Watercolor Magic: Paint Peonies in 20 Minutes

1. Intro: Hello, everyone. My name is Natalie. I'm a watercolor artist, sketcher, and drawing instructor. I'm excited to welcome you to my class and share my knowledge with you. I prepared a series of watercolor lessons where we will be focusing on drawing flowers. Whether you are a beginner or an experienced artist. This lessons will help you capture the delicate beauty of flowers in your artwork. In this lesson, we will draw PNs. Using a different, particularly easy and interesting method, we will create recognizable and beautiful outlines of these tuning flowers. Let's dive in and enjoy this painting together. 2. Plot and materials: We have an interesting photo of peonies, and we are going to paint them rather quickly in an expressive manner, capturing the essence of the flower, using minimal materials, minimal time, and maximum enjoyment. I'm using the same materials as always. Watercolor paints, a palette or a dish, a napkin, a container of water, and watercolor paper, which I've taped to a bot. You can also walk in a sketchbook. It's also convenient to use tip to secure the paper, so it doesn't flip over or move a pencil and needed eraser or regular eraser. One brush is enough, medium sized with a pointed tip. I'm using Mongoose brush, which is of medium hardness, but any brush will do as long as it has a sharp tip. That way you can draw anything. And the liner, I'm using a 0.3 liner. That's all for materials. You can use a a dryer if you wish to speed up the drawing process. If you have a spray bottle, it might come in handy as well. If not, a brush will suffice, so it's up to you. Let's start with a pencil sketch. 3. Pencil drawing: Let's sketch out the main objects. The largest flower will be here. Amd size to one above, and the closed bard below. You can lightly sketch some details. For example, I want to draw a green leaf on this side because it will touch the leaf here. In the center, we have the middle part with fooled petals. Let's draw a few petals around the circle to give the shape more clarity. I'll raise the axis lines and we don't need to detail the center too much. We'll walk with watercolor to create spots and show the flower shape. Don't press too hard on the pencil, so the sketch isn't too dark, and you can even lightly raise if it needed. That's all the pencil drawing is ready. I 4. Paper washing and color choosing: And now, what a color time? Let's start painting with the background. To do this, we'll wet the areas around the flowers, starting with the edges, and we don't need to be very precise. Then we'll try to outline the flower shape. But not too closely or precisely. This will be done in watercolor liter. We the paper close to the shape. Now let's take the pints. Quickly. Let me tell you about the colors I'll be ting. Pink. It's combined for the buds. Grassy green for the leaves. And indiga for the darkstera. These are the three colors I'll be using. Let's start. 5. Watercolor drawing: I want to begin with the darkest areas. Mix indiga with green and define the darkest spots. You don't need to outline everything around the flowers with this color. Let some pods beer and some lighter. Use light green and grassy green as well. Pint around the petals, alternating between dark and light green and leave some areas lighter. In this section, I'll have areas and here I leave it lighter. We outline the flowers, and now with a clean brush, after leasing it, we can create soft transitions. So the flowers don't appear to. Let the pain slightly flow. Now, let's move on to the pink color. Look at the shape of the flowers and t to the peak to what you see. There are light spots in the middle, leave them untouched. The far flower will be less detailed since the focus will be on the front flower. Light strokes will define the main spots. If the paint has spread too, you can add darker shades to draw more detailed areas. Go. The green color blends the walk together, and you can add a few more green spots in the center. Gently emphasize the petals, so they stand out leaving the light part untouched. Now, let's draw the butt. We'll do this with strokes. Some darker, some lighter to create volume. On one side, make a darker, on the other highlight leaf near the bot with a light color. Then move on to the flower itself, making it the lightest. Carefully draw the bts, keeping the edges s lighter and avoiding the center with the brush. Creating smooth transitions. You can add bright color. The closer to the center, the more shadow there will be. So add more color. We're showing individual petals, and in the center, there is a bit of, which will also depict by leaving some white areas, and adding more paint in others. Let's take sicker paint, and highlight a few petals. The darkest part is in the center, so you can define it. We'll also mix in some green to create color. The key is not to overdo it. If you feel like the flower is too dark, you can add some water to lighten it. This won't hurt the overall composition. As the flower in the background will be less defined. Now take last look at the walk. You might want to emphasize some details. I'm satisfied. So the watercolor part is done, and I will dry the sheet and we'll add some details here. Oh. 6. Details with a liner: Let's start with the largest flower. Since it's our main focus. We'll outline the petals. Look the darkest part is in the center. Let's use similar strokes to define these petals. Look at the shape before drawing. In this expressive manner, we outline the center. You can use the liner to highlight the best spots. Hi what you didn't like and make the petals more precise. Focus on the center now. The main sent is to convey the fluffy center and modify edges. Don't make everything the same and don't create super uniform petals all around. Let some areas have more details and others. Lightly sketch the c. Then move on to the main petals along. The liner can be used to define the shape if it didn't turn out well, darken it or remove it. So the flower looks more realistic. I'm slightly softening the angular edges. But in some places, I want to leave the edges untouched by the liner. The leaf near the bard will be made slightly brighter. And we'll define the bd itself. Don't finish drawing all the petals. Let there be some mystery. And in some places at mocks to avoid the. You can dug on some areas to make the sketch. Draw some leaves. Next, we'll depict the 00 flower. L et on this side be more details. Show a few of the largest petals and leave the rest to the view as imagination. The petals in the center are more chaotic. So try to convey that without going into too detail. The key is to convey the character of the flower, outlined petals around the circle, and the center of cows. Add more dark spots on the site to create volume. And it's important to stop in time. Final touches, you can depict the leaves and duck on the space between them for better definition. And with that, we can finish. Let's remove the tape. Here, our pones. I'd like to summarize and highlight the key points when painting such compositions. First, when feeling in the background, do it with patches, so the dark and light areas alternate. These look more harmonious. Second, leave some white areas to create contrast and convey the feeling of a bright sunny day, which brings the painting to life, making it more attractive and dynamic. D. When working with the liner, don't outline every send. Leave areas where the liner isn't used. So the petals vary in detail. With some being more defined and others having elements of cows. This will create an interesting dynamic sketch. That's all 7. Conclusion: Thank you so much for joining me in this lesson and drawing panes. I hope you enjoyed learning this new method and found it as fun as I do. Don't forget to paint with joy and share your beautiful artworks. There are more lessons in this sera dedicated to drawing flowers. I have included the links in the description. Be sure to check them out. Happy painting and see you in the next lessons.