How To Paint a Back lit Daffodil in Watercolor Full Tutorial Video Lecture

hi there Lindsay here the frugal crafter
I got a request from a facebook friend
on the frugal crafter community to paint
a picture of a daffodil that she had
taken that was kind of the light shining
through the petals of the dark
background so I decided that that would
be a wonderful thing to work on today so
the first thing we're going to start
with and I'm drawing with a blue-gray
watercolor pencil so I don't have any
lines but you can use a regular pencil
if you want to and I'm just gonna sketch
on my flower here so I've got a circle
to begin with hopefully you can see that
the other reason I'm doing this with the
pencil is because I know I'm gonna do a
Payne's grey background so I want to
make sure that this will dissolve and I
can draw a dark enough for you to see it
because I don't want to have big lines
that I'm done so I'm actually gonna
start with this stem that's just gonna
kind of Bend back here and there's a
couple little buds coming up I want to
put those in because I like having three
elements here just makes it look a
little more pleasing and then we've got
this area here where you can see that
there's um some shadow there the front
of the with a with the center of the
flower is kind of keeping the light from
passing through completely and then
we're going to get six petals around
here so again I like to go with my
compass analogy I just kind of put my
petals around as if I am working around
a compass I go across from each other
and I just try to capture the unique
shape of each petal but I just find if I
if I kind of go back and forth I get a
much easier it's much easier for me to
space them out properly and these petals
are going to be yellow very very pale
pale so I want to be careful not to get
too many lines where you don't want them
and might the tips of the petals are
pretty much just going out to the tip of
the circle all right so there I've got
my basic sketch in now what I want to do
is grab a large brush you can use a
flatter around doesn't matter something
that will carry quite a bit of water and
I'm going to wet the background
and you might want to tape this all the
way around so you have a nice border
when you're done I was actually looking
for my boy clean yesterday so after my
shameful uh desk yesterday that I shared
it on my deli paper video I decided okay
I've got a clean I can't even work and
if I can't even work in an area it's too
messy then that's really too messy and
so I cleaned and was so excited to come
down here and work and then I was
looking for my little piece of foam cord
that is just the right size for my
watercolor cards and I could not find it
anywhere and that's um gonna be my most
frequently lost item and it's like I
turn around I stick a little shelf
behind me I could not find where I put
it I must have put something on top of
it or something I'm still I know I'm
gonna find it as soon as I turn the
video camera off that's just the way it
goes so I just take a couple pieces of
tape and tape this down to my little
cutting board here and that will have to
suffice for today but I do think a nice
white border would look pretty on this
as well and the reason I'm wetting the
background paper is because the paint's
only gonna flow where the paper's wet
it's gonna follow the path of least
resistance and you know you're got it
wet if you can tip it you see that it's
all nice and shiny and I'm gonna use
Payne's grey that's a color I don't use
very often but it's a really lovely um
almost like blue grey mm-hmm so I'm just
gonna put that in there and I'm gonna
let it kind of flow around I'm not a big
fan of black or grey generally but I do
like the panes grace it's almost like an
indigo and I really wanted a rich
saturated dark color so that's why I'm
not mixing because I didn't have any
other colors in this picture that would
make a nice graph I was using like
crimson and emerald those would make
just the right grey that I wanted but I
didn't want to just mix two arbitrary
colors so I'm going to use a Payne's
grey and then I'll use that also to
darken up my SAP green because it's
almost like a blue that I'll be using
for the UM for the little buds there and
I'm just making an uneven kind of border
but if you're taping your paper then
you'll have a nice white border if you
do a nice even taping job around the
edge and I find that doing the
background first is a little bit less
intimidating than painting the flower
and then trying to go in around because
if you've
if you painted the flower and it looks
great you're not gonna want to risk
messing it up by going in and putting
the background so I like to do that
first
I generally I like to put my dark values
in first anyway because it's the same
reason I think that it can be a little
scary to get those darks in after you've
painted something and it looks really
good so just get it right out of the way
to begin with and and I think that you
can be a little bolder with it because
generally that's what I see if I see
something not working it's usually the
values aren't right the values aren't
dark enough is not enough contrast so it
touched my little Kindle screen there to
make it whoops oh my goodness I just
went to the wrong hold on a second I'm
not two pauses I just lost my picture I
went to go to wake up my screen and and
I totally went to a different different
picture but you know I'll deal with that
when we're letting this try I'll go find
it again I'm telling you what I
shouldn't be allowed near technology
let's finish up here before this dries
and you know you could use a smaller
brush if this larger brush is
uncomfortable
um bigger brush of course holds more
paint so I can get more done in less
time but it can be a little tricky to
get into these smaller areas all right
now if you want if you if this color
looks a little dull to you you can you
can not drop in some other colors but I
think that it's gonna because it tends
to be sedimentary you can almost see
that there's like little bits of blue
kind of wanting to separate and kind of
come out of this so I think that's kind
of cool if you feel like you want a
little more texture back there something
you can do is just kind of flick on some
water and you'll get some cool modeled
texture there and that will just be kind
of interesting just like the picture
showed us actually there's some
interesting little blooms there so I'm
gonna let this dry I'm gonna find my
picture again and we'll come back and
finish painting this up okay you can
kind of see how the how the background
dried after I flicked the water on there
and gave us kind of like little
starburst patterns there those are
called blooms it's what happens when you
flick water onto an area that's
partially dried that's still damp and
you'll get that cool roughly edged bloom
hee
the paper was dry underneath so you got
more of a defined engine here it was wet
or underneath so you got a softer edge
so that's why that happens all right so
let's start by putting a wash a very
very pale lemon yellow on the on the
flower I'm just mixing some out with
some water there so you can see what
we're gonna wet the petals and use
whatever brush you like this is a number
five or six this is a six round so you
can use that go up as high as a ten
round if it is a nice point on it
I won't go much I want to go smaller
than a five you don't want to get too
fussy with your paints so we have a lot
of contrast here because of the way the
light is shining through the petals
that's why we painted around the flower
and we didn't let any of that dark go in
there and I just want to put some of
that color right in there I think I
might want to warm that up a little bit
with some yellow ochre let's go and grab
some of that and some of that too some
of the areas here remember it's gonna
dry lighter if you get into the
background just don't clean your brush
off because you can cuz that's a
background color that we used is very
sedimentary and very easy to lift so if
you do get into the outside you'll want
to make sure that you clean your brush
off cuz it will run back now I'm going
to give it a little bit of texture just
by lightly tapping it and then these two
buds down here I'm going to paint with
SAP green mixed with a little bit of
that um
Payne's gray that we used and I just
refilled my SAP green so it's a little
gooey let's mix those together till I
get a nice dark
and there that's a pretty color and then
over to this one here and we are gonna
do the stab look but we don't want to do
that until until the petals are drier
it's gonna run into everything all right
so now let's dry this and I'll do that
right here with the camera running does
it really take very long and then we're
going to paint the center part of that
flower that we indicated at first you
sketched it out she'll show you that
warm drying maybe that center part
that's yellow okay that's the next part
we're gonna do that's kind of a shadow
from the cup part of the daffodil
goby can use a hairdryer too you don't
have to have a heat gun so for the
center part I'm going to use the lemon
yellow and the yellow ocher a little bit
stronger of a mix though yeah
the yellow ocher is a little bit warmer
and then I'm just gonna kind of tap in
it blue tips water on my brush tap that
in it's kind of a weird angle to be
painting from but it's very interesting
and I think it's really kind of cool and
remember even though it's an awkward
angle and something you don't really see
that off and photographed nothing is any
more harder than anything else to paint
so just keep that in mind you know when
you're when you're painting if you're
feeling like you're just not getting it
or what not now I feel like I want to
add a little something in there and it
looks like I probably should add a
little bit of gray so let me just add a
little bit of the gray on the palette
with my yellow and see what that looks
like because I yeah but it's kind of
going green so I was thinking green or
gray so that is going to a little bit of
green and greenish when I mix that up so
I want to add a little bit of that on to
some of the edges where I've got a
little more shadow and that's gonna help
us help it look like we are looking at
this from the back instead of from the
UH from the front just give a little
clarification it's you know you train
your eye to see these subtleties and
then I think I also want to add some
texture to the petals and I'm gonna do
that with my little bit of credit card
scraper here I just keep the old expired
credit cards add some definition on
these petals you don't need a lot just
something to show a little definition
and then I'm gonna do the green part of
the stem here because it's not touching
anything that is currently wet let's go
into that SAP green start here and just
bring it on down and I can overlap the
background a little bit because I want
to make sure my edges are nice and clean
there we go and I want to shape that out
a little bit I feel like it's a little
too uh she's skinny at the top and I
don't see I think I might add a little
bit more another layer that over here
too that's looking a little too
transparent and I know this paint is
transparent but I want it to appear a
little bit thicker a little bit more
heavy so that it really makes the petals
look very light and airy and then I'm
gonna use a little bit more of the
yellow over here and I'm just gonna kind
of flick in some veins from the outside
of the petals just to give it a little
bit more life so it's looking a little
dull there and then just kind of DAB it
so it's not too dark it's a little bit
too bright there it's a very subtle one
here when you're you're painting
something that you know is yellow but
you're trying to make but it looks white
and you're trying to make it look
realistic so there's a lot of you know
painting and removing involved but don't
let that dissuade you from trying
something challenging because it's it's
all the same it's all your painting
things no things are harder than other
things you're just gonna figure out a
way to approach it
approach it okay so let's try that
really quick
and the cord tangled around tripod
that'll be make a camera shake
right and then I'm going to do very
watery sap green and somebody yell o up
there for the this part in here when you
blot your brush off you can kind of
remove the water without taking too much
paint out which is handy and I feel like
I need a little bit more definition of
how it's going into the flower there cuz
it's kind of dark and hard to really
tell and then back to the credit card
scraper and throw in some veining and
then I feel like I want to switch to a
smaller brush right here I feel like I
want to do some more of the gray but I
feel like I want just a little bit more
shadow on some of these petals so I'm
gonna do that here with this really
really fine liner brush it is a what
number is that's number one liner it's a
folk art folk artists toll painting
brush actually go ahead this for a long
time I don't typically use really tiny
brushes so these tend to last me a long
time and feel free to turn your paper
around so you get it a more comfortable
angle I'm kind of taped down to this big
board here so it's not ideal but turn
return yours if you need to to make it
to make it work well for you and I'm
there I kind of like that alright so now
let me just take a gander at this I
think I'll peel it up for a second and
have a look and see what else it needs I
like it pretty well even though there's
no red represented I usually have a
little red in my pictures but I like
that alright I'm feeling like I just
need a little bit more maybe even a
little bit more of the yellow with my
liner brush here on the edges since I
know I'm not gonna be getting the paper
very wet now like
pull it up and it's kind of hold that I
don't have to worry about a buckling cuz
I'm not gonna be adding much water at
this point and I do like to be able to
turn it I gotta find my little piece of
foam core hard got another one another
tutorial that's gonna be coming up I'm
gonna show you how to stretch watercolor
paper so you can buy the thinner stuff
because I think it's better to buy a
higher quality paper and get a lighter
weight than to buy a cheaper paint paper
with a heavier weight and but if you
know how to stretch your paper then you
use the lesser expensive thinner stuff
and it'll still look really really good
and I feel like I need a little
something else on that stem I feel like
it's just needs a little definition it's
a little bit I don't know oh yeah got
that little that little part here and we
call it word it's kind of thick and
there I think that we can call that done
and if you can find a spot to sign your
name you'll grab that blue liner brush
know where to go there it is
I think I'll use a little Payne's gray
maybe a little SAP green and I let's put
my initials down here in the corner my
brush is splitting apart and I'm gonna
call that done so there you have it
a light-filled daffodil from behind
against a bat dark background I want to
thank you for watching and I want to
thank Lisa for sharing this photo and I
hope that helped you paint your
daffodils thank you so much for watching
until next time happy crafting and
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this Thanks bye bye