Painting Loose Watercolor Cone Flowers

SUPPLIES:

Canson 140 lb. cold press paper

Optional: Legion 140 lb. cold press paper

Princeton round brushes, sizes 2, 3, 6 (x2), 8

HB pencil for sketching

Dust-free eraser

Paint colors:

Permanent Rose

Indian Red

Sepia

Lamp Black

Raw Umber

Green Gold

Greenish Umber

Palette (or salad plate)

Palette shown in video by @sylvanclayworks

Cup of water

Paper towel to blot

OBSERVING AND SKETCHING

This really is an integral part of learning how to capture the essence of the flowers we wish to paint. Time is not always on our side, but there is much to be gained from taking 5-10 minutes to study a subject and pencil out a few sketches before laying down paint! Remember, this is all about the process, not simply the end result! 

CHOOSING AN INSPIRATION OR REFERENCE PHOTO

I invite you to select one or two photos from which to draw inspiration. This photo will merely serve as a guide, not an exact representation of our flowers, which we will keep loose and spirited.

FORMING OUR PALETTE/SWATCHING

If you're new to my page, this might be unfamiliar territory, which makes me excited to introduce you to the wonderful world of muted tones. I will show you how I create new, vintage-inspired colors using two or more paints. I also walk you through the paint to water ratio and how to create multiple washes.

CREATING THE FLOWER HEAD

We will explore simple shapes and strokes to create the top of our flower.

ADDING THE PETALS AND CREATING BLEEDS

Here we practice the shape of the petals, observing our inspiration photo, striving to give them a loose, organic feel and study the magic of timing to control the flow of water and paint to create a disruption on color, aka " a bleed." We will repeat these steps several times before moving on.

SOFTENING OFF AND COMPLETING THE FLOWER HEAD:

We will implement a new technique called "softening off" which will pave the way for a dramatic flower head as we add the finishing details.

FINISHING THE PETALS:

We will play around with shading and outlining to give even more interest to our flowers

ADDING LEAVES AND A STEM:

Keeping things loose and simple, we will add foliage to our blooms.

VEINING THE LEAVES:

Adding interest to our leaves by giving them a vein.

** BONUS MATERIAL**

Demonstrating how pencil can be removed after the watercolor has been placed on top.