Magnolia watercolor tutorial Video Lecture - Master the Art of Watercolour

hi there Linda here the frugal crafter
with a very quick and easy watercolor
tutorial for you by request I was asked
to paint a Magnolia quite a while ago
from a viewer so I thought I would do
that this morning I am the first one up
in this quiet households I figured it's
a great opportunity to get this tutorial
done before the busy Sunday begins so
I'm just clipping a watercolor card down
to my piece of foam core and we're going
to begin with a sketch and watch the tip
of my pencil here I'm going to draw an
oval here this is going to represent
where my flower is going to be I'm
drawing that really light so if you just
look at the tip of my pencil you can see
where I've drawn it now in the center
I'm going to put the center of my
Magnolia which is kind of like a almost
looks like a Christmas tree light bulb
type shape and then I'm going to throw
in this large dominant petal in the back
it has a little curved petal there so
I'm just sketching that in I'm going to
put in this larger one out to the side I
want to put this one in here towards a
front that is kind of turned up a little
bit
Magnolia petals have such a lovely shape
to them I want to put another one over
here that's very similar to that you're
kind of seen the side of it one in the
front and I never draw the flower the
same way twice so they'll always be a
little bit different this isn't going to
be exactly like the one I just showed
you it'll be a little bit different but
that's alright that's kind of how it how
it goes each time you draw something new
unless you're tracing a pattern which
you can do if you really like a sketch
you could sketch it out onto a copy
paper and then copy it out each time you
want to do it I want this flower to be a
little bit loose a petal to be a little
bit longer here there we go and I can
actually leave that little turn in there
and I think I want that one out a little
bit more extended and then I'm going to
put it in a couple leaves to balance it
out
and I think I'll also put in maybe a
branch okay and I'm going to use my soft
white eraser that I mentioned in my last
watercolor tutorial just to soften any
lines and erase any ones I don't really
need and I'll just brush that off over
the floor all right now we're gonna wet
the background with a large flat brush I
like to use a number eight I mean I'm
sorry a number 12 or 1 inch wash
actually a 12 mil thick is the three
quarter inch wash and number twelve is
actually a half inch wash so I'm just
going to wet the paper and you can see
my palette over here I'm going to use
some CAD yellow I'm just going to throw
that in in the background this is a wet
into wet wash so all my edges are gonna
be nice and soft
we need some SAP green here don't go
over the flower
area with the SAP green because you want
to keep that fairly light but you can go
over the leaves if you want to I just
try to leave the petals try to leave
them alone and I'm going to be using a
little bit of grey that I'm going to mix
up with some burnt sienna and some
ultramarine blue get a little green on
my brush already that's alright it's
going to blend in anyway I'm just going
to throw in some darker areas towards
the bottom of my canvas or paper has the
case maybe
and if you want you can even throw in
some some watery ultramarine blue on its
own I like to add a lot of the colors
that I'm never using on these first
stages that way it just kind of makes
everything go together now if I tip it
you can see where all my colors are now
if you do get any green or blue on the
petals themselves I'm going to take a
tissue or paper towel and you can block
them I think I did a pretty good job
here I do have a little bit over there
so block that up a little bit and then
you can use a hairdryer or a heat tool
to dry it or you can just let it dry on
its own I'm gonna use my heat tool dry
it and be back in a second okay that's
dry I finished over to my
round brush and there my furnace is on
again but I'm going to keep on rolling
I'm going to set my pallet up I'm
putting some alizarin crimson some
ultramarine blue some cadmium yellow
some burnt sienna
and already got some SAP green hair but
I'll put a little bit more out and there
those will be the colors that we're
using today we're gonna stick to those
colors we have five and I'm going to
start by painting the center area I'm
just wetting it slightly and I'm gonna
pick up my yellow cadmium yellow towards
the top my burnt sienna towards the
bottom if you feel like you have too
much water on your brush just just set
your brush against a paper towel and
then I'm going to take my secret tool
here my kind of piece of credit card
it's everywhere you want to be I'm gonna
slide just kind of scrape in the details
at the bottom of that of that flower you
can see that there that's really all you
need to do right there for now
and then I'm going to mix up some color
for the Magnolia now nine aleeah's can
be whiter they can have kind of a purple
to tinge to them I really like the
purple so I'm going to mix up some
ultramarine blue and some of my crimson
and get that nice plum color that we'll
use for the flowers and we're also going
to have a lot of that warm yellow on the
flowers too so we have to be very
delicate so that we don't have too much
yellow and purple overlapping because
then we'll get mud if we do that let's
see it'll look at this this petal is in
front so I just want to make sure I have
it a little abrasive a pencil mark there
that I probably should have erased but I
want to get some of these warm on
yellows towards the the interior of the
petals so it's kind of like the light is
reflecting off the stamen color and
giving us this yellow now that I've
placed the color in am actually rinsing
off my brush and dabbing it off and now
I'm going to spread it and blend it a
little bit
going use a bigger brush I've got a
number six round here if you want to use
your number 10 round go for it sometimes
I just like to put the color on and then
start blending it around with a just a
damp brush it gives me a lot of control
and it helps me when I don't want to put
too much color down and helps me really
control that now if I feel like I've too
much I can always just kind of DAB it a
bit with my with my paper towel or
tissue but that gives it a nice glow if
I tip it away from the light there a
little bit I think I might just keep my
hand under here because I feel like I'm
getting a lot of glare from one of my
lights but when I move it I don't seem
to get enough light all right now while
that's drying I'm gonna go to the green
and I am going to paint in my leaves you
did what the leaves first but um I don't
really need to it's up to you and I just
gotta remember what's a pedal and what's
a leaf that gets me confused sometimes
there we go and if you want you can use
your credit card to back your brush to
scrape in details on the leaves now this
is kind of cool I'm going to add um we
just put the other leaf color in here
I'm going to add some shadows to the
leaves by using that purple mix because
it'll actually give me a decent a decent
shadow because red and blue make the
purple and red is actually the opposite
of brown but I don't want to just use
red because I'll get kind of muddy color
so if I use if I mix myself with a nice
dark purple then I will get a really
nice nice shadow in there and let's have
a very very lively shadow which is kind
of what I like I don't like just have
like black holes and my work I like to
have nice lively shadows get a little
bit more blue there but that's up to you
if you don't if you don't like that then
you don't have to do it this is
something that I like I like have that
unexpected that a color in my paintings
even if it's just a little card like
this it still gives me a little bit of a
little bit of a liveliness that you
wouldn't necessarily have and I'm just
kind of dabbing and dripping the color
in there and letting it do its thing
that's great thing about watercolor it
will really do some fantastic stuff if
you just leave it be and let it do its
thing and since I have so much color in
there I think I will grab and actually I
say this is from a scratch art kit my
kids are doing all this scratch I got a
good deal at oriental trading on some
scratch art and so each little kid that
I bought had like 12 scratchers and X
they were like classroom packs and I was
saying who can I use those for and I'm
like always saving junk I have like
probably does in Sykesville and read
cases that I think I'm gonna make some
jewelry out of and so I was taking these
I'm like oh wow that I can make hair
sticks out of these scratchers and this
morning I was having my coffee and I was
looking at these I was like you know
what I bet there was be just great for
describing texture into a into a
painting it would be a little bit
thicker than using credit card but
better than using the scrapers on the
back of some of my brushes so um so
there this is me using it for the first
time right here with you guys um pretty
cool I got a little bit of a blob there
I got we'll lift it okay now I'm gonna
go onto some of these petals that and
I've got a little bit of a spill there
I'm not that worried about it I'd almost
just want to leave it cuz I kind of like
what the paint's doing but I'm gonna
blot it out just because I want this to
look halfway decent I'm doing a video
and I want to you know make sure you're
gonna get what you want out of it um now
I'm going to add some of this pale
purple that I made with the crimson and
the ultramarine to the edges of some of
these leaves I kind of it's kind of a
little anti intuitive usually you have
your darker colors in the shadow areas
but I found no I don't have any
magnolias growing around here because
I'm in Maine but um whenever I look at
pictures of magnolias it seems like if
you've got some purple on it seems like
the insides of the flowers are more of
your golden buttery yellow and the
outsides tend to have the pinkish
pinkish purple so that's kind of what
I'm trying to achieve here I'm also
trying to not spill into all of that and
that color I just put on those leaves in
fact it probably should take a break in
and Joey let me blend out these colors
I've just put on then I think I will dry
my paper
oops yep see I just got into that I
think I'm gonna have to dry it
let me just soften out any colors I've
already put on first though like that
crimson will tend to stain a little bit
more than any other colors I'm using so
I want to make sure they don't have any
hard edges all right I'm going to dry
this it would be back and we'll finish
this up I gotta get those leaves on my
control there that is bleeding
everywhere so we dry it and be right
back all right it'll be a little easier
for you to see - if someone have all
that glare all right so back to the
purple that we mixed we're gonna use
that by the way I'll show you my water
bucket here look on one sides really
yucky and one size really clean
I have two buckets of water or a divided
bucket like this I use one side to wash
my brushes and the other side to pick up
fresh water for my for my using on my
paint to mix and stuff like that so
that's a little tip for you that was one
of the first tips I learned I sometimes
forget to share that because it's so
second nature but you really want to do
that it'll make a big difference in your
painting alright I want to make sure
that petal gets divided and separated
from the other one a little bit I'm just
using the ever-so-slight estoy list bits
of paint he's a little wet brush to drag
that over right now I'm just putting
that in there because I need that
definition not that you'd really have
that purple on the inside of the petal
um put a little bit over here so kind of
a balancing act just getting because
we're painting a flower that's
essentially white or very light so we
want to just get a little hints of color
in there and really you don't need to do
too much to a beng mealea I'm going to
dab in a little bit of red and burnt
sienna around the top to kind of add the
little details to the tip of the steam
in there and also just kind of darken up
the bottom a little bit and I want to
put any branch so I'm actually going to
grab some burnt sienna right from the
cake of color and I'm going to paint in
this is really juicy because I'm going
to blend some other colors and do it I'm
gonna paint in the stem if you want more
detail on your brush use it at a 90
degree angle with your paper and you'll
get much more detail and if you get that
color into the flower where it's still
then use a pick towel to blot it off or
Kleenex tissues work really well I
always have a box tissues going over
here and usually I'd forget to bring my
favorite towels well-versed I've usually
got tissues going instead of paper
towels and there we go you can add a
little green to that too if you want a
little more complex of a color and I
charge us to kind of drop it in and let
it do its thing because you don't want
to have mud even though this is brown
I'd rather have a lively brown than a
muddy brown and even add a little bit of
yellow to that to add a little bit of
highlight and the key is less is more
don't overdo it
I know it's hard to weigh I had a viewer
ask one you don't want to stop Lindsey I
always do the one extra thing and then
it looks horrible um stop before you
think you're done and look at it the
next day and then you'll bring tell you
what you really need now I like to add
some like kind of flecks of color if I
feel like I haven't had enough I haven't
represented a certain color enough in a
painting that I'll flex some color on I
really wanted some more of that lavender
II pink kind of color so I'm going to
flick on some of that maybe you go to a
bigger brush I can have some bigger
splats of color get nice and juicy and
you know sometimes if I feel like I know
enough green or yellow that's a color I
put in um and I'll put in several colors
I just whatever I feel like this picture
needs
I will flick it in if you don't like
this you don't have to do it this is
complete it's completely voluntary
whether you do this step or not I happen
to like it but if you feel like you've
just painted a masterpiece and you
really don't want to risk ruining it
then don't do it you know that's
absolutely fine
there you have it painting a Magnolia
don't forget to sign your name or your
initials because you work so hard you
totally deserve to put your name on that
um and I'm just going to put my initials
I don't like to put it right in the mail
I think I'll put them right over here
and if you hold your brush at I have too
much water on here if you hold your
brush at a 90 degree angle you'll get
much more control over it for printing
and I'm too much water over here but
that's alright I kind of like that you
see look there you go there you have it
a Magnolia in watercolors please try and
have fun if you have any questions leave
a comment and I'll help you out and if
you do like this video please give me a
thumbs up subscribe share it and thank
you so much for watching until next time
happy crafting