Watercolor Orchids: Beginner to Advanced Techniques

1. Introduction: Painting flowers in watercolor is pure joy. No other medium captures the delicate beauty of nature, quite like transparent layers and vibrant washes. If you want to deepen your botanical painting skills, orchids are the best subject to practice on. Their diverse shapes and stunning color variations make them perfect for exploring classic and more advanced watercolor techniques. Hello. My name is Anna Bucharelli. I'm a professional illustrator and author from Canada, specializing in botanical and nature inspired art. My watercolor flowers have been featured on best selling book covers and even Canadian silver and gold coins. My artistic journey has been dedicated to mastering watercolor techniques that bring flowers to life. And in this class, I'm excited to share that knowledge with you. Together, we will paint three different orchids, each focusing on a unique watercolor approach. We'll start with a warm orange orchid, practicing wet on wet, wet on dry and basic layering. Next, we will move on to a rich red and pink orchid, introducing negative painting technique, yellow underpainting, and petal textures to add warmth and realism. Finally, we'll paint a delicate blue orchid, where I'll teach you my favorite advanced wet on dam technique to achieve stunning, intricate organic veins. This class is designed for those who are already familiar with watercolor basics and are ready to level up their skills. You will gain better control over layering, color blending and vibrancy while learning how to enhance intricate organic details in your floral work with some special effects. Part of this class, you will receive a full list of recommended colors plus alternative pigments. You will also get reference photos, step by step images to help you with planning your layers, and, of course, printable black and white outlines for easy transfer. If you love watercolor and painting flowers, join me today as we explore a variety of watercolor techniques through these three stunning orchids. I can't wait to see you in class. 2. Materials: Before we start painting, let's talk about watercolor materials. I'll be painting all three orchids on cold pressed, 100% cotton watercolor paper. I prefer cold pressed over hot pressed because it dries more slowly, allowing more flexibility for layering and blending colors. If you prefer more smooth hot pressed paper, it's totally fine. It has a smoother surface but dries much faster. Can use it for the orange and pink orchid, but you may need to work quickly to avoid harsh edges. However, for the blue orchid, we'll be using a specialized wet on DEM technique to create intricate petal veins. This technique works best on cold pressed paper, so I highly recommend using it for that section. Recommend having at least two rounded pointed brushes, a larger one, size three or four for big washes, and a smaller brush, size zero or even double zero for fine details. The most flexible combination would probably be size zero, two and four. As for brands, use What You Love. My personal favorites are Windsor Newton Series. And escota reserva for larger brushes, they hold plenty of water and pigment. These are 100% natural sable. Escoda Cronos, for my size zero or double zero brush, has a great spring, making it ideal for tiny details where you don't need a fully loaded brush. It's 90% synthetic. I'll be sketching by hand using a three H pencil. I always recommend using 3h4g or higher on watercolor paper to minimize visible graffiti marks. If you're sketching by hand, you also need an eraser. I prefer retractable erasers because they offer precision without damaging the paper. And to save time, you can use the black and white outlines provided in the class materials instead of sketching by hand. Also included in your class resources or reference photos for each orchid and step by step images to help you understand and plan your layers from light to dark. 3. Color Palette: For the first flower, the orange orchid, we're going to need a range of warm colors, starting with yellow. I'm going to use benzo, yellow from core, permanent orange, and a little bit of reddish color called scarlet lake. For the shadows, I'm going to use peril and violet and some sap green for some greenish accents. For the blue orchid, we will need some transparent blues. I recommend a thyloblue. Mine is green shade from core. As an option, you can introduce some decks and purple for some color variation, and for some final accents, we'll need some green. I'm going to recycle the same green I used on the orange orchid and some muted yellow any ochre would do. For the third flower, we're going to need a combination of reds, from a very cool pmgenta to warmer coral, some parallel and violet. For the shadows, it's the same one I'm using on the orange orchid. And if you want to, you can introduce some fluorescent opera pink. It's a fugitive color, but it's very vibrant and one of my favorites to add some accents. Of course, as it often is with fugitive colors, they fade over time, but they're really fun to play with. So it's a nice optional pigment that you can also use. So this big collection of colors may seem overwhelming, but let me assure you you don't need them all. At least half are optional. If you prefer a more limited palette, I recommend sticking to the five core pigments listed above. It's more than enough to paint all three orchids. For the six optional colors at the bottom, you can either use the suggested alternatives I've listed in the class resources or mix your own variations using the colors you have on your palette. For example, scarlet lake I used on the orange orchid is very similar in tone to the warm quinocurdon coral I used on the red orchid, so you only need one of them. Pale yellow ochre I used on the blue orchid is definitely optional. You can simply use a diluted version of benzo yellow that I used on the orange flower or use any of your favorite yellows like cadmium. Instead of using dix ain purple, you can mix magenta and blue from the core palette to create a beautiful shade of purple on your own. Yellow and blue from the core palette will give you a range of natural greens, making it a great substitute for the premixed green I'm using straight from the tube. And Opera Pink is simply a fluorescent version of magenta, also known as pigment red 122, meaning you can achieve very similar results using the main quinocidon magenta from the core palette. Ultimately, the specific pigments you use matter far less than your control over values, meaning the balance of lights and darks in your painting. Mastering values is what truly brings depth and dimension to your work, no matter which colors you choose, and that's exactly what we will practice in this class. When you're ready, let's get started. 4. Process Overview: Before we start painting, let's quickly go over the process so you know what to expect. You'll also find step by step photos for each flower in the class materials to help guide you. Our first flower, the orange orchid, focuses on layering wet on wet and wet on dry techniques to build vibrancy and definition. We'll begin with the outer petals supplying a mix of analogous colors yellow, orange and red, allowing them to blend naturally on paper. Once dry, we'll paint the central petal segment separately to prevent unwanted color bleeding. After everything has fully dried, we'll add another layer of oranges and yellows to boost vibrancy and introduce some shadows using violet, also creating some subtle petal texture. In the final step, we'll glaze the greens and violets to accentuate details and refine the intricate patterns on the central petal using wet on dry technique. This three layer approach is a great introduction to layering techniques and will be especially useful when painting single colour flowers like roses and peonies, where depth and dimension are created through subtle tonal variations. For the blue orchid, we'll take things a step further by practicing the wet on dam technique, ideal for capturing intricate details on the most complex flowers and leaves. First, we'll dampen the paper and apply thin colour lines onto slightly wet surface. Unlike classic wet on wet, this method introduces a time delay, allowing lines to hold their shape while still creating a soft natural fade, just like the delicate veins of a real flower. Once the first layer is dry, we'll return to glaze the subtle shadows, enhancing the petal depth and form. This technique requires patience and precise water control, but it's a powerful skill for botanical artists, and I hope you enjoy this practice session. Red and pink orchid has more intricate details. Great practice for painting flowers like irises or multi colored pansies. We'll begin with soft wet on wet blends on the outer petals. As we move to the center, we'll introduce negative painting, one of my favorite watercolor techniques, especially for botanicals. Instead of painting the details directly, we'll preserve the white of the paper by painting around the delicate white spots and markings. Since traditional watercolor doesn't use white paint, mastering this technique is essential for capturing fine botanical details. Also have an entire skill share class dedicated to negative painting on greenery, if you'd like to explore this technique further. Next, we'll add some crisp details using a combination of wet on wet and wet on dry techniques. And finally, apply a soft glaze over the petals to add an extra touch of depth and dimension. 5. Orange Orchid Step 1A: Painting Petals Wet-on-Wet : So let's get started on the orange orchid. And in the first layer, we're going to create our map of color using our lightest, most diluted pigments. You can refer to step by step photos to see the progression. In this step, our goal is to cover everything with a very light layer, what I call a map of color. And what you will see me do is start with very diluted yellow at the base of the petal, and then I'm slowly going to progress to my orange, again, very, very diluted. If you look at the value scale, somewhere around two or three, not more saturated than that. And all we're doing is creating a very soft blend that's going to dry out looking quite light. And then we can add additional details on top. So that's why we don't want to reach full saturation just yet. Keep it very, very light. Once the petal is completely covered, you can introduce a little bit of that rich scarlet lake or whichever warm red you're using around the edges, just with the tip of your brush. Again, not too much. We want to keep this layer very, very light. So this is the essence of wet and wet method, a very soft blend, no defined lines. And we're going to do something similar now on the next petal, I'm going to start with diluted benzo yellow. You can use cadmium yellow medium hue from Daniel Smith, for example, A warm yellow would do. Just keep it very watered down. And notice that I'm starting to work at the bottom side of the petal because it's more in the shadow. I'm going to finish with orange. And then continue bringing it higher and higher until I reach almost towards the edge of the petal. And then I'm going to blend with clear water. Now, if you're familiar with different watercolor techniques, you might be wondering why I didn't cover everything with clear water first and then continued with my color. By the way, I'm adding a tiny bit of scarlet lake right now just around the tip. And I'm often asked why I start with diluted color and then add additional colors instead of covering everything with water first. The answer is, I personally find it very difficult to stay within the edges of my shape when I just start with clear water, it's really, really easy to go over your pencil marks and then you're bound to that new shape that you've created with clear water. For me, it's a lot easier to start with light diluted color and then build on that, like I'm doing right now, adding a little bit more saturation around the edges. Now, that is not to say that you can't start with clear water. By all means, you can pre wet the entire petal with clear water and then add your color. Again, the only reason I'm modifying this technique, and I find it a lot easier to do it this way is because I know exactly where I'm putting my color, where the boundaries of the shape I'm working with end. And so I start with this diluted color like I'm doing on this petal, very, very light orange and some yellow. And then I'm more confident adding more saturated color around the edges, building the shape slowly. This is still wet on wet method. I just start with diluted color instead of clear water. But again, you can do it both ways. I just find it easier to start with lighter pigment first. And so you can see, once again, we have a very soft blend on the petal in some areas, I've added clear water. In some areas, I've added more saturated pigment, and we have a very light coverage on that petal. We're going to let it dry and move on to the next one. I'm leaving the central element, the orchid lip completely without any color right now. We're going to do it last, and we're going to do it after everything else is dry so we can work safely within that shape without having any color bleed over. So again, on this petal, I'm starting with a very light mixture of yellow and orange. I've blended with clear water in the center, and now I'm adding more saturated color around the edges, still keeping everything within roughly medium value. So like four or five on the value scale. An adding tiny bit more saturated color using now scarlet lake, a little bit more red around the edges. You can see I'm sort of just tapping the tip of my brush very, very gently. And I'm going to add a little bit of that same scarlet lake. On the petal that I just painted, it's still wet, so it's safe to do so. If yours is dry, I would just leave it and wait until the next layer. But as long as your paper is wet, you can continue adding a little bit of color here and there. And then let's leave it to dry. But Now, at this stage, here, I've created a small bubble, so I'm just going to use a tip of my brush to pop it and spread that color out. At this stage, you can continue on the last petal on the right. But note that it's adjacent to the other petals we just worked on. And so you may want to run your hair dryer here just to make sure that your color doesn't bleed. As you can see, mine is bleeding a little bit into the very first petal that we've painted. It's gonna create a bloom, but that's okay. A bloom is essentially an area where two adjacent colour blocks collide. And if one of them is more wet than the other, then sometimes what you get is this effect of the pain being pushed into the adjacent area. And so I'm going to have to clean it up later on with a damp brush. But for now, I'm just going to finish this petal. I started with yellow, progressed to orange, and now I'm just adding, again, more saturated scarlet lake around the edges. You can see the bloom is spreading, and that happens sometimes. What I'm going to do is take a damp brush, so I cleaned my brush, tapped it on tissue paper, and then I'm just going to kind of blend that awkward edge a little bit. And then there's a tiny little element, the back of the petal that's visible. And so I'm going to paint it like a solid block of color, leaving just a tiny bit without color indicating the petal edge. And so you can see the bloom is still spreading, which is okay. I'm going to again grab a damp brush, meaning there's almost no water on my brush, and then just gently brush that edge away and leave everything to dry. When we come back, we're going to work on the central element, but it's very important to allow enough drying time at this stage so that we can avoid these blooms going forward. 6. Orange Orchid Step 1B: Finishing Central Petal: Okay, so now I'm back. It's been a couple hours. If you don't want to wait, you can just use a hair dryer to make sure all the petals that we've painted so far are completely dry, and we're working on the central element. If we reach all the way over the edge over the petals that we've already painted, the color is not going to move, and we're going to maintain a crisp edge. So that's why it's very, very important to allow enough drying time. I started with clear water, and now I'm going to switch to yellow, mostly in the center of the petal. And then as I move towards the edges, I'm going to switch to my orange. Quite diluted still, and I'm slowing down quite a bit as I approach the edge so I can follow my pencil marks. And you can go over the edge just a tiny little bit, maybe just a half a millimeter to make sure there are no gaps. And as I move down, switching to more saturated orange, that's going to gently blend into the yellow that we started with. But for the most part, it's going to remain around the edges. And if it spreads too far, you can again just grab a damp brush and lift that color. Just like we did with the other petals, I'm going to finish with my red color, scarlet lake. H adding it using wet and Tuete technique around the edges. Working within the shape that I've already created, just cleaning up the silhouette with the tip of my brush. And it is spreading a bit aggressively towards the yellow, but there's still a little bit of yellow visible. And now I'm going to grab a damp brush to kind of clean up some of the areas where the colors spreading. It's a little bit chaotic right now. So I'm just going to take my time, make sure that everything has even coverage and observe the blend. The colors still moving. And just to stop it from approaching the center, I'm going to drop some clear water to push it out and then continue adding a little bit of extra color around the edges, and that's about it. That's sort of the look we're going after. And I'm going to let it dry completely before we do the second layer. 7. Orange Orchid Step 2: Glazing Accents Wet-on-Dry: Welcome back. In the second layer, we're going to glaze additional color on the orchid petals, increase the vibrancy and add a little bit more variation in value. So I'm going to start on the top petal and note that at this stage, my underlying layer is completely dry and everything looks a little bit lighter. This effect is called a drying shift when your watercolors tend to look a little bit lighter after the water evaporates. And let's get started with scarlet lake. I'm going to put a little bit of color around the edge, medium value, and then blend with clear water towards the center. So the majority of the pigment is concentrated around the edges. You can also add a little bit of more vibrant orange wet into wet. I dropped it right around the tip of the petal. And now we can move on to the next one. Here we have a very distinct separation between the top side of the petal on the bottom. And so I'm just going to glaze a little bit of color on the bottom half, where the petal is a bit more in the shadow. Put a little bit around the top edge on the right hand side. Again, I'm just looking for the darker areas to put the color on. And then switching to orange. And then eventually clear water just to blend the edges. I'm gonna continue with this color on the bottom side of the petal. And then the entire top side, I'm just going to blend with clear water so that all my colors, all the new color that I've put on is softly sinking into the background. So you can see with just a little bit of extra color, we now have a little bit of better definition around the edges and the bottom side of the petal is a lot darker. Everything overall is looking a bit more vibrant. Now, let's do something similar on the right hand side. I'm going to start this time with clear water around the base and the center, the middle part of the petal, basically re wetting the entire surface so that any extra color I add will tend to blend and move towards the center. Now we can start adding more vibrant, more saturated pigment around the edges, and I'm slowing down, working very, very carefully around the edge. Notice that every once in a while I drag my brush along the petal, just kind of creating a natural vein, always positioning my brush in the direction of the petal when I do that. So pretty much horizontally. Boy. And that's more than enough. Once again, we've added a little bit more color, more vibrancy around the edges. And also, overall, it's now looking a little bit darker, so the overall silhouette is more defined. I'm going to move down. This petal on the left is going to be quite simple, a little bit of orange around the edges, and then I'm going to blend it out with clear water. So not adding too much color here, just a tiny little bit. And that's because this central element, the orchid lip is going to be a lot more intricate and I don't want to put too much detail behind it. Let's move on to the last petal before we do the orchid lip, a little bit of orange on the darker side of the petal. And then I'm going to blend with clear water in the middle and then finish again with the orange around the edge. So essentially, again, I'm adding more saturated color, more vibrancy around the edges. And then in the center, we have clear water. I finished with orange around the tip, and now just dropping a little bit extra scarlet lake on the bottom left. And that's more than enough. Now what we can do is move on to the orchid lip. And here we really want to slow down again and focus on these beautiful color transitions. So starting with Scarlet Lake up on top, then I'm going to blend it down with clear water. And then continue moving down with my scarlet lake. So basically, I want to create more saturation, more vibrancy around the perimeter, but I need to move slowly so that I don't go over the edges. I'm working within the shape that I've established in the first layer, so just be mindful of that color spreading towards the center and blend it as much as you need to so that our beautiful scarlet lake just stays around the edges and then disappears into the background as it moves towards the center. As I move to that top part on the right, it's a little bit tricky. I want to make sure that I have a little bit of visual separation in the top part between all the different pieces. So I'm just you can see I'm putting the color very, very carefully in that spot and then blending it with a clear water. So it doesn't go over the edge of that curved petal. And then right here where the petals connect, I'm just going to put a little bit more color, again, blended with clear water. So the top part of the orchid lip, I haven't touched yet. 8. Orange Orchid Step 3: Adding Details Wet-on-Dry: So now I'm back a few hours later. My orchid is dry. We have two layers of color almost on every segment, and all we have left is the definition that we're going to add using wet on dry method. I am going to now bring in my green working very, very slowly, once again, here, it's a very intricate element in the center of the orchid. Going to put down my green using medium value. So somewhere around four or five on the value scale. And then I'm going to blend it down using clear water first. And then you can add a little bit of yellow if you want. We just stick to clear water. Just make sure that that green is moving down and sinking into the surface of your paper and not moving too far. So you can see I put just a little bit of color in that area where we see a deeper shadow and a little bit of a greenish Q, and then it's sort of disappearing into our orange, and you can blend it out all the way towards the edge, either with clear water or a little bit of very diluted yellow. Now, finally, we can add some definition up on top. And here, I'm working again, wet on dry on the segment of the flour that's not touching any other areas that are wet. So completely safe, adding a little bit of color on the darker areas. And you can take a look at the step by step photos to see sort of where I started and what I'm working towards. Next, I'm going to bring back the green again and add some definition and shadow around the base of that element. And once again, it's just a little bit of color, just a hint of green, and I'm blending it out with clean damp brush. So just a little bit of clear water on my brush, and that's more than enough. And you can see we now have just a little bit of extra definition in that area. And now finally, we can bring in our parlin violet, the brownish color. It's very rich. So be very careful, once again, not to put too much on your brush. You can see on my palette. I'm diluting it with water quite a bit, applying just a tiny bit around the edges on the very dark areas, the ones that I really want to accentuate. And then once again, I'm blending with clean damp brush so the color disappears into the orange. Perlins are very interesting family of watercolors, relatively new pigment. They're very, very rich, very beautiful. You can paint all sorts of shadows with these pigments. I love Perlin violet, Perlin red. Oftentimes, I use Perlin green. For my leaves. It's a beautiful shadow color, but you have to use it very, very gently. So just a hint of the pigment around the edge with the tip of my brush, and then I blend it out. And because it's a violet color, which is roughly, very roughly on the opposite side of the color spectrum from oranges and yellows, it's a beautiful color to glaze shadows with. So it's practically complimentary, and it just adds that necessary hint of depth on the petals so that they look less flat without being too overwhelming. And once again, notice how diluted. I keep it on my palette. I bring clear water constantly, so I'm not dipping it into the saturated blob of color, just a tiny little bit. And that's more than enough. I'm only going to add a little bit on top on the petals. And now we can do that interesting tricky part on the petal lip, the texture, and the veins. And that's going to adds so much visual interest to our orchid. So here, I'm working with the tip of my brush, and notice here the positioning of my brush is very, very important. I'm always trying to add the veins, directing my brush towards the center of the flower, and then I'm sort of dragging it towards the edge where I can put a little bit of extra coverage, just almost like a thicker that connects to these veins. But my veins are always going they're pointing towards the center. So by doing this, you're kind of following the natural curvature of the petal, mimicking the organic shape, and these petals will look very natural if you keep your brush in that position. Always moving your wrist around the orchid petal, or you can rotate your paper if it's easier. I'm just trying to keep it steady so that your picture doesn't move. You can rotate your watercolor block. And just follow along the edge, starting with the tip of your brush and then pressing down a little bit as you approach the edge, and then you can just clean up the details again with the tip of your brush. So you can see that, again, the color is fading slightly, so the drying shift is present in this pigment. But I'm trying to work with a very diluted version. It's always easier with watercolors to start lighter than you think you need to and then add saturation later on. This way, you can always adjust things a lot easier and lift your paint if you're making any mistakes. So I've been moving around quite a bit, and now I'm approaching this tricky top part where I'm going to have to rotate my watercolor block, and once again, because I'm right handed, I'm just putting my brush down from the tip and then pressing a little bit, adding these beautiful, kind of, like, spider veins and making them point towards the center of the petal and then connecting them around the edge. So now we have that beautiful texture, that definition on the orchid lip. I'm going to add a solid segment here where the petal curves. So it's a shadow, painting the back of the petal, carry that color over around the edge, and then switch to my scarlet lake. I still have a little bit of peril and violet on my brush, but a tiny bit lighter. I'm going to add some stripes around the top part. Again, you don't have to do too much. I don't want it to look like a zebra, but just a little bit, just a few lines there. And then on top of our green, which is dry at this stage, almost dry. You might add a few lines. Make some of these veins more pronounced. That's it for our first orchid by using a combination of wet on wet and wet on dry techniques, we were able to create a beautiful vibrant flower with some texture. In the next lesson, we're going to get started on the blue orchid, where we're going to use a different technique and a different palette of colors. 9. Blue Orchid Step 1A: Painting Petals Wet-on-Damp: So let's get started on the blue orchid. And here we're going to use one of my favorite watercolor techniques called wet on damp, which is essentially a variation on a wet on wet technique, but it involves a bit of a time delay, and it creates gorgeous, gorgeous effects that are only possible with watercolor because it's a water based medium. And so we have a lot of interesting textures and effects that we're going to create. Starting with this petal on the left, let's cover everything with very diluted blue. And you can see, I have my thyloblue green shade that I've diluted almost to pure water, just a hint of pigment. We're going to be working one petal at a time. So note that I'm just covering the entire shape with my color. And then I'm going to grab a little bit more saturated blue with the tip of my brush, so I'm going to rub it on the actual blob of color on my palette instead of using the watery mixture. And then I'm going to apply it just around the edge to see how far it spreads. And it should spread about maximum 2 millimeters. If it's spreading too far, wait 20 seconds before trying it again. So what you want to have is this effect of, like, a slightly darker color around the edges. Then just as an option, you can bring in your purple. I'm using dxs and purple, and you can just add a tiny hint of that color at the bottom to add some visual interest and a bit of a shadow. Now, let's test the wet on damp. I'm going to grab my smallest brush, a bit of saturated color, and I'm going to drag a very long horizontal line just along the petal center, again, seeing how far it would spread. And it shouldn't spread far at all. If it does, again, wait 20 seconds. The surface of your petal should be damp, not wet. If it's dripping with water, give it some time and try again. You can see the very first line that I've painted spread a bit too far, and now I'm applying more and more lines. And they're sort of staying in place. There's just a tiny bit, a tiny fading happening, but for the most part, you can still see my stroke. And this timing, I've been painting now for 3 minutes and 20 seconds. This timing will depend on your paper brand, which is why it's important to kind of test it on a scrap piece of paper so you can get comfortable. It might take less time. It might take more time, but I usually work with arches paper, and I know that roughly I have 5 minutes to play with as my water is sinking in. And you can see that as it sinks in some of these strokes are becoming less visible. So I might double down in some areas, again, working with the tip of my brush, grabbing just a tiny bit of paint. And because my brush is so small, there's not a lot of opportunity to leave a big stroke, like a thick mark. It's just a tiny bit of pigment on the tip of my brush. So that's sort of the effect we're going after. And I'm going to repeat this process again and again so you can see how it works on different petals. And every time, obviously, the conditions are slightly different. So there might be different amount of water that I apply. And so I'm always going to test first with a few strokes, adjust my timing and move forward. So let's try this again, and I'm going to work on the petal that's not adjacent so that there's no spillage of paint into the area that we just worked on. Very important. So we're going to skip a petal and then work on the next one. And here, again, with my larger brush, I'm going to cover the entire surface with very diluted blue. Almost clear water. If you think about the value scale, it's like somewhere around value two, almost completely diluted, just a hint of color. And it's quite easy to see kind of the border of my working area this way. So I'm not starting with clear water. I'm starting with very diluted color. And just like I did on the first petal, I'm going to bring in a little bit of purple at the base. This is not wet on damp. This is still wet on wet because the petal was completely wet. But my water is sinking in and drying out. So very soon we're going to switch to the wet on damp method. This time, I think I've put in a little bit of extra water on the pedal, so I think it's going to take me a minute or so to get to that stage where I can do the lines. So for now, I'm just testing it out slowly working around the edges, adding blue. And you might feel like your pero is ready for the veins. Mine is definitely not. And I'm actually going to lift my watercolor block to show you exactly what I mean when I say the surface is too wet. So it's going to be glistening. It's like, you'll see the reflection. Let's switch to the smaller brush. Try again around the edge. You can see the paint is still running very, very quickly towards the center. So we're not quite ready for the veins. If I put the vein down right now, it's going to just blend. Here you go. This is what it looks like on an angle, way too wet. It has to be a little bit less shiny for the veins to work. So let's give it a few more seconds. And try now. So you can see I grabbed some saturated paint, and now I'm going to try and drag the first vein. Yeah, it's spreading quite far. So we're just approaching that time when the veins are going to be staying put and now I can maybe try closer to the edge. One tip I'm going to give you is whenever you have a wet section that you're working on, it's always a little bit more dry towards the edges because your block of color is drying out from the edges towards the center. So towards the edges, you can see the veins are staying a bit more put. I can see more definition. In the center, it's probably still too wet. So I'm going to start adding more detailed veins around the edges, and you can see it's still spreading. So maybe I have an opportunity to switch to a different pigment, giving my pedal a bit more time. And this is a very, very tricky predictable process that takes a while to get used to. So if you don't get it right the first time, don't worry at all. It will become easier and easier to read these signs as you get more practice, but it's so worth it because the effect is just so beautiful. So now I'm doubling down on some of the veins. Again, it's spreading a bit too much for my liking, but it is getting a bit more sharp with a tiny bit of fading, which is exactly the effect that I'm after, and it's so much better than working wet on dry, where the veins would be simply crisp without fading because it mimics that natural fading that we see in the reference. So I think I'm going to leave it at this stage. That's more than enough, and we can move on to the next petal. 10. Blue Orchid Step 1B: Filling the Central Petal: Let's work on the central petal of the orchid. This is known as the orchid lip. And the reason why I want to skip to this particular segment is because once again, I want to avoid any areas adjacent to the petals that we just worked on. So I'm skipping the three petals in the background, and I'm going to apply a little bit of light blue color to the petal lip, the orchid lip. Leaving a tiny border between this segment and the very first petal that we've painted. So note that the petals are not flat. They're not thin, like a sheet of paper would be. They have a little bit of weight, some thickness. And so I left a tiny, tiny strip of dry paper between the top part of this element and the very first petal that we've painted. And this way, I'm also avoiding any spillage of paint into that area that we've already finished working on and also creating bit of a dimension on this petal that's facing us. So note that I'm applying clear water in the center, making sure that that segment stays completely almost bright white. There's a little bit of blue moving into it, but I did blend it with clear water. And now I'm going to test it out, see if I can add some veins using wet damp method. Again, I'm switching to a smaller brush, working just with the tip of my brush. You may want to rotate your paper block, so it's easier if you're right handed, but I'm going to try to keep it steady so you can see it without changing the angle. Maybe I will have to rotate it just for this one segment because it's easier for me to achieve the stroke. And once again, just like we did on the orange orchid, we want to position our brush pointing towards the center so that we mimic the natural progression of the petal, the way it unfolds, the way it grows, and apply these lines from the center and then leading towards the edge. And I'm going to continue slowly rotating my canvas, just applying these lines. And this time, I got my timing right, so they're not spreading too far. If they are, in your case, if you apply some color and it spreads too far, just give it extra ten to 20 seconds and try again. You want to catch your paper just before everything is dry. And so you can see here it dried out already almost completely. And so my lines are looking a bit more sharp, so I'm going to try to hurry. You only have a very small window of opportunity to add these faint lines, which is why this is a tricky method, but it is so beautiful. And then I'm going to connect them around the edge. Continue to rotate my paper block, and I'm going to double down in some areas now that it's a bit more dry, some of the lines have disappeared, so I'm just doubling down. Very, very gently, applying just a tiny bit of color. So having a small brush gives you that precision, but also it doesn't load as much pigment, so there's only so much color that you can transfer from the brush to paper. And that's more than enough, I think, for the stage, the center is almost completely white, and then we have this beautiful spider web of veins that we've created. 11. Blue Orchid Step 1C: Finishing the First Color Layer: Now, let's move on to the next petal. And I think I feel fairly safe that the second petal we've painted is dry. At this stage, you may want to run our hair dryer here if you're not sure. And let's cover everything with some diluted color. You can play around and instead of blue, add diluted purple in some areas, just for some variation in color temperature so that it doesn't look too flat and boring. And the purple will give you a little bit of warmth and maybe indicate a shadow. Note that I'm going to blend with clean damp brush towards the base. I'm not going to carry my color all the way over to the base. Blend it, leave some white there. And then let's see if we can add some color around the edges and see how far it spreads, testing it out before we do the veins. Spreading a little bit too much, so I'm going to give it some time, maybe five, ten, 15 seconds before I start adding my veins. Feel like, again, the surface is a bit too wet because I've applied quite a bit of water. So I'm still waiting, and you can test it again around the edges, see how far everything is spreading. And now I think I'm ready. I'm going to attempt the first line closer to the edge. And this time I'm not using blue, just using purple to create, like, a visual separation between these background petals. They're a different shape, and they're sort of a different layer of petals, if you think about how the orchid grows. So just a slight variation in color temperature. Oh and once I'm done with purple, maybe a little bit of blue here and there. Again, I'm now working on top of the lines that I've already created. You can connect them in some areas. You can see in the reference photo. Some of them are sort of like a tree with a trunk and then some smaller branches. So just trying to mimic what I see in the reference photo without copying it one to one. So it's almost impossible to capture every single vein, sort of the general look. And the main thing is, of course, the direction of these veins. So they're following the natural progression of the petal, and that's how I'm applying my color. I'm going to turn my canvas around and make it easier for me to work on the petal on the left hand side. This one's a bit darker. At least, it looks like that to me in the reference photo, especially as it's disappearing behind the foreground petal and the petal lip. So I'm going to add much more saturated purple there at the base. So if before I was covering everything with almost fully diluted blue and purple here, I'm going to maybe move towards value three on the value scale, just a bit more saturated. And more purple at the base to indicate the shadow. We can even add some more saturated purple there just as it disappears behind the two petals. And note, again, I left a thin white strip around the petal lip that's facing us because we do see that petal from a different angle, and we can appreciate that it's a little bit thick, so it makes sense to add that border, kind of signaling that this petal has some weight and thickness, some dimension. And it also makes it easier for us to work on a separate segment without having any color bleed. And as I'm talking to you, I'm waiting for the petal to dry, letting my paint sink in, and the water slowly evaporating. So it's been about 2 minutes now, and now I can start testing with some concentrated color around the edges. I feel like this time I got the timing almost right, so I can just continue with my blue. I'm not going to carry these veins all the way to the tip. In the reference photo, I see like they're sort of disappearing and the tip is almost light, almost without any detail. So I'm just going to make sure my veins run all the way to the base. And here, I started with blue, and I'm going to add purple on top. Again, I see that segment as a bit darker in some areas, so I'm using more saturated color. Maybe some of these veins I will carry a little bit further and then add some color around the edges. And that's it. So you can see just a bit more vibrant and more dark. It will dry out looking a little bit lighter as watercolors tend to do with the drying shift as the water evaporates, everything looks a little bit more muted. And we have one more petal left up on top. And again, I want to make sure that the adjacent petals are dry. Mine are. If yours are still a little bit wet, you can give it some time, maybe step away for a few minutes, maybe half an hour or just run the hair dryer to make sure that everything is completely dry. And then let's start covering the petal with very diluted color. You simply blue or you can add some purple here and there for some variation. And we want to cover the entire petal. Maybe applying some darker color in the center, more saturated, and then blend it out with a clean damp brushed. So it becomes lighter at the base. Oh and let it sit for a bit. I'm going to bring in my purple and start testing around the edges, see how far it spreads. I feel like it's a little bit too wet, so maybe another 10 seconds or so. So and let's try it again using my smallest brush. Let's draw a line in the center. And it's perfect now. It's not spreading too far. It's fading just a little bit. As I mentioned in the beginning, this takes some practice, but even within the boundaries of one flower and painting, I kind of get more comfortable. As I go, usually, I start a little bit unsure. I test it out and then kind of get a hang of it and continue much more confidently, and you will find the same thing. After a few petals, you'll get a sense of how much time you need. You'll be much more comfortable predicting how far the paint is spreading. So this just takes practice. But once you learn about the timing and get more comfortable and used to the way your paper behaves, this will become second nature, I promise, and you'll be able to create these lines easily. So here I somehow got the timing right, and I did a few vertical main veins, a few branches connecting them. Now, I'm just going to add some purple up on top, not creating anything new, just kind of marking up what I've already painted, making it a bit darker. And again, I'm not trying to capture everything. I just roughly follow what I see in the reference photo, just trying to capture the essence of these lines without counting them precisely. Let's leave everything to dry. Make sure when we come back, the entire flower is completely dry. Your paper is not damp anymore. I'm actually going to give it a couple of hours. And when we come back in the final layer, we're going to apply just a tiny bit of color to add some definition and shadows on the orchid. 12. Blue Orchid Step 2: Glazing Shadows and Color Accents: Welcome back. Our orchid is dry now. You can see just with one layer of color and using wet damp method. We've created quite a beautiful background layer that almost looks real, but there is an opportunity to add some definition in a bit more detail. So we're going to be working on the dry surface right now, glazing some extra color here and there, adding shadows, making everything look a little bit more three dimensional, capturing some of the extra details that we see in the reference. Might even make some of the areas a bit more vibrant. But let's start in the middle, and I'm going to mix my ocher with my purple. Remember complimentary colors. I'm going to create this nice, natural brown kind of a warm brown color that I see in the reference photo and very, very diluted. You don't want to use a concentrated mixture, just a tiny, tiny bit of pigment and a lot of water. I'm going to create some definition around this stamin in the center, so you can see I'm just gently applying that mixture. The transitioning to pure purple as I move to the base of the petal. All I want to do is just an extra shadow, and you can see I'm painting around that element of the orchid lip that's sticking out. Suddenly, it's a little bit more in focus because it is a foreground element and we've put a little bit of extra color in the background, creating visual separation, enhancing the sense of three dimensional form on the two dimensional paper plane. And you can carry that shadow color under the stam again, very diluted. So just a hint of color. And then blend it out with clear water. By the way, this is called negative painting, painting around an object. And so we have this central element that we're painting around, revealing its shape by applying darker color around the shape, around the silhouette. And then you can just connect the color to the veins that you've already created or just blend it out with clear water, so it gently disappears. The key thing was to keep this mixture very, very light. And now we can introduce a little bit of green. I see in the reference photo, there's a tiny bit of green in the center of the flour, and I'm going to just add a tiny bit. And if you're interested in learning more about negative painting techniques specifically, which is extremely useful for any subject, but especially good for botanical art. I have an entire class on negative painting on my scochia channel. It's a really, really fun technique if you want to be able to create intricate details like veins and paint greenery and flower petals with watercolors, it's super useful. So you can check that out. But for now, I'm going to carry my shadow mixture over to the other side, cover that segment, and then let it dry. Et's move on to the top petal, and all I want to do is just add a tiny bit of blue where I see some extra shadow and some vibrancy around the edges. And I'm going to apply medium value, blending it out with clear water. So because we're using transparent colors, everything underneath should still be visible. Don't use fully saturated color. So medium value somewhere around four or five around the inch and then blend it down and towards the center with clear water. I'm going to add a little bit of purple here. And suddenly the overall silhouette is a lot sharper. So this is nice if you're working against white background. It's going to make everything stand out a little bit more. I'm going to add that purple again in that darker area where the background petal is disappearing, then blended out with clear water. All the colors we're working with are transparent, so everything should still be visible under the second layer if you use the water down pigment. Very, very small segment around the edge, and then again, I'm going to blend it out with clear water. Another petal. I'm actually going to paint it as a continuous segment. So the bottom of this larger one and the top of this one, it's the same shadow so we can connect them and then blend with clear water. A bit more definition on the other side, again, using purple and blend it out with clear water. Here, along the edge, I'm going to add a little bit of blue. Don't let it spread too far. And a little bit of purple up on top here. Again, this is what I see in the reference photo, a bit more shadow, more vibrancy. And now, again, I'm going to make my mixture of Ochre and Dx and purple. Add a little bit of that shadow mixture on top of the stamin completing its shape. And let's see what else we have left. I think what I'm going to do now is just finish the bottom of the orchid lip a little bit of purple there and blend it out with a clean damp brush. I'm mixing it still with a bit of ochre, just to add a hint of, like, brown and mute it a little bit. Adding a little bit of shadow on those elements of the orchid lip that have a bit of shadow, some darkness there. And then I'm going to draw a very faint line at the bottom to complete the shape, still leaving a bit of white to indicate how thick the petal is. And let's see what else we have left. Maybe just a few finishing touches to add some extra value here and there. So I'm going to add my shadow mixture in that corner where I have a little bit of green, blend it with clean damp brush, and maybe on the other side, the reverse side of the petal lip, just a tiny little element. I'm going to add a little bit of blue just to define the tip there. And let's see what else we can do. So maybe on this element, just add a bit more of my shadow color around to define it even further, make it stand out more. So the more dark color you add around the lighter element, the brighter it looks. These are very optional finishing touches. For the most part, our work is done. So I'm just looking as I usually do in the final stage, looking at the reference photo and trying to find opportunities to accentuate some of the elements that I want to accentuate. So maybe some of the veins, some of the edges, this time working wet on dry. So just a few lines to make some of these veins stand out a little bit more. There's still the underlying faded line, so I'm just painting on top of it with the tip of my brush. And to me, that area is one of the closest to us, and the more crisp details I add, the more it's going to stand out. And that's sort of like a visual trick that has to do with how our eyes perceive depth. Anything that's more in focus more detailed will tend to appear closer. So because the petal is slightly on an angle, this petal facing us is one of the closest planes that we see, so just a bit of extra crisp detail. Completely optional, of course, but I'm going to do the same thing here, just a couple of lines on the top half. And maybe in the middle here, in the center, not along the entire vein, but just in the center of the petal to make some of these a bit more crisp. The central vein that I started with here that's been bothering me for quite some time since we started, I faded a bit too much and a few strokes at the bottom. And that's about it. So with two layers of color using wet on damp method in the first layer and a little bit of definition in the second layer, we've painted our second blue orchid. 13. Red Orchid Step 1A: Wet-on-Wet and Negative Painting: For our red orchid, we're going to work primarily using wet on wet and wet on dry techniques, the two classic watercolor painting methods. And I'm going to start with this petal on top using very, very diluted warm red. This is my quinocdon coral. And I'm going to prep the surface by applying very light wash. You can start with clear water as well, but I prefer to use a diluted wash of color just to see the boundaries of my working shape a little bit better. And then at the base, you can finish the petal with your cooler red. So here I'm just using quinacordon magenta, and you can see this very soft blend from cooler, more violet leaning quinacardon to a warmer red. And then we can start charging more saturated color into this wet surface. So this is the classic wet and to wet technique where we add pigment to wet surface, and it just very softly spreads because we're working on cold pressed watercolor paper. Eventually, you will see a very soft blend throughout once everything is dry. And let's leave this petal for now. We're going to come back later on and add lots of details. Let's move on to the one on the left hand side. And once again, I'm going to use wet into wet method. But instead of starting with clear water, I'm going to start with fairly light mixture of my warm red. It was a little bit more saturated on top, so I'm just blending it right now, slowing down to make sure that I don't go over the pencil marks. And I'm keeping the overall value somewhere around level three or four, no higher than five, because we really want to leave ourselves some room to build the details after. So this one is turning out to be slightly darker than the first one and maybe a little bit more saturated around the edges, which is fine. We're working against the white surface, so I want the silhouette of the petals to stand out, but I'm not going to full saturation. So my color is not creamy, it's quite watered down. And I'm not going to add any additional color here. These petals look quite warm, so the squirrel seems to be a good match for the reference image. And I'm just going to switch to the right hand side. Similar petal on the right, essentially a mirror image. There's just some slight variations in the silhouette. And once again, using fairly diluted mixture, which you can see on the right hand side on my palette, I'm just going to fill the space there's no right or wrong in terms of doing wet into wet method. You can start with clear water and then add your color. But like I said, I just prefer to go in with diluted color right away, especially when I'm working against the white background so that I can maintain a very sharp silhouette and don't go over the border by accident. On the bottom left, I see a little bit of a cooler hue in the reference image. So once again, I've added a little bit of magenta there, and now I'm just financing the silhouette. Once again, I'm going to leave it to dry, switch to our next pedal. While the first three petals are drying out, let's just cover the center with a very diluted wash of yellow. Again, don't use fully saturated color. Make sure there's quite a bit of water. So you can still see your underlying pencil marks and just cover it very, very gently all the way towards the edges. You can dilute the bottom part with clear water just to lighten it up and leave it to dry. Now we have this large petal, quite intricate coloring. And here, what you want to do is grab your cooler red. If you want to continue with very diluted magenta. If you want to try this fluorescent pink, it's the same pigment PR 122 in any watercolor brand. This particular variation PR 122 has a bit of fluorescent feel, and it's much more fugitive than typical magenta, meaning, over time, it will start fading, but we will add some regular PR 122 on top to kind of seal it. And if you don't like fugitive colors, you can go straight in with your quinocradon magenta. Whichever cool pink you have on your palette will work as long as it's closer to blue on the color spectrum compared to these warmer petals that we worked on. And what I'm going to do here is working with my smaller brush. So very precise. This is size two, sca, so quite thin. I'm going to cover the surface of the petal with very diluted, again, very watered down mixture of my paint. But this time, I'm going to paint around these lighter spots, and I have very light pencil markings there. I'm just going to paint around them, and this is called negative painting technique. In watercolor, it's extremely important because we don't have the luxury in classic watercolor of using white pigment. For the most part, we're working with transparent colors, so we can't layer lighter colors on top of dark. If you were to work with say gouache or oils or acrylics, you could have covered the entire petal with pink and then painted these lighter spots later on using white color. But with watercolors, we really need to rely on negative painting, meaning painting around our lighter elements and just filling in the color this way to use the white of the paper as true white. And here I'm finally going to bring in my non fugitive PR 122 and just drop it in around the edges. So this is my regular magenta. This will not fade. It will blend really nicely with the fugitive opera pink, and it will give us a little bit of that extra value, extra dark color around the edges. And I'm going to continue dropping it in until my surface is starting to look dry and the color no longer spreads. Now, I'm going to turn my paper block around just so that I can reach those tricky spots and continue using negative painting technique around these white spots. Notice, again, the consistency of my mixture, it's very light. There's very little pigment and a lot of water. So this allows me to keep my values somewhere in the range of three maximum four, and I also have quite a lot of flexibility when I continue working on these edges, so they don't dry out quickly, and I can work on distinct segments and then connect them without leaving any borders. So it looks more or less as a continuous wash. And once again, I'm going to mention that if you don't like fugitive pigments, there's some possibility that they might fade over time just a little bit. Although I haven't seen it with quality brands like Windsor and Newton, I've been painting for about 15 years. Now, if you don't put them in direct sunlight, they don't fade that much. But if you want to avoid fluorescent pink, just go straight with your quinocordon magenta. It's a little bit less vivid, but very beautiful nonetheless. And just continue filling it in. Turning my paper block again as I go just so I can reach those areas. I'm right handed, so it's easier for me this way. Just very gently continue covering the petal until we have the entire surface covered with our cool pink. And once again, we're going to leave it to dry, come back later to add more definition and more realistic details. Right now, I'm just finessing the border, adding a few final splashes of pink, and that's it for this petal. 14. Red Orchid Step 1B: Painting Side Petals Wet-on-Wet: When we come back to the top petals again, let's make sure the spot of yellow in the center is completely dry because we're going to be painting on the area that's adjacent to this yellow spot, and we don't want any color bleeding. So here, I'm going to start with just a splash of PR 122. Again, you can use magenta or Opera pink, which is a little bit more fluorescent. Just very lightly in the center and then I'm going to blend with clear water towards the top. These petals have very defined highlights in the reference photo. I want to keep them lighter. And then the bottom part, I'm just going to finish with PR 122 very carefully painting around the silhouette of these yellow stamens in the center, making sure I don't go over the border. Here I'm using just regular magenta. Very, very gently. Again, I'm not reaching full saturation, but you can see the color is quite vivid and it's spreading towards the top as expected in the classic wet and tout technique. And now we can add some details, just a few strokes following the natural direction of the petal. The tip of your brush, and I was able to fit in five of them, and then I'm going to switch to my warmer red and continue building more saturation at the base of the petal. Just a few splashes. And again, notice that the colors spreading. There are no harsh lines. You can carry it up just a little bit more around the silhouette of the petal. And now we have a really nice soft blend using a cooler and a warmer red. And let's leave it to dry. Here, I'm going to go with clear water. I have a little bit of color in my jar still, so I can now clearly see the boundaries of my working shape. The water is a little bit tinted. And I like it that way because I'm able to see exactly where my wet segment ends and I don't go over the pencil marks. I'm going to cover the top part because that's where I want my paint to spread. The paint always rushes towards the most wet areas. And then I'm going to grab my cooler red, my magenta, and then start building some value at the base of the petal and then just gently helping it spread towards the lighter top part. And again, you can draw a few faint lines. Always following the direction of the petal. So when they spread, they look very natural. You can observe how the left hand side is drying out now. So it's very important to not put these lines randomly, but rather always pointing towards the base of the petal, and you can increase the saturation of your pigment closer to the base. Really push it towards maybe value five or six here. Still not using fully saturated creamy paint, but just a little bit darker. And then I'm going to gently go over the top just so that the edge of the petal doesn't get lost against the white of the paper. And that's it for this part. 15. Red Orchid Step 2: Wet-on-Dry Accents: Now I want you to switch to your smallest brush, and let's work out this tiny little element, the stamin in the center. I'm going to put a little bit of color. It's a mixture of pearl and violet and cornocardon coral. And then I'm going to blend with a clean damp brush so that that color disappears into the white of my paper. Then another cascade. Again, it's half and half mixture of par and violet and quinocredon coral. Again, I'm going to blend with a clean damp brush so that the color softly disappears into the background. A small element, and just by adding this tiny shadow, we're able to define now, what I want you to do is using the same brush and your most saturated PR 122. So your most saturated magenta, let's work out these dark spots on the main front facing petal in the center. So the reason why I really like synthetic brushes for this type of delicate, almost decorative work is because they tend to be more stiff. So at a smaller size like this, you have a lot of spring and a lot of support, and you can just use the tip to add these little dots. Technically, any dark red will work here. If you have something like permanent lazarin crimson or carmine, any of these will work, but I'm just trying to keep my palette more cohesive and streamlined, very saturated magenta. You can even add that same peril and violet you want the spots to be a lot darker. So don't be afraid to experiment. The main thing is you want now your value, meaning how dark your paint is to be a lot higher. So I'm working with, like, level seven, eight. You can even go as far as nine. So very little water and a lot more color. And very, very gently. I'm not trying to capture everything I see in the reference photo, sort of the main silhouettes. And let's not forget up on top, this petal that's disappearing into the background behind the front facing petals, the cooler ones that we painted mainly with magenta. There are also some spots there. And then continue going to the left. Again, the main thing here is not the color, but the value. So how dark your red is. And we really want these spots to be red. One thing I want to mention about watercolor, if you're more familiar with this medium, you know that it always dries out looking a little bit lighter after your water evaporates. It's called the drying shift and. It's always present with watercolor. So even when you're using level 78 in your values, there's still a little bit of water on your brush. Once it evaporates, it looks a few steps lighter so you can see right now these spots are drying out looking slightly lighter. And let's not forget these lines and details on top of the yellow central elements. So let's just add them in, as well and leave it to dry. Now, to finish our first layer, we need to cover the central element with some red. So here I'm going to switch to my warmer red. And I'm going to work on top of that base yellow underpainting, just covering that entire segment with my coral or whichever warm red you're using. The wash of yellow underneath is completely dry, so this is a wet on dry method of painting very, very slowly. No need to rush here. Let's just cover that entire silhouette with our colors, still keeping it on the lighter side so you can see a little bit of yellow kind of shining through. Really leaning into the transparent nature of watercolor medium. You can see how it almost looks a little bit orange now because we have that yellow underneath. And very slowly, there's no need to rush with wet on dry method. Just cover that entire segment with your warmer red. Financing the edges and then just connecting them to these almost, like, drop shaped elements that extend towards the edges of the petal. Working very slowly with the tip of my small brush. And here I'm approaching almost maybe value five or six, so getting a little bit darker compared to the initial petal washes. Let's leave it to dry. 16. Red Orchid Step 3: Creating a Vibrant Glaze: I step three, we're going to come back to every single petal and work on two things. Number one, we're going to add additional value, meaning more saturated color to amplify our shadows. And you can see here, I started with a little bit of parlin violet around the edge, continued with my warmer quinacridone coral and then blended with a clean damp brush just to build a little bit of color around the edge. And the second thing we're going to do is add lots and lots of texture and detail to really increase the sense of realism and capture all those additional beautiful details that we can observe in the reference photo. So here I'm just adding a little bit of par and violet. Again, notice the direction of my strokes, always in the direction of the pet also from the top towards the base. And I'm working on completely dry surface. So the underlying layer is dry, and I'm just building a little bit of, like, a base of diluted color, just like we did in the first layer here on this petal, starting with diluted quinocdon coral, and then adding tiny bit of violet around the edges and just watching it spread. So notice that I'm really concentrating around the edges where I see some shadows and a lot more intensity in the color in the reference photo. So I'm still not using fully saturated color, but notice now with the second layer, everything looks a little bit more vibrant. And you can add splashes of yellow if you want to bring in a little bit of, like, sun kissed warmth, not throughout the petal, but just certain parts that might be catching a little bit of sunlight. And again, watch that color spread. There's no harsh lines here, just a little bit of a color boost. So let's add another petal here on the right. I'm going to follow my map of color, and that's why I like to call it a map of color because in the first layer, if you recall, I did use a little bit of magenta at the bottom, so I'm going to bring it back again, just boosting it a little bit and then follow with Perlin violet, outline the tip of the petal, and notice how much more vibrant everything looks now. So this second layer is really counteracting this phenomena of drying shift that we talked about a few minutes ago where your watercolors look a lot more dull. And again, I'm bringing in a tiny bit of yellow, adding it wet and to wet in the middle of the petal, and we now have much more dimension overall. Now, using wet on dry method, so just some very faint lines using wet paint on top of dry surface, I'm going to add a little bit of texture on top of the central element. So just a few lines. Again, they're emanating from the center, the base of the petal, towards the edges, always following the natural logic of the organic form that we're painting. Just a few lines. Again, the color is diluted, but because now we're working on the third layer in that area, it looks quite dark, so now approaching full saturation. And in the final few minutes of this small lesson, I'm just going to add some texture using diluted magenta. You can zoom in very closely on the reference photo and notice there's some faint, darker lines. Again, always following the direction of the petal, so I shift the positioning of my hand, and I'm just adding them with the tip of my brush using very diluted color, not fully saturated color. But building a little bit of that extra organic texture that we can observe in the reference photo. Mostly around the edges, and I just sort of drag these lines out and towards the center of the pedal very, very gently, just around the bottom part, adding texture and value and a little bit of dimension. Now, it's important to note that I took a long pause before moving on to the final set of petals because we're going to be working on the areas that are adjacent to the ones that we just worked on. So just to avoid any kind of cross contamination and unnecessary bleeds, let's make sure everything is dry again, and then work on these two petals up on top. And here I really want to preserve some of that bright white and the highlights up on top. So I'm going to work a little bit differently. I'm starting with just a stroke of quinacordon coral, and then I'm blending it into the base of the petal with a clean damp brush. You can add a little bit of violet, too around the edges just to enhance the silhouette. But I'm not working with very wet surface here. So I really want to maintain control over this blend. And again, at the bottom, I started with quinocidon coral and then very gently with some clear water, just making sure that it fades into the background, but doesn't spread all over the petal, so the lighter parts remain very light. And again, I'm going to add a little bit of violet just to add some contrast with the tip of my brush. There's not a lot of water on my petal. I didn't cover it with water throughout or with my diluted paint mixture. So it doesn't go too far. I just sort of stays in that area, and you can play around, charge some additional colors just very, very gently with the tip of your brush, so there's not a lot of blending happening, a fairly vibrant, dark shadow around each side that slowly and gently fades into the background. So a little bit of a modified approach. Here, I'm going to show you kind of a different way of doing it. I will pre wet the entire petal, but because I'm using such a small brush, there's not a lot of water, and I'm just giving myself maybe maximum 1 minute to add some color. It's not going to go too far. I'm going to just add it around the edges. And if it spreads too far, you can lift it with a clean damp brush. I just want a little bit of color around the edges without too much blending and without my color going all the way up into the highlighted areas. And you can see how now with this additional layer of color, we've added a lot of vibrancy, and this is something that beginners are often confused about when they paint with just one layer. How good your paints are, they always fade, so it does help to add a layer or two on top. If you really want to boost the vibrancy, of course, for botanical art, it's extremely important. So if you don't want that faded in dull look, second or even third layer of color will always increase the vibrancy of your work and give you that extra boost. 17. Red Orchid Step 4: Finishing Touches: The final step is all about finishing touches. So let's take a look at our reference photo one last time, see if there are any small details that we can add. I found a couple of small details in the center that I missed in the first layers. I'm going to add those. And one more time, I'm going to go over some of those areas that I want to that I want to amplify. So once again, I'm going to glaze a transparent layer up on top. This time, I'm really going to bring my color to its full potential because now we have several layers. The drying shift is almost completely eliminated. And we're able to reach that super vibrant look that we observe in the reference photo. So I covered the central element with a glaze of Conocadon coral, and I'm quite happy for the most part with how the top petals turned out with two glazes, but there might be still a few areas and some opportunities to boost the color further. So this step is entirely optional, but I always like to add this final accent layer. So on the top petal, I'm going to paint a few very thin lines. Using the same coral, then moving on to these petals that are sticking to the right and to the left, a very gentle glaze of coral here up on top. And then on the petal that's pointing to the left, a glaze at the bottom, I'm going to blend it with clear water. And then a little bit on top, again very carefully observing the reference and just adding that extra bit of detail and shadow. So take a look at the step by step photos again. See where you're at with your value, see if there's any opportunity to boost certain segments, add a little bit of extra color. And the last thing I'm going to do is just a little bit of that same quinocuron coral around the edges up on top. Just a few gentle strokes and then blending it with clear water so that the color disappears. And I think that's it for the red orchid. 18. Final Thoughts: Congratulations on completing this class. I'm so proud of you for taking the time to explore these watercolor techniques and bring your beautiful flowers to life. I would absolutely love to see you orchids, so don't forget to post your finished paintings in the projects section of this class. And you can also tag me on Instagram so I can repost and celebrate your work with. You have any questions, feel free to ask in the discussion section of this class. I'm happy to help. And if you enjoy the class, leaving a review means the world to me. Not only does it help me as a teacher, but it also lets Skillshare know what you loved about the class, making it easier for other botanical art lovers to find and enjoy it, too. If you're looking for more botanical inspiration, you can check out my other watercolor classes here on Skill Share and explore even more tips and tutorials on my YouTube channel. Of course, if you want to dive deeper into more advanced watercolor techniques, be sure to check out my new book, 101 Watercolor Secrets. It's packed with insights to help you grow as an artist. Thank you so much for watching and painting with me. I will see you in the next class.