How to Paint Cluster Blossoms in Watercolor
Purchase a pad of #140 cold pressed watercolor paper in 11" x 14" size., Set up a palette using tube watercolors in at least two shades of violet; red violet and blue violet., Select a #10 watercolor brush that comes to a good point., Assemble other...
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: Purchase a pad of #140 cold pressed watercolor paper in 11" x 14" size.
Spiral bound is good because you can open to a new sheet and by leaving it attached, the pad's backing can serve as a support board.
You will be lifting and tilting the paper to help the paint mix. -
Step 2: Set up a palette using tube watercolors in at least two shades of violet; red violet and blue violet.
Add brown, green, yellow, blue and red.
Place the paints around the edge of your palette and leave the center clear for mixing colors. , It should also spring back to shape when the damp hairs are bent.
Also, get a liner brush with long, flexible hairs., A pencil, a large container of water, tissues, and a scrap of terry toweling to hold your supplies and for wiping excess water from your brush as you work., To paint lilacs, simply elongate the shapes slightly. , Mix diluted puddles of yellow and blue on your palette.
Lightly tint one side of each ball with yellow to represent the sun, or the light source. Have your strokes varied and feathery.
Have them conform to the globe shape of the flower.
On the opposite side away from the light source, do the same thing, only use blue, to represent the area shaded from the sun.
Dry the paper thoroughly, using a hairdryer if you wish. , Have the circles jammed close together and touching in places and spaced slightly apart in other places.
In life, each little, round flower has tiny petals, so think of that and make the outlines irregular as you draw.
No need to get exacting about the petals, let them be suggested and compressed in some areas. , Carefully wet, with plain water, one of the small circles representing a tiny flower within the large blossom. Move to the neighboring circle.
In places, leave dry paper between the two circles and in others let them touch. Continue wetting the circles with plain water, being careful not to wet areas in the negative space because wet will attract wetness and you will lose the illusion of little flowers and get one huge mass, losing definition.
If an area you wet earlier begins to dry, wet it again with a drop of water from a clean brush, keeping the water contained in the already wet spot. If you look at your paper on an angle, the water spots will appear to be standing up slightly from the page.
Try no to jiggle the paper. , Touch the pasty violet paint to one of the wet areas on the flower. Water will carry the color throughout the entire wet spot. Repeat using slightly different shades of violet as you go. , Watch as the color from one wet shape quickly moves along the bridge and into the neighboring area. Continue to paint the flower by carefully wetting more small circles, and bridge them with tiny, wet lines. If areas begin to dry, use the tip of your brush and gently add more water to existing wet areas.
Carefully tip your board to help the water and paint move, mix and mingle.
The goal is to make the color leech into neighboring spaces and travel on the channels you have created. , Paint some of the tiny circles using the wet method described above but alternate by painting some of the tiny flowers in a traditional way, by filling your brush with color and applying wet paint onto dry paper.
After a bit, you won't need to draw circles, you can paint the little flowers free-hand., Use a liner brush filled with blue, brown and/or green and outline the little flower.
Immediately drop on water and work behind the little blossoms, painting the space around them., Add minute touches of pigment directly from the colors you squeezed onto your palette.
Try incorporating bits of red, yellow or blue and let these mingle with existing colors.
Again, drop in more clear water to help color travel over the flowers., Hold your brush back along the handle to loosen your grip and achieve realistic looking branches. , Quickly it paint with a stroke or two of yellow.
Then, go over the area with blue and/or green.
The two will form a shade of green that looks much more realistic than if you used straight green pigment.
Use a combination of both wet and dry painting for leaves.
Use green pigment from the tube sparingly. , Or, let the leaf dry and paint veins with slightly darker pigment., Allow to dry thoroughly.
If colors have dried lighter than you intended, add touches new of color, keeping the paint diluted and transparent.
Be sure to do this on thoroughly dry areas., To put in a background, simply wet areas around the flowers and leaves with clean water applied with a soft brush.
Touch the wet edge with color and watch as it travels on the water to all parts that are wet.
Coax and guide the background color into smaller areas with the point of a damp brush.
Pale gray, yellow, or blue are all good background colors.
Just keep it simple.
Allow the flowers to be the main focus. -
Step 3: Select a #10 watercolor brush that comes to a good point.
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Step 4: Assemble other items.
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Step 5: Lightly sketch three or four large balls to represent hydrangea's blooms.
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Step 6: Make these blooms appear rounded by "under painting" the sunlight and shadow right on them at the start.
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Step 7: Break up the surface of each ball by drawing in pencil small circles to represent the many flowers comprising a blossom.
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Step 8: Challenge yourself to see if you can make the water carry the color from the top of the large round blossom to the bottom.
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Step 9: Touch the tip of a damp brush into violet paint that you have squeezed out on your palette.
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Step 10: Help the colors mingle by making little bridges of water with a thin
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Step 11: damp brush tip
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Step 12: creating paths for the paint to travel along.
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Step 13: Move to the next blossom.
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Step 14: If you want to make a white blossom
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Step 15: simply paint the negative space and leave the tiny flowers alone.
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Step 16: Heighten the colors while it's still damp.
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Step 17: Make woody
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Step 18: irregular stems with brown paint
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Step 19: fatter in areas that hold entire blossoms and tiny when glimpsed through the blossom.
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Step 20: Paint leaves to fill space around the blossoms by wetting a leaf shape.
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Step 21: Add veins to the leaves by scratching into a damp area with a sharp edge of a credit card.
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Step 22: Continue painting blossoms
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Step 23: branches
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Step 24: and leaves until your page is filled.
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Step 25: Add a background
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Step 26: if you wish.
Detailed Guide
Spiral bound is good because you can open to a new sheet and by leaving it attached, the pad's backing can serve as a support board.
You will be lifting and tilting the paper to help the paint mix.
Add brown, green, yellow, blue and red.
Place the paints around the edge of your palette and leave the center clear for mixing colors. , It should also spring back to shape when the damp hairs are bent.
Also, get a liner brush with long, flexible hairs., A pencil, a large container of water, tissues, and a scrap of terry toweling to hold your supplies and for wiping excess water from your brush as you work., To paint lilacs, simply elongate the shapes slightly. , Mix diluted puddles of yellow and blue on your palette.
Lightly tint one side of each ball with yellow to represent the sun, or the light source. Have your strokes varied and feathery.
Have them conform to the globe shape of the flower.
On the opposite side away from the light source, do the same thing, only use blue, to represent the area shaded from the sun.
Dry the paper thoroughly, using a hairdryer if you wish. , Have the circles jammed close together and touching in places and spaced slightly apart in other places.
In life, each little, round flower has tiny petals, so think of that and make the outlines irregular as you draw.
No need to get exacting about the petals, let them be suggested and compressed in some areas. , Carefully wet, with plain water, one of the small circles representing a tiny flower within the large blossom. Move to the neighboring circle.
In places, leave dry paper between the two circles and in others let them touch. Continue wetting the circles with plain water, being careful not to wet areas in the negative space because wet will attract wetness and you will lose the illusion of little flowers and get one huge mass, losing definition.
If an area you wet earlier begins to dry, wet it again with a drop of water from a clean brush, keeping the water contained in the already wet spot. If you look at your paper on an angle, the water spots will appear to be standing up slightly from the page.
Try no to jiggle the paper. , Touch the pasty violet paint to one of the wet areas on the flower. Water will carry the color throughout the entire wet spot. Repeat using slightly different shades of violet as you go. , Watch as the color from one wet shape quickly moves along the bridge and into the neighboring area. Continue to paint the flower by carefully wetting more small circles, and bridge them with tiny, wet lines. If areas begin to dry, use the tip of your brush and gently add more water to existing wet areas.
Carefully tip your board to help the water and paint move, mix and mingle.
The goal is to make the color leech into neighboring spaces and travel on the channels you have created. , Paint some of the tiny circles using the wet method described above but alternate by painting some of the tiny flowers in a traditional way, by filling your brush with color and applying wet paint onto dry paper.
After a bit, you won't need to draw circles, you can paint the little flowers free-hand., Use a liner brush filled with blue, brown and/or green and outline the little flower.
Immediately drop on water and work behind the little blossoms, painting the space around them., Add minute touches of pigment directly from the colors you squeezed onto your palette.
Try incorporating bits of red, yellow or blue and let these mingle with existing colors.
Again, drop in more clear water to help color travel over the flowers., Hold your brush back along the handle to loosen your grip and achieve realistic looking branches. , Quickly it paint with a stroke or two of yellow.
Then, go over the area with blue and/or green.
The two will form a shade of green that looks much more realistic than if you used straight green pigment.
Use a combination of both wet and dry painting for leaves.
Use green pigment from the tube sparingly. , Or, let the leaf dry and paint veins with slightly darker pigment., Allow to dry thoroughly.
If colors have dried lighter than you intended, add touches new of color, keeping the paint diluted and transparent.
Be sure to do this on thoroughly dry areas., To put in a background, simply wet areas around the flowers and leaves with clean water applied with a soft brush.
Touch the wet edge with color and watch as it travels on the water to all parts that are wet.
Coax and guide the background color into smaller areas with the point of a damp brush.
Pale gray, yellow, or blue are all good background colors.
Just keep it simple.
Allow the flowers to be the main focus.
About the Author
Kayla Ford
Enthusiastic about teaching home improvement techniques through clear, step-by-step guides.
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