How to Paint a Sunflower in Watercolor Video Lecture - Master the Art

hi there Lindsay here the frugal crafter
within our territorial buy request we're
going to paint a sunflower today so what
I want you to do is I got a piece of
just a watercolor card clip to my piece
of foam core here you can use a sheet of
watercolor paper whatever you like I
would like you to start by drawing a
circle the size you want the center of
your sunflower to be you can use a
pencil I'm using a watercolor crayon
pencil just because I want to keep the
lines dark so you can see them but I
want them to wash away I want to go to
paint them and then the easiest way I
have found to put my petals on is to
kind of think of it as a compass and I
put a petal at north south east and west
that way you don't end up with all of
your petals leaning because sometimes
you'll you'll start going along starting
on one side and then all of your petals
will start to tip one way or the other
and you don't really realize it until
you get all the way around and or half
way around then you get to start over
so that's I like to do just to kind of
keep my petals a little bit random you
can have some having have twisty tur
turns on them and you know whatever you
can have some bent over curled over try
to keep it kind of random you don't want
every petal to look the same because
they don't they're always kind of
different different shapes I like to put
a couple layers here just to make it
nice and full now when you have a stock
and some leaves so I'm just going to
start they usually were fairly big stock
I'm not going to go all the way off the
paper I'm just gonna kind of bring it
down a little bit and I think I'll put
maybe I'll put a put one up kind of high
they kind of a jagged jagged leaves I'm
gonna have some kind of poking maybe a
leaf poking back here you don't do too
much detail cuz you are going to add
paint after all you have one kind of
that's a little bit sideways three
leaves are nice groups of three look
kinda kind of good groups of three
unless it's poison ivy then that's not
so nice it or any odd number or if you
have you know more than five doesn't
really matter because you're not you're
not really going to notice that maybe
more up here get a lot of leaves on this
one why not why not it's good to see
things that are that are growing huh all
right and um you could put a background
in I'm not gonna I'm just gonna go ahead
and do the flower and I just got my
little tiny box of colors here my little
cotton travel set I'm gonna start by
wetting the center of my flower and I'm
going to drip in some yellow ochre I'm
going to use some burnt sienna which is
a nice warm Brown in there I time to
refill my pallet this is my travel
palette that's why I tend to take with
me
I don't always refill it with a common
color sometimes I use my artist colors
like my Emma Graham paints and we're
gonna let that dry I'm gonna go ahead
and work on some of the leaves and
there's a little rule of thumb if you
want you colors to blend and be really
watercolor II lookin and a little bit
lighter wet your wet your what the area
first because then the colors will drip
together and be really pretty if you
want more intense color if you work on
dry paper with lots of juicy pigment
then you'll have you'll have a darker
color because it'll be less water to
evaporate that's where you get the
watercolor shift in the colors and
watercolor because your pigment is
evaporating
not right to get the stock in there well
mad at my not all right I'm going to use
some SAP green because I've already used
that green and I like to keep to the
same colors and I'm just kind of tapping
my brush along the edge so that I get
that those nice jagged edges in I
haven't done just a plain watercolor
painting tutorial for a while and I had
a request yesterday and it's like oh my
gosh I haven't done that in a while I've
been distracted with other stuff I tend
to go in little tangents I might do all
kinds of mixed media or all kinds of
jewelry or something like that and then
I'm like oh that's right I haven't done
the knee just plain watercolor in a
while loved to do one of those I'm
wondering how my video schedule will be
this summer I'm really planning on any
nice day just hitting the beach really
just enjoying the weather I'm taking
some ultramarine blue and I'm going to
mix it out and add a little bit of green
to it so I can have a cooler green I
didn't want to dip into Viridian I know
I'll use ultramarine somewhere else so I
like to keep using the same colors over
and over again so that cools the
temperature down it makes it nice and
shadowy looking
I always try to stick with the colors I
begin with and that way my color my
paintings have harmony this is a great
exercise for those of you who have a
hard time loosening up because it's
going to be a very quick tutorial you
don't have to worry that you're out of
wood you know hours and hours and hours
of work it doesn't come out right you're
just doing very quick and easy fun
tutorial school years winding down it's
hard to believe a shepherd on a field
trip yesterday we got a bit a really
nice day for it I'm so glad we've had
such a cold the kids I usually when you
chaperon I'm chaperoning usually
chaperone my daughter's classes my son's
you know could care less I'm chaperoning
and they usually put you in if you had
daughters they usually put you in a
group of girls it's usually not mixed up
and this time they mixed it up so
chaperoning boys too
and oh my gosh can boys cover a lot of
ground holy moly I was so tired by the
time I was done and this one little boy
who just you know did not slow down for
anything he tells me at the end this was
the most awesome built remember like I'm
gonna go home and take some leave cuz I
don't me to feel this in the morning I
think I went up and down every flight of
stairs and in unfort Knox oh I was
feeling it so luckily I'm not sore today
but boy oh boy it was fun now is a nice
day alright so at this point let me you
know what I'm gonna grab the little
credit card scraper tool which is right
over here
and I'm gonna add some details
and I want to add that little wine with
that leaf has folded over I don't go too
crazy with this there's like two you
know some of those details out of the
way
and like I probably go ahead and even
paint some of the shadows and around the
petals right now and I take a nice dark
brown I'm going to take my brent sienna
and I mean a little ultramarine blue to
it the thing that you notice about the
cotton paints is that they for some
reason this set I don't know why seems a
little bit the colors are very pure and
vivid but they're they seem to be very
pure but they also seem to be a little
bit lighter in hue I'm not exactly sure
why that is cuz my other my bigger
cotton palate doesn't seem to be the
same maybe I'm just getting more water
on this I don't know all right so I'm
gonna blot my brush off go way too much
water in there look every more water
than I and I should have to paint try
that again
there we go I'm just gonna go in and
some of these petals that are kind of
behind in the creases I'm just going to
go in and add some dark that'll just
help them have a little definition as we
go there and let me see if I can put a
little bit of detail in there well it's
pretty pretty wet in there still what
they guys probably dry that more green
in there inside the center though all
right I think I'm going to dry this with
the heat gun want to pause it we'll come
back when it's drying we'll finish it up
alright something I want to show you
here that's kind of cool look at the
little ruffly edges inside this leaf
here that's called a bloom a watercolor
bloom you'll see it over here I love the
way those look and the reason that they
dry that way is if you have like a big
puddle of color and and like the edge
here one engine dries quicker than the
center and that's how you get that
ruffle and it's just kind of a cool way
you can control it sometimes sometimes
it happens unexpectedly but that's just
one of those little happy watercolor
accidents I love I'm gonna grab a little
lemon and I'm going to go in and paint
some of these areas with just a lemon
lemon yellow so I'm actually using going
to be using three shades of yellow views
yellow ocher I've used a lemon yellow
and I'm also going to use a little
cadmium yellow but there's our
sunflowers I really want that punch of
vivid yellows rather than anybody any
muddy mixes so and I'm going to grab a
little bit of the cadmium yellow which
is a little bit warmer if you don't have
cadmium yellow you could use um gimm
beause your new gamboge just going in
and adding some of these nice rich
colors not mixing them too much I'm
working on dry paper actually because I
want my colors to be very vivid and
they'll blend in with the Browns I have
underneath that's fine on the far back
pedals and I want to make a more richer
orange yellow so I'm going to take some
gamboge and some burnt sienna
rather than bringing in a new red I'm
going to use the burnt sienna which is a
grout the Brown we've been using but
since it's very red I can use that to
kind of deepen a color and get a little
bit of an orange eNOS to it I don't want
a bright orange here anyway I just kind
of want something to kind of bridge
those petals down to the center of the
flower especially those ones in the back
put some in here and there I'm going to
go into some more brighter yellow - I
just try to keep my color lively when
I'm doing a quick watercolor like this
I'm going to go back in this little
lemon and just fill in any of the spots
you've missed you can always go and add
more shadows later just let's get the
color in there right now
you might find you don't want to touch
it up at all later and you might find
you do want to I'll just get that color
in there to base it down
all right now the center that flower I'm
going to work on that a little bit while
I'm at it grab a little bit ultramarine
- juicy just tap some in the middle tap
a little SAP green in there - a little
bit brighter
and I'm going to do a little bit of
brown around the edges and then that's
just going to kinda
help it get some texture actually for
the really good texture then we'll grab
an oil painting brush that one I was
using to scrub out and like coastal
landscape and just kind of a tap at a
supercilious is going to do some good
texture any stiff brush will be fine for
that and it won't hurt this guy brush
you wanna do this with your good
watercolor brushes but what's fine for
that it's fine for an oil painting brush
or a kids you know those plasticky kids
paint brushes and I want to add a little
bit of the shadow around here on the
edges I'm just using that same dark
brown that we mixed earlier it was the
ultramarine blue and the burnt sienna
just to put a little shadow and a little
definition there just keep repeating the
same colors alright now I want to do a
little bit more to the leaves I'm going
to take a little bit of the blue
ultramarine blue and the SAP green which
is that cooler darker mix yes put it
under here I don't listen for a second
the third I heard a funny sound I am at
my chickens in their run today because I
saw a fox I was walking the dog this
morning just walking across the street
walking across the street looking owns
the joint like oh boy they're getting
brave they start cat wandering around
this cat that I've seen chase the Fox
before which is kind of interesting I
saw some Fox actually I didn't see my
kid saw a little Fox babies down the
street and on somebody's yard so they
are they are everywhere right now okay
look at this for a second hmm see what
else it needs
maybe some more shadows in the further
behind petals get some of that darker
brown and just you know refine a little
bit I don't like to fuss with a with
these quick watercolor cards too much so
think they lose when you fuss with them
too much you kind of lose their vibrancy
you want to kind of make them seem fresh
and
there may be just a little bit more feel
like I need a little bit more definition
right around here don't need too much
ill and to look like it's outlined just
wanna have a little bit I'm just very
gently tapping with the tip of my brush
tapping with your nice watercolor brush
just be gentle with it and I think
that'll do it I'm gonna sign my name I
think I'll use a little bit of
ultramarine blue that had that mixed in
with so much stuff I'll just put my
initials down here in the corner there
we go I hope you enjoyed this tutorial
if you have any questions please leave a
comment below and if there's anything
you'd like to see me teach really do in
a video a painting of this or that or
whatever just leave a comment as well
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until next time happy crafting