Welcome spring with watercolor flower paintings!

1. Welcome to watercolor flowers class!: Welcome to my watercolor flowers class. Don't you just love that time of year when nature starts to come alive. First, everything is bleak and gray and then you start noticing little body leaves everywhere. Before you know it, everything is in full bloom. That's the inspiration behind this course. We'll start with a warm-up exercise where we paint a flower bouquet in loose style. Then we will continue to the class project where we paint a panic or violet. We'll incorporate wet on wet and wet on dry techniques as well as layering. My name is Lisa, how to none. And I'm a watercolor artist by night and QA into nearby day. I've learned almost everything I know about watercolors from Skillshare. And now I want to share that knowledge with others. I think learning is a lifelong process and everyone can become better by practicing. I've also come to note is that we build ourselves expectations and demands of what the age we showed it should look like. But the reality with watercolors is that they sometimes flow where they want to flow. What becomes so far painting is it nearly always what we anticipated? And that's actually part of the fun. So let's learn to let go of our expectations and just enjoy the right. Okay, let's get started. 2. Materials: Let's first check out the materials. The most important one is watercolor paper. I'm using these arches, 100% cotton paper. You can use any brand, but I suggest that you use 100% cotton that will grant you a better end result. I've cut this piece of paper into four postcard sized papers, which I'll be using your class project. You will also need masking tape. Then some tissue. Try in your brushes. Then you will need a few brushes, peripheral or small, size 0 or size two. Then meet sized for acceptable size six. Then some kind of palette for mixing your colors. You will also need a pencil for sketching and an eraser in case you make any mistakes. Then I also have this small spray bottle which I use for wetting my paint. This is optional, but I've noticed that it's quite useful. Then you should also take two jars of clean water. One of them is for cleaning the paint from your brushes and the other one is wetting your brush with clean water. And here's the list of the colors that I'm using. You don't need to have the exact same colors. You can choose whatever you like. Okay, but go get your stuff and let's start painting. 3. Loose-style flower bouquet - part 1: Let's first get our paints ready. I have added here all the paints that I'm using and now I'm adding water to make them really light. I have here my green, white, red, my blue and all show the gold or raw sienna, whichever you are using. Pickup size six brush for example. And then just start, I'm painting, relax flower bouquet in your head and start creating flowers. These don't need to be any realized flowers. The idea is to learn to let go and just create something. Let the brush dad's on the paper. Once you have the base layer done and the paint is still wet. Now pick some other color, for example, blue. And add small, a small dots of the blue where you think that they look good. Then you can pick some darker color. I'm taking indigo and I'm taking it straight from the pan so that it's really intense. And I'm adding it in the center or towards the center parts of the petals like these, will then continue adding darker tones of red and blue flowers. Again, I don't have any method here. I'm just adding the color where I think it looks good. Then if you think you are ready to dark tone or few auditing it in the wrong place. You can always wash your brush and then just tap it a bit on your tissue paper to dry it. And you can blend the colors in a bit. I'm doing it right now. Continue adding two more flowers using the same method. Make things a bit more interesting. I'm adding a different kind of flower. Flower maybe looks a bit like a tool. But anyway, I'm using the same technique here. I'm adding some pitfalls using a lighter tone. Then I will add blue on top of that and some indigo. Then I will add a bit of darker tones as well. I'm doing a bit of blending also because I think that Inigo stands out a bit too much. That's a bit better. Kind of separate the one petal from the other. I'm adding a bit of indigo also. Let's do an add some berries. All these can also be blossoms, whichever you like best. But I think these look a bit like blueberries, just adding small blue circles like this. Then I am adding a bit more darker tones on one side of the berry. And after that, I am cleaning my brush and I'm dabbing dry and I'm removing some of the color. I'm trying to create a bit of her eye light spot on one end of the berry so that it looks more three-dimensional. Let's add a bit more darker tone here. That's starting to look pretty nice. Let's then continue adding more blue and also red berries using the same method. 4. Loose-style flower bouquet - part 2: Next I'm taking a lighter tone of olive green. And I'm going to paint the stems to all of the flowers. Taking a smaller sized brush size. And I'm adding a beautiful brown color on the one side of the stems. On using burnt umber. Let's paint the leaves. I'm taking again my size six round brush. And I'm taking your lighter tone of olive green and then just start making leaves wherever you think they would look good. Pay attention how I'm forming the leaf on first, pressing down only the tip of my brush. And then I'm pressing need to down slightly more so that gradually forms wider mark on the paper. Then as I move towards the other end of the leaf, I am releasing the pressure again. That in the end there's only the tip of the brush touching the paper. Again. Let's then add more leaves in the same way. 5. Loose-style flower bouquet - part 3: Okay, I think that's enough leaves. Let's add a bit more darker tone to the stems. I'm taking a darker tone of olive green and I'm adding a beautiful debt. The stems. Next I'll add a few details to the leaves. I'm using olive green and burnt umber. Kind of switch between those two beat of variety in the colors. If you're up for it, you can also add a second to lay your green to some of the leaves. Or maybe for just helpful. Blend the color. Clean water or with clean brush. Like this. Not like happy week, the details in the leaves. And next I'm adding a bit of details to the flowers. I'm taking a darker tone of threat, hope to car mine that I've been using. And I'm adding a bit of details here and there. All these details are totally optional. And they kind of depend on what you think looks good at as much or as little detail as you want. I'm adding a bit more darker tones, berries. And I think after I am done, That's define those steps at the bouquets. Using indigo for this final detail. 6. Violet: making the sketch: Welcome back. I hope you had fun painting the bouquet. I hope you've got some risks in-between and you are ready for the next painting. First, I'm attaching my paper to a piece of cardboard. You can use any surface, but I advice you to attach your paper Duchamp theme because otherwise it will buckle because we are using wet on wet technique. Then start sketching. Sketching is actually quite simple, so just follow my lead and you will make it. First we are making to pathos that form kind of a heart shape. Then we are adding a third petal at the bottom. After that, we'll add two more pathos at the top like this. Then I'll add a few leaves around the flower. Then finally I'll add a few details in the middle of the flower. Maybe one more leaf here at the top. Then we are done. Next, let's paint the background. 7. Violet: painting the background: Then paint the background for the violet to refresh your memory. Here's a list of the colors we are using in this project. This is a project to pansy. I think Pansy Violet are almost the same flower, but I don't know what the difference between those 0s. So I'm just using both words just to mix you up a bit. Okay, but let's then make our palette. I'm adding may green, olive green, or any other darker green to my mixing palette. I'm also adding a bit of volume let on using brilliant blue, violet. Blue, violet. You can use whichever violet you have or mix your own with red and blue. Next, I'm using my little spray bottle and I'm adding water to the colors because I want to use a light tone of these colors at first. Let's next width to paper. I'm using a flat brush to do with, but you can use any larger sized brush. Be careful with the flower, Let's with everything else except the flower under leaves. Good. No, I'm switching to my size six round brush. And I start making the background. I'm picking first make green and I'm adding just launches of agreeing on the paper. I do these sweet make green and olive green, and I also add a bit of violet to some places. I have no method for this either. Maybe you have learned that I had no method on just doing things the way that they feel good to me. So I suggest that you do the same at colors in places which feel good to you. Okay. I've now added the first layer, light tones. Next, I'm adding more intense colors. I'm using the same colors as before, but I'm just using less water in them so that the total Vc darker. Please note that your background should still be width. When you are doing these. If your background has already dried, then you should not add any more colors to eat. Only do this step if your background is still wet. 8. Violet: first layer: If your background has dried, it's now time to paint the first layer of the flowers. But if the background is still wet, just wait a few more minutes before doing this step. I'm adding some volume and yellow on my palette. I'm using cadmium yellow light and chromium yellow hue, deep. Chromium yellow is kind of it's almost in orange. If you don't have that specific color, peak some orange color. Or you can add a beautiful red to your yellow. Again, using my little spray bottle to make the tones of these colors really liked. Let's use width on wet technique with the flower as well. With only the flower. Do not wet the leaves at this point. Wants to pick our width and let's add a bit of yellow to the middle part of the flower. Next I'll add some violet to the petals. I'm using the blue violet and I'm adding it to the older pathos basically everywhere where there's no yellow. I liked volume. Next I'll add a bit of chromium, yellow or orange to some parts of the flower like this. Blending tone. Can you then guess the next step will be to wait for a moment for these to dry. After that, we can paint the first layer for the leaves. Teams that the first layer of my flower has now dried. So I will mix, start painting the first layer for the leaves. I'm taking a light tone of olive green and also make green. I am using both are making some of the leaves would make green and some of the leaves with olive green. 9. Violet: second layer - part 1: The previous layers are now dry. We can mixed stock making a second layer. First width, one of the petals, like I'm doing right now. And we'll use wet on wet technique to pain. Just this one petal at this point. Take your blue violet and add a bit of water to it, but not too much. And add a trope or few drops off that. To the boardroom. Like this. We lift width paper to help us to spread the corner. Clean, dry brush. You can blend the color. Looks a bit smoother. Like these. I think I want a bit more intense color. I mixed taking violet straight from the pan. And I'm adding it to the bottom part of the petal like this. I think I'm also going to add a bit of indigo. Also straight from the pan to the same place. While we wait for that to dry. Let's work on a section that doesn't touch the wet part of the painting. I think I'm going to work on the sleeve. Next. I'm using olive green and I've added a beautiful water to it so that it's not too intense. I am leaving a small white section in the middle of the leaf. After that, I started adding more colors. Color on the edge of three. I'm leaving some parts on top so that the first layer of colors is Vc bowl, like this. Then I do the same for the other side of the leaf. Your leaf is still wet. You can add a bit more intense told some part. It will look a bit more interesting. I think I'll even add a bit of indigo in some places to make the color even more intense. Mixed. In a similar way. Pick the leaf that is not touching the sleeve because these might be a bit too wet. Steam. Next, Next, IT work on another petal because the first petal seems to be drawing all. Let's use the same technique. So first, width, pit bull, then at quite intense tone of violet to the base of the petal. And after that at more intense violet and a bit of indigo to the bottom part of the leaf. 10. Violet: second layer - part 2: Let's leave that petal to try and work on another leaf. At this point. I think the first two leaves are now dry, so it's safe to work on the leaf that is next to the first. To leave. This leaf, I am using make. When I want to make more intense color or some places, I'm adding a bit of olive green to the mix. Okay, that leaves the stone. Work on the sleeve here. You will see made between old shelf for these Warren, also a bit of olive green. For the darker spots. It seems that the sacred pit all the school show dry. So it's no shapes to work on this point, I will leave. You were seeing again olive green for the sleeve. Everything that touches the lower East now, dry so it's safe to start working on the flower. Let's first width the entire flower or the three patterns. This, Let's start adding more intense colors. Yellow, chromium, yellow or orange. And then finally bowl-shaped volume it first at the yellow to the center part of the flower. I start adding chromium, yellow or orange. Do some places. I will blend those colors. They don't stand out too much. Mixed thought I'd beautiful violet, the bottom part of the flower. But please note that these a violet, now a bit more red than blue. But if you don't have it, that's totally fine. I noticed that my flower has studied to try up a bit, so I'm adding a bit more water to the sections that I haven't paid you yet. And now I will add a bit more intense toll of a bluish violet. Keep adding more intense colors of wildland to watch the edges of the petals. Next, I'm doing a bit of blending with a clean brush because there are feasible. For my taste. As a final step, I'm adding a bit of a reddish volume it to my chromium yellow. And I'm using that color to draw some very fine lines from the center of the flower. The flower is still width. It showed the slides, we'll spread a little. And that's the point. I'd be using a size two brush for this. 11. Violet: adding details: We are almost at the end, my friend. If your flower is now completely dry, it's time to add a few more details. I'm using these, these almost brownish tone that we used in the last step to make some details to the middle of the flower. First, I'm painting these water drop shaped section in the middle of the flower. And after that, I met painting lines from the middle of the flower, like we did in the last step. But now, because the flower is int width anymore, these lines won't spread out anymore. Mixed R, we'll use a beat darker color for these lines as well. I'm mixing a bit of indigo to violet. One studies done. I will clean my brush with just a little bit. And we'll let that, run that over the software lives so that they will blend a little bit to get back so that they won't stand out that much. Next, I will add a darker tone. In a few places. I am again using the weeks of a violet, indigo. And I will add that mainly to the edges of the flower. In some places, not in all places. Just follow my lead or follow your own intuition. Okay, I think that's starting to look quite often pathos or in Dutch morphing anymore. So low molar for you, to me. The final step, I'm adding a bit more intense color to the leaves. I have mixed olive green a week, a bit of indigo to create very dark green tone. And I'm adding that to some places where I think there might be a shadow. For example, near the flower and near other leaves like this. I'm using clean water and clean brush to blend the dark or dark green color so that it doesn't stand out too much. I'm adding the shade dark green, mix some parts of the leaves in the tips of the leaves. And with that, we are ready. Let's remove the masking tape and take a look at the final piece that we have made. Thank you for joining me. I hope you had fun. I hope you and I hope to see you again soon. In my other classes. Please remember to upload your class project to Skillshare. I would love to see them have a nice spring and seeing you next time.