As you may know I love to paint watercolor flowers and after some recent
posts of my practice work on social media I received a lot of requests to
revisit this subject in a tutorial so that's what we're gonna do today flowers
and leaves in watercolor
Hi guys my name's Shayda Campbell and on this channel I do watercolor
tutorials hand lettering bullet journaling and all kinds of crafty artsy
stuff so if you're new here consider subscribing now let's get into the
supplies for today's tutorial I'm using a Canson watercolor paper block cold
pressed the block means that all the paper is connected there and that
ostensibly means that it's stretched while you're painting at least somewhat
and then you peel it off after you're all done I'm also going to be using the
koi watercolor set from Sakura as well as some synthetic brushes but I'm also
going to assume that you know a little bit about watercolor supplies I'm gonna
link a tutorial on supplies as well as a tutorial on the koi set in the
description below now because today's tutorial is somewhat of an intermediate
subject I'm gonna assume that you understand techniques like wet in wet or
wet on wet and wet on dry but don't worry if you don't I'm gonna link my
tutorial about that below and as we get into our painting tutorial today we're
gonna talk a lot about using the tip of your brush versus using the body of your
brush when you're painting using your brush correctly will lead you to a much
more sophisticated painting style and working on flowers and leaves is a great
way to practice this so let's get started now I'm starting out today by
mixing up a nice dark blue sort of a more I'm gonna try to do a bit of a
sophisticated color palette here with blues and sort of burgundy pinks but
when you're starting out and you're gonna be focusing on technique it
doesn't hurt to maybe just say I'm just gonna paint in blue today or black or
whatever color you want so you don't necessarily have to pick a color palette
if you're thinking about your brush work and technique maybe just stick with blue
so what I'm gonna do here is start off by painting some leaves and you can see
me using the very tip of my brush to make these delicate shapes and I'm just
doing that simple design that we do so often on the channel where you start
with a line and then you're drawing pairs or your painting pairs of leaves
going down the length that line what I'm doing here is working
with a wet in wet technique and I've got you know sort of a puddle a small puddle
of water in each leaf and I can add paint to that I can add pigment and you
can see how the paint just sort of settles into the water and I'm not
worrying worried about being in complete control of that paint as the watercolor
paint dries especially when you have that pool wet or puddle wet you call it
you get a very very beautiful distribution of the paint so you don't
need to sort of worry about having control of it all the time and you can
see with the second leaf here I'm adding a bit of pigment to the top and bottom
of each leaf and just letting it pool out into the body of the leaf I'm also
working with the second leaf here I've lightened the color so even if you're
working with one color you can have such difference in variation and that adds
that creates visual interest in your painting
so think about having some leaves are gonna be very very light in color others
will be very dark you can also employ a wet in wet technique for one leaf and
then for the next one you can do wet on dry and add a lot more detail to that
leaf so with just one color you can achieve so much variation now as I
continue to paint leaves here I want you to think about the piece as a whole you
saw it when the video first started it's this big crazy piece that's just covered
in leaves and flowers and I think creating a piece like that when you're
just getting started can be so helpful because you're not trying to worry about
how the leaves and flowers relate to one another or necessarily what looks
natural you're just gonna layer on leaves and flowers and buds and get a
little crazy with it and that will help you to just sort of let go and work on
the shapes of the leaves and flowers now that we've done some basic leaf shapes
and try it out a little wet on wet just seeing what the paint can do I want to
try doing something a little more intricate and detailed and we're going
to use the very tip of our brush I'm using a synthetic
round brush that has a very nice fine pointed tip but also this sort of fat
belly of the brush that holds lots of paint and I'm using the tip of the brush
to form these tiny little ovals and then again using the very fine point of that
brush to join them together to create this delicate sort of very tiny leaf
design when it comes to a leaf or a shape like this it's not about being a
master painter it's just about taking the time to do something very tiny and
detailed and having the confidence to say it's okay
yes it's small but I have a brush that can do this I can take the time to do
this next we're gonna put a pause button on those leaves both simple and
intricate and we're gonna do a flower I'm using pink for this so it will you
know jump out for you guys watching but if you're practicing right now just keep
going with that blue for this flower I'm using the tip and the body of my brush
to kind of create these semi circles so I'll start by doing this little
semicircular line with the tip and then I allow the body of the brush to rub up
against the paper and create these more sort of out-of-control wild fat petal
areas so I start by doing a rounded line with the tip and then I let the body of
the brush fan out and I just let the water and the paint do what it wants
when you're starting a flower like this it's a little bit of an abstracted
flower I'll admit but I sort of have the idea of maybe sort of an open English
rose or a peony in mind maybe not a peony for this one but I think some of
the ones we'll do later in the video you'll see you'll see the peony in it
for some simpler flowers I just used the body of the brush just sort of fan out
this triangular shape of color and I use a wet on wet technique to add a little
bit of a darker color and more pigment towards the bottom of that triangular
shape and you just sort of get these cute little flower like shapes sort of
peeking out and we'll go back in and we'll
a wet on dry technique to add some more detail to those a little bit later we'll
let them dry we're gonna come down to another area of the page here and
attempt another flower now this one I think you'll see more of the peony in it
so I'm using the tip of the brush to do those semicircular areas and then you'll
see here I just let the brush fall onto the page so the body of the brush falls
back from the point and allows more water and pigment and paint to hit the
paper and you just want to be really free around the edges of the flower so
you're using the tip to create this beautiful inner center with all these
petals these semicircles and all this detail and pigment but then
as the flower moves outward and it becomes just petals you're using the
body of your brush to just sort of spread paint and color and water on the
page and really I can't stress this enough
the beauty of watercolor is how the paint gets away from you it's the lack
of control that you have and you just want to sort of see what will the paint
do how will it run how will it move and and sort of allowing yourself that
freedom will create these beautiful flowers I'm just adding some more leaf
designs here as I wait for some of this paint to dry so that I can add a little
more detail and I can start to add some of these stamens
to the flowers so I'm going back to leaves here for a few minutes and you
can see if you can sort of see under my hand I know I hold the brush in a really
funny way and it makes it hard to see sometimes but I'm doing that sort of
more intricate design with the Tri leaves and I think you'll find when you
begin practicing like this that you'll sort of fall in love with different leaf
designs and patterns and it's okay to repeat those it's actually great if you
can become proficient and comfortable with some different designs or different
leaf shapes and you'll find yourself going back to them again and again and
that helps create continuity within the piece and this repetition of design that
can be very beautiful and of course it also helps you to build confidence and
you become more confident in doing that sort of shape or that kind of
flower and then you can play around and and build your confidence and you see
here we just did that design that's so reliant on using the tip of the brush
and now you can see here I'm gonna do this much messier sort of free leaf
shape where I'm using the body of the brush to just spread paint and water and
it's not about having an exact idea in mind I'm just sort of seeing what can
the brush do what will the paint do and then yes I'm using the tip to create
that very fine twig in between and that's really what
joins it and helps it look you know so nice and a little more sophisticated but
I'm just laying the body of the brush right onto the page and allowing this
sort of smudgy crazy leaf design or leaf shape to emerge I'll add a little more
color to that wet paint and I've got this sort of wild watercolor leaf that
I'm really happy with now that the other paint has dried we can go back in and
add some detail so here I'm drawing some lines and dots to represent the stamen
or the middle part of those flowers and that's just a simple wet on dry and I'm
really adding a lot able to add a lot of detail at this point now I also want to
show you guys how I do a sort of rosebud flower this one's a lot of fun to paint
I always start with the idea of kind of a broken spiral so you can see me using
the tip of the brush and then a bit of the body of the brush to create these
spiraling lines and it's not a perfect spiral
it's an offset spiral so you've got the center is going to be closer to one edge
so picture a spiraling circle but the center of that spiral is closer to one
side of the circle and you can see how it creates this really pretty rose shape
and I'm just adding a little more pigment there around the center around
that initial spiraled area and I just allow the paint just sort of soak
outwards and it gives this really pretty look of
rosebud and don't worry we're gonna do another one right now so you can kind of
get the hang of this this one's gonna be facing kind of the other direction but
again I'm starting with the center of the spiral and the idea of the broken
spiral that starts with these delicate lines and then the lines kind of gets
thicker and more messy and watery and broken as we move outward from that
initial spiraled area so you can sort of pick which way these flowers are going
to point are they growing upwards or downwards and I've done two going
different directions here but you can see they still sort of look like a pair
and by leaving some negative space in your broken spiral you give the the look
that the light is kind of hitting this flower and it helps to create definition
as well. While we're in flower painting mode let's go up to the top corner where
there's still a lot of negative space and we're gonna do another one of these
sort of large crazy peonies so against using the tip of the brush to create
these semi circles and then as you move outward from the center that you create
you're gonna leave that negative space as your Center you're using the body of
the brush you're just sliding into that body of the brush to sort of allow these
petals to get a little thicker and wider and a little crazier as well so don't be
afraid to lose a little control when you're creating a flower like this and
you're creating these little puddles of paint and you can always add more
pigment and just allow the paint to seep out and see what it does see where it
goes so I know I reiterate this often but you don't need to be in complete
control of the paint especially when you're starting out as a beginner I
think it helps to have this attitude of I'm just having fun I'm taking joy in
the materials I just want to see what this paint can do and I myself have a
tendency to overwork my watercolor paints and I'm always fighting that and
especially when I go back and look at it on camera I can see the perfect point
when that flower looked so nice and was going to dry in such an interesting way
and then I just went in and kept going and kept
overworking it so there's a point at what you want to pull back and say you
know what I just want to see what this is gonna look like when it dries because
the paint really does seep into the paper so nicely and you can achieve some
beautiful results now an another tip I want to give you when you're painting a
piece like this where you're just practicing your flowers and leaves is to
overlap a lot of people think when they're starting out in watercolor that
overlapping is sort of a no-no because you can never cover up one thing but I
think there's so much beauty in allowing your paintings your leaves and your
flowers to sort of all overlap and blend into one another and it gives a
beautiful look when you're all finished so don't worry if you know you're
painting pink leaves over blue leaves it's gonna look great I promise you here
what I'm doing is I'm just using the body of my brush to paint some yellow
flowers sort of doing nondescript shapes in sort of this peachy creamy I
shouldn't say yellow so yeah just allowing the paint to sort
of move and some of the flowers are triangular shaped and some are quite
large with these sort of four petals so that very simple idea of what a flower
looks like but you can do a lot by just creating triangular shapes and then
going back in and adding the stamen later so that it really comes off as
yeah this is a flower here you can see me overlapping another flower with a
second flower I've doing a rosebud right on top of
that first flower that we did but again just adding layers of flowers and leaves
and color I think helps to create this almost abstracted floral pattern that
could be wallpaper or it could be wrapping paper it's it or it could be
the print for a dress you're really creating a pattern at this point but
you're also just practicing your leaves and flowers and all these floral
botanical shapes but you're gonna end up with something really cool and I think
that's what I love about about the Peace as a whole and this practice as a
whole and here you're seeing me just go back in and practice my intricate flower
or leaf design that's made up of those tri ovals that are all connected by a
very thin stem I'm just waiting for the cream-colored flowers to dry and now
they are so now I can go back in with a contrasting color or a similar color and
I can add some lines and dots or whatever to represent the stamen or the
center of the flower where all the nectar is and all that stuff with that
navy blue that I used for the stamen I'm also adding some veining to some of
these leaves just having fun going in and adding some detail work now that a
lot of this piece has dried and if I sort of offsetting some of these stamens
you can create the look that the flower is closed or sort of three-dimensional
as you can see on the left or if you're putting the stamen sort of right in the
center as I just did on the right there you get this very open flower look here
I'm using the Navy again to just do another one of these rosebuds I guess
this is a blue rose just layering and adding more visual interest to this
piece so at this point I'm almost just trying to fill in any negative space and
just practicing all the different flowers and leaf shapes as I said at the
beginning of the tutorial these flowers and leaves are such a great way to
practice your brush technique and you can see here how I pull the body of the
brush across the page to make these sort of nondescript leaves but you
also see at the center of those flowers how we use the tip of the
brush that fine point to create such detail and and I think as you practice
this you'll not only become proficient at watercolor botanicals but how to use
a brush now here I want to show you one more sort of leaf design and that is the
eucalyptus and I always start with just a simple fine line and then you're doing
these pairs of leaves going down the length of the line but they're very
nondescript you really use the brush to create these
funny little leaf shapes and they can sort of
be any which way and then you just add that use the tip to create these little
points at the top and suddenly you've got this very sweet little seeded
eucalyptus and you can see me doing another one here we just do the little
pairs of nondescript leaves just see what shape the body of the brush and all
the paint and water and pigment that you have contained there just see what shape
it creates and that's how you do the eucalyptus next I'm continuing with some
of these open sort of flowers and using the body of my brush to just lay down
some paint sort of in a fan shape or a triangular shape and I'll use a little
bit of wet-on-wet technique to do the stamen for at least one of those I'm
gonna let them dry for a moment and do some more detail work here I'm using a
bit of that burgundy pink because the leaves don't have to be green right they
can be pink they can be blue so definitely have fun with your color
palette think about if you were wearing a dress maybe you don't like green you
don't want green leaves and here I'm gonna go back in I've still got a bit of
wet paint there and I'm trying to create some depth and shadow and I'm also going
to at least for one use the wet and wet technique to give the look of the stamen
in the middle of the flower the other ones I'm just sort of adding more paint
to create the look of petals and then they've already dried so you can see me
using the wet on dry to create a stamen on the one flower and then here I'm
using wet and wet to create yet another stamen so both very different techniques
but they add equally great detail to these botanicals now here I'm just
layering so I've already got some leaves but I want to go back in and add a
darker leaf so think about the depth of color as you come to a close with your
piece you'll add you know a darker burgundy and darker blue or whatever
colors you're working in and that will really help the whole piece pop a lot of
water colors fade to a lighter shade as they dry so you'll go back in and you'll
add more depth of color to complete your piece
and that's what it looks like when it's all done you have layers of color and
botanicals layers of flowers and leaves it's a great way to practice your
botanical watercolor but also to practice your brush technique I hope
you've enjoyed the tutorial and that you found it helpful if you're interested in
picking up some of my watercolor clip art you can find a pack that I've just
released over on my patreon and since it's the beginning of March you might
also want to pick up your March printable planner layout that's also
available on my patreon page thanks for watching don't forget to subscribe and
I'll see you next week with a new tutorial!
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