Learn to paint flowy and relaxed botanicals from observation with watercolor.

Your class project is to pick a cutting or stem from your garden (or friendly neighbours!) and paint it from observation with watercolor. I encourage you to paint the world around you, step outside and explore. Choose something that makes your heart sing. By choosing your own specimen you are taking complete creative control (which can be intimidating yes! But also very rewarding). You have it right in front of you, you can study it closely. The angles, the colours, the shapes, the textures. Painting from observation opens you up to paint with more fluidity and freedom. Painting from photos can have copyright issues, and it is also a flat lifeless surface to draw inspiration from.

With a pinch of courage, I guide you through a series of techniques to build up your skills and confidence so you can approach your project with excitement rather than fear.

For those completely stuck and have no access to flowers and/or foliage, I have included some emergency botanical photo references.

Happy painting!

Links to Products

Below is a list of links to various products I mention in the course, including my infamous palette! (I get so many emails about this palette I use!). I also have a blog post where I talk about my preferred materials that I use myself - this may also be of interest. You can read it here.

Please note: This information contains affiliate links, so I may earn a small commission when you make a purchase through some (not all) of the links on this page at no additional cost to you. I would only ever recommend products I would use and all the opinions expressed here are my own.

Painting Kits:

Your one stop shop for the lot, the painting kit includes everything you need to get started except a few items you can find at home ie. a water jar and palette.

Natalie Martin's Beginners Watercolour Painting Kit

Paints:

Micador Brilliant Watercolour Set - 24 Colours

Also now available in larger sets: 36 Colours, 48 Colours.

If you are a student based in the US, they are called Koh-I-Noor Brilliant Anilinky Watercolors.

I personally mostly use professional quality tube paints by Daniel Smith Watercolours.

Brushes:

Introductory set, student quality: Roymac Achiever Series, the 3 pack is what is received in my painting kits.

What I use, professional quality: Polina Bright Round Brushes

I filmed the course using a Princeton Elite (now known as Aqua Elite) size 10 and 6 brush. Since then I've moved to using the Polina Bright brushes which are just heavenly to work with (you can read more of my review on them here). I loved them so much I ended up becoming an ambassador and Polina has offered 10% off for all my students. Use the code NATALIE_MARTIN when you shop her brushes.

Paper:

In the course I recommend Canson Montval 300gsm Cold Pressed Watercolour Paper. This is readily available at most art stores in A4 pads, A3 pads and at some, a mega 100 page A3 block. (Hello awesome amounts of practice time!). Good to note, the 200gsm does not paint as well!

I personally use Saunders Waterford 300gsm, 425gsm and 600gsm 100% cotton loose sheets of paper, also readily available at most art stores.

Palettes:

Now, I believe I mention that a palette would be included in the painting kit. In the end I decided to omit it, as a porcelain plate is your best option when first starting out, the only affordable option for me to include was the little round plastic palettes that I generally tell people to avoid! Palettes are a very personal choice and depend on what style you like to work in.

The palette I use in the course is this flat plastic one.

I've also found some other great ones if you wanted to buy a specific porcelain palette.

Simple flat porcelain palette

Large Circular Porcelain Palette with 32 Wells

Large Rectangular Porcelain Palette with 33 Wells

Medium Rectangular Porcelain Palette with 17 Wells

Shelley Kay

Art educator, artist, baker, mom

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