintings but felt a bit intimidated by all the techniques and colors, then this class is perfect for you. Hi, my name is Jenny Flores. I'm an artist and a creative teacher from the Philippines. My art is deeply inspired by my love for flowers. I'm captivated by their beauty and how they can evoke deep emotions. I love combining delicate floral elements with soft vintage tones to create pieces that are both nostalgic and heartwarming. With nearly 80,000 followers on Instagram, I had the joy of sharing my passion for art with a wide community, and now I am thrilled to share it with you. In this class, we'll start with the basics of watercolor. We'll master the crucial water and color ratio, explore essential techniques to help you control your paint, and perfect the brush strokes to bring your art to life. Then we'll move on to painting one of the simplest yet most beautiful flowers cherry blossoms. As a bonus, I'll also guide you through painting your bare daisy. Best part will just be using three colors, which makes this class both fun and approachable. Whether you're completely new to watercolor or you've dabbled a bit, but still find it daunting, this class is designed to ease you into the process. You'll build confidence as you create sunning floral art with a few simple techniques. I can't wait to see what you'll create, so pick up your brush and let's get started. 2. Materials Needed: Let's go over the supplies that you'll need for the watercolor class. I'll be explaining each item and how you can use it effectively. For the paper, we'll be using watercolor paper, preferably cold press because it has nice texture that helps you with the watercolor technique. I personally use Bao Hung watercolor paper, which is 300 GSM, cold press, and 100% fatten. However, you can use any watercolor paper you have on your hand as long as it's cold press. Cold press paper has lightly textured surface that is perfect for capturing the details and delicate flow of water in watercolor. Now next is brushes. For brushes, you'll need a few different brushes for the class. We need round brushes in size eight, a round brush in size two, a small Filbert brush, and a mid sized Filbert brush. Round brushes have a round tip and versatile for detailed work and washes. Filbert brushes, on the other hand, have a flat, oval shaped making them ideal for blending and creating soft rounded edges in floral petals. For the class, I'll be using silver black velvet round brush in size eight, and size two. For the Filbert brush, I'll be using silver silk 88 Filbert brush in size one half, and silver crystal Filbert brush in size two. Next, our paints. Watercolor paints come in various forms such as tubes, pants, and cakes. I prefer using tubes because they offer a more concentrated pigment and mix easily with water. For this class, we'll be using the following colors, a shade of pinkish red, a shade of green, and a shade of brown. I'll specifically use the following color, which are ruby for the pinkish red, olive green or undersea green for the green, and Vandekown for the brown shade. You'll also need additional supplies like tissue for blotting and cleaning and a mixing palet for blending colors. And we also need a glass of water for our brushes. Remember, you don't need to have the exact same supplies that I use. Similar materials will work just fine, especially when you're just starting out. The goal is to get comfortable with the tools that you have and enjoy the process of painting. 3. Basic Watercolor Techniques: Before we paint our flowers, we will first do a recap of some of the important watercolor theories. So first is water and colour ratio, watercolor techniques, and some of the strokes and brush markings that we will be using in painting our flowers. First is water and colour ratio. When you dip a wet brush directly on your watercolor, you'll notice that it will create a very concentrated stroke like this. But as you add more water on this brush, you'll notice that this color is getting more diluted, lighter and easier to swipe in your paper. There's no right or wrong, and there's no exact amount of water that you should put in your brush, but it actually depends on what you want to show in your painting. So if you want a certain stroke to be just an effect or just something in the background, you have to use a very light mixture of color. But if you want it to be a detail or something that you want to emphasize, you have to use a very concentrated mixture. And this very concentrated mixture is what we call butter mixture. For those that are in the middle, something pigmented but watery, at the same time, we call it milk mixture, and those that are very light, very watery, we call it tea mixture. When you apply it in your painting, you'll notice that in this cherry blossom composition, I use tea mixture in the background, milk mixture in some of the shadow effects and butter mixture in the details like the filament and anter of the cherry blossom. Now, the next thing that we need to remember is watercolor techniques. There are a lot of watercolor techniques that you have to know when you're in your watercolor journey. But for today, I'm going to discuss with you the two most important techniques, which are the wet and wet and wet and dry. So when you do the wet and wet technique, you have to paint a layer. While it's still wet, you will paint another layer on top of it. Usually, we use darker tone on the second layer so that it will be more visible. But as you notice, when you paint a stroke over a wet stroke, the second stroke that you have created dissolves over it. And this is not wrong. It just depends on what effect do you want to see on your painting. So the next watercolor technique that we'll do is called the wet on dry technique. So for the wet and dry, you have to paint a layer and then wait for that first layer to before adding the second layer. When you do this, you'll create a very defined and clean stroke, whether it's a dot or a line like this, and this one is what we usually use when we want to create the detail of, for example, the cherry blossom. You want to create the filament and enter, you have to wait for the base layer to completely dry up before you add the filament and enter, because if you add it too soon, it will just create a blob and you'll mess up your painting. So yes, patience is important here. Next is brush strokes. We are painting in a loose style, and that means we are going to maximize the shape of our brushes. First is round brush. I have here my black velvet, my favorite round brush, but you can use any round brush that you have with you. For our first stroke, let's do thin strokes. So when you do thin strokes, only the tip of your brush will touch the paper. You have to control the stress that you will put on your brush so that you can create really thin stroke. Also, the position of your brush should be perpendicular to your paper because if it's a little bit slanted, you will be creating thicker strokes. Try to practice creating thin strokes when you don't have anything to do, and it's okay to have shaky thin strokes in the beginning that's totally normal. But as you create more, I'm sure you'll be able to create clean thin lines easier. The next stroke that will create is thick stroke. So when you do thick stroke, you have to add pressure on your brush, and the width of your stroke will depend on how much stress you're going to put in your brush, as well as the size of your brush. So thick strokes are so much easier compared to thin strokes. Let's do a quick recap of a round brush strokes. So first is thin stroke, and next is thick stroke. Now, if you combine this two stroke, you can create this beautiful leaf stroke. So all you need to do is press your brush and then drag it a little and then lift it. So when you drag it, you're slowly lifting the hairs of your brush so that it can create a pointy tip like a leaf. You can also do the same stroke using a smaller brush like this one. This is size two, and this is perfect for creating smaller leaves like the ones for your cherry blossoms. For our next brush, we'll be using our Filbert brush, and for our first stroke, we are going to do the flat stroke. So when you do the flat stroke, all you need to do is press your brush and then slowly drag it to create a thinner tip. So you're aiming for a tear drop shape. When you use the side of your brush, you can also create something like this, but it's thinner since we are using the side of our brush. Filbert brush is a nice brush that you have to master because a lot of flowers have round tip petals, and mastering a Filbert brush is such a big help for you when you paint in loose style. A you can also combine the flat stroke and side stroke. This is a nice practice when you're creating the petals of a big cherry blossom. So let's try it. Create one flat, and then put another one, a side stroke beside it. So this is considered as one petal. You have to ensure that they are placed too close to each other so that they won't be taken as separate petals. You can do that. We usually do that when we paint smaller cherry blossom. But for a size like this, we want to showcase the beautiful shape of a cherry blossom petal, which is something like this. Now let's continue painting our flowers on our next video. 4. How to Paint Cherry Blossoms: Now, let's continue painting our cherry blossoms. And again, we are going to use our Filbert brush. So let's do the strokes that we practiced earlier, a combination of flat and side strokes. For this one, we are using team mixture, very, very light mixture of the color that we are using, which is Ruby from Nevsky Paltra. Well the layer is still wet, I'm going to add some dots of the same color in butter mixture in the middle. As you notice, this is a wet and wet technique, and it bled so much in the middle, which gave a very nice effect on our cherry blossom. We will let this layer dry up first before adding the second layer. And while waiting, we are going to create a smaller cherry blossom on the side. So this time, I am using a small Filbert brush, and instead of doing a two stroke, which is a combination of flat and side stroke, I just use the flat stroke. And I also did the same method, which is adding a butter mixture of ruby in the center while my layer is still wet. Again, we will let this layer dry up first. And if you want it to dry quicker, you can also use a hit gun. The first layer is now dry, now using milk mixture, and aside to round brush, I am adding some brush markings on some of the areas of the petals to create depth. I know that this is an awkward stage for your painting, but trust the process because later on when we add the anther and filament, you will see the beautiful effect that this stage has added on your cherry blossom. Again, we're going to let this layer dry up first. So I'm going to use my hit gun again before we add the next layer. Next layer is the anorin filament. All you need to do is create a thin stroke with a dot on top. So it should come from one area only. And what you need to do is create smaller batch and then something like middle size, and then some few that are longer. The secret here is create very thin lines because if you are creating thicker lines, it doesn't create a nice effect on your painting. So you have to make sure that you have a very small detail brush size two or something smaller if you have. And again, you're using butter mixture for this one. You have to control the amount of water that you have on your brush because if it's too wet, you cannot create a very thin stroke. Add a few strokes that are beyond the length of your petals. It gives a very nice effect on your cherry blossom. You can also add a few small anorin filament at the bottom, but just a few and just smaller. Don't add the long ones at the bottom. Well, some of the cherry blossom don't fully open, even if it's already in full bloom. So let's try painting a cherry blossom bud. You can do this by combining a flat stroke and a side stroke, using a tea mixture, and then while it's still wet, you can add a dot of butter mixture of the same color at the bottom. We will let this layer dry up first before we add another layer. And again, I am using my hit gun here, but you can just wait for it to dry up if you don't have a hit gun. Now, this layer is dry already, and using milk mixture, I'm going to add a few brush markings to create depth on our cherry blossom bud. Now using my color Vandek brown and my Sirs eight round brush, I'm going to create the branch of my cherry blossom. As you notice, I just wiped my brush, and I am maximizing the width of the tip of my brush. And I am stopping once in a while, so it will create a nice crooked effect on the branch. We let this layer dry as usual. And once it's dried up, we can add a shadow on one side of our branch. So we are going to use a darker mixture of Vendek brown here. You can use milk if you use tea for the initial stroke, or you can use butter if you use milk for the initial stroke, which is what I did. Now for the final element, let's add some falling cherry blossom petals, which is done by just maximizing the tip of your brush. Just do strokes like this. And that's it. We have finally completed all the elements of a cherry blossom. Now, let's go to our next video and apply what we have learned on a project. 5. Class Project: A Branch of Cherry Blossoms: Before we start painting, let's create a rough sketch of our branch first, so we'll know where to add the branch later on as well as cherry blossom and the cherry blossom buds. Now using my knee eraser, I'm going to erase the sketch that I've created, so it won't be very visible later when I faint over it. You can skip this part if your sketch is very light already, but if you have created a very visible sketch, I suggest you erase it a little bit. So for first cherry blossom, we will use team mixture, as I've mentioned, and I'm combining flat and side stroke for each petals. We're going to make five. This layer is still wet. I'm going to add a few drops of Ruby in butter mixture in the center of my cherry blossom. So for our second cherry blossom, I'm going to put it here, and I decided to make this one an angled flower. So I'm going to make three petals, and the fourth one will be placed at the bottom like this. While this is still wet, we are going to add a few dots of rub in butter mixture as well. Now next are my cherry blossom buds. I'm going to put one here. Tea mixture again, and I'm going to add a few dots of butter mixture at the bottom to make it bleed a little. As you noticed, mine bled so much. So it happened because my base layer is too wet. So what I'll do now is get a tissue and let it absorb the excess water. I'm going to add another bud here. Same procedure, I'm going to add dot of butter mixture at the bottom. Now, my base flowers are done, and I'm going to wait for these layers to dry up before we add another layer. The layer is now dry. It's time to add depth. I will be using milk mixture of the same color, and I'm going to add a little bit of brush markings on some of the petals. This will create depth to my flour. And again, I'm using milk mixture so that it won't create harsh line. There's no right or wrong in this process. And if you're having a hard time deciding where to put the brush markings, I suggest you stop once in a while, look at your work in a distance, and you'll notice which areas are lacking some depth. Don't worry because you are using milk mixture, so everything won't be very noticeable later on when we add the center of our flour already. When you're done, wait for this layer to dry up first before adding the next step. My layer is now dry, so it's time to add the anther and filament. So I'm using my size two round brush and butter mixture of ruby. You can also use a dark milk mixture if you find butter mixture too bright. As we have studied earlier, your lines should be coming from one area only. Create small dots on top of your lines, and for the lines, vary it in length. Some of it should be too long and some of it are short. You can also add some short lines at the bottom. For the second flower, everything is just going up. But we're going to use the same color as our first flower. We'll pretend that some parts of the anther and filament are covered by the petal. As you noticed, by this time, your shadows or the depth that you have initially created isn't too noticeable anymore because the attention of the viewer is now focused on the anter and filament. Using milk mixture, we'll be adding a little bit of depth on our cherry blossom bud. We're going to do the same here. Remember, just use milk mixture. Using milk mixture of Vandek brown, we're going to create the branch of our cherry blossom. So just create flat stroke using your round brush and follow the initial sketch that you have created earlier. Y. You don't have to follow exactly how I did it. You can create a different shape of branch. It's up to you. I also want you to explore and exercise your creativity here. So it would be nice if you create a different shape of cherry blossom branch. Our next step is to add shadow on our branch, but before that, we have to wait for this layer to dry up completely first. Now that it's dry, I'm going to add shadow on one side of my branch. This is using butter mixture of Bandik brown. We are almost done, and now it's time to add the leaves. So using my round brush, I'll be adding some leaves on some of the areas of my composition. It's up to you where you want to add the leaves, but don't overdo this process. A cherry blossom tree doesn't have a lot of leaves, so make sure to control where you add and how much you add. Now it's time to add the falling petals. So using our round brush and tea mixture of ruby, I am going to add a little bit of falling cherry blossom on some of the areas. Now for our last step, I want you to take a look at your work in a distance. Check if you need to add more detail, if you need to add more leaves or if you need to add more shadow. If everything is done already, it's time to put your brushes down. We are finally done. Thank you so much for completing the project, and I'll see you in the next video. 6. Bonus Project: A Gerbera Daisy: Second flower, we are going to paint this simple yet beautiful flower called Gerber Daisy. To have a guide where we are going to place our Gerber daisi I'm going to sketch the center lightly. And using a tea mixture of our color, we are going to paint the petals of our Daisy. Remember the flat stroke that we have created earlier, we're just going to make it longer than what we used in our cherry blossom. Add a lot of petals on your flower. The petals should be from the outside going to the circle that we initially created. Once you have completed the first layer, we will let it dry and add another layer later. Now that the first layer is completely dried up, I'm going to add another set of petals. I'm adding it on top of my first set. But as you notice, I am not covering the first set that I initially created. I'm also ensuring that there are some petals from the first set that are still visible. We will let this layer dry up again before we add the next step. Using a smaller filbert brush, we are going to add a smaller set of petals near the center of our flour. We're going to use milk mixture for this set. Remember the flat and side stroke, we're going to do those again, but this time, we're going to make it shorter and smaller. Once again, this layer has to dry up completely before we add the next step. It's totally fine to touch your painting if you're not sure if it's completely dry. It's better to touch it than to ruin your painting by applying a stroke while it's still wet or it's still cold. Now, for our next stroke, we are going to use milk mixture and my size to round brush. I'm going to add I'm going to add brush markings on some of the petals. We do this because sometimes we create a lot of petals, and these petals tend to look like they are just one big petal. And the only way to separate them from each other is to add shadows like this. We are also going to separate the small patters that we have initially created earlier. So I'm just going to pick a few that I will be adding some shadows too. Again, we're going to let this layer dry up before we add the next step. For our next step, we are going to add some stippling strokes in the center of Gerber Daisy. As you notice, I am leaving a little bit of white spaces on some areas. This is to create a bit of highlight on the center of our flower. Watercolor is translucent, so that means we don't have white. And the only way we can create white in watercolor is to leave white space. Let this layer dry up completely and then add shadow on the next step. Using butter mixture, I'm going to add the same stippling motion in the center of my flour. I'm going to add this on the lower left side of my center, and I'm going to leave the upper right side empty so that it will just create a shadow effect and not cover the whole center completely. Using butter or a milk mixture of olive mean, let's add the stem of our flour. So I'm using a small fiilbet brush for this one. And just like the real Gerber daisy, stem of your flour should have been equal width. And that is it for our Gerber Daisy. Congratulations for completing this project. 7. Bonus Project: Cherry Blossoms Envelope: Hi, everyone. So today, I'll show you how to make a watercolor envelope with a cherry blossom design. It's a fun and easy project, perfect for adding a personal touch to your letters or gifts. So grab your brushes, and let's get started. First, we need to cut our paper into a square shape. I am using fabriano 25% cotton and 200 GSM, and I cut mine into this size. This paper weight is just right for envelopes because it's thick enough to hold its shape, but still easy to fold. Now, once you have your paper ready, it's time to paint. Start by adding a cherry blossom all over the paper. Remember our technique. Begin with a single petal using the flat inside stroke of your Filbert brush. For color, use a tea mixture of the color that you want. So usually, of course, it's pink, but you can also use something like an off white color because there are some cherry blossoms that are color white. Use the mixture for soft delicate petals. And while it's still wet, drop in a bit of a butter mixture in the center to give it more depth. Spread the flour all over the paper, but make sure to leave space for our leaves and falling petals later. You don't have to make every blossom fib petal. So can have three or four to create effect of fallen petals. Also vary the angles of your flowers so it won't look too uniform. Loosen up and let your petals stand. Once you're happy with your flowers, let them dry completely before moving on. Now, it's time to add some brush markings using milk mixture of your color. These are small, soft details that help define the petals and add more depth. Use your round brush, the small round brush that you have, and lightly flick some strokes along the petals edges or in areas that need more contrast. This helps make the flour look more layered and natural. Once that layer is dry, we will add the filaments and anthers by using a butter mixture and a small brush. Make sure your lines are really thin and delicate to make the flowers look natural. Vary the direction of the anthers. This will give the effect of flowers facing different angles instead of all looking the same. Now let's add some falling petals. Use the tea mixture and the tip of your round brush to create soft petal strokes, keep them light and random to add movement. Add this all over the place so that our painting will look very full and happy. Now, once you're done adding those petals, it's time to paint the leaves. So again, vary the size, shape, and placement of our leaves, but don't overthink it. Just lose up and let them dance. Hello. Once your whole painting is done, let it dry completely before we start folding. Okay, time to make your painting into an envelope. Now, the first thing that we'll do is to create an X mark on our paper. So we're going to put on some lines here and there so that we will have a guide when we fold our paper later on. The next step is to fold both side edges toward the center. I And then this area, we will mark this one because this will be our top layer later on. So once you're done marking, it's time to fold the bottom part up to the top layer that we mark earlier and press it firmly so we can create a fold. Finally, fold the top flap down to close the envelope. And that's it. But of course, we don't want our envelope to look very flimsy. So it's best if you will be putting some double sided tape on the edges of your envelope so that it won't open easily. You can also use a sticker or wax seal when you close your envelope or after you add the letters so that it will look more personal and more acute. There you have it a beautiful hand painted cherry blossom envelope. So aside from cherry blossom, of course, you can also do this with the Gerbea Daisy that we have practiced earlier. I hope you enjoyed this project because this is such a simple yet creative way to add a personal touch to your letters or gifts. I'll see you on our last video. 8. Final Thoughts: As we wrap up this class, let's take a moment to recap what we have learned. We started the class by mastering the essential water and color ratio, which is the foundation of controlling your paint. Then we explore various watercolor techniques to help you achieve beautiful fluid washes and effects. Finally, using just three colors, we practice brushstrokes to bring our cherry blossoms and Gerbero daisies to live. I hope you now feel more confident in your watercolor skills and are excited to keep experimenting with the techniques. Remember, practice is ki, and every stroke brings you closer to mastering the art of watercolor. Don't forget to share your artwork in the class project section, I love to see your creations and offer feedback. If you have any questions or need guidance, feel free to reach out through the discussion section. If you could leave a review in the review section, it could really help me improve my future classes and continue creating content that you find flable. Thank you so much for joining me in this class. It's been a pleasure guiding you through these techniques and seeing your progress. Keep picking your brush and exploring your creativity. I can't wait to see what you'll cake next. Until then, happy paintings.