Watercolor hydrangea tutorial Video Lecture - Master the Art of Watercolour

hi there Linda here the frugal crafter
today I'm going to show you how to UM
draw or paint rather both painting draw
a mason jar full of hydrangeas I was
looking for some inspiration today so I
looked through my request list that I've
been going I've been keeping for months
whenever somebody asked if I will paint
them something or do a tutorial on this
or that I just have a list going in my
planner so I saw that somebody had asked
for her drain just so I thought well I
will do ranges today so I just basically
sketched out a little mason jar here
alright just looks like kind of like a
rectangle just a three-sided rectangle
with curvy edges and now I'm just gonna
throw in um a couple like almost pom-pom
shapes okay because when you're painting
a hydrangea or lilac anything like that
your you've got a very multi blossomed
or multi peddled flower so you want to
treat that kind of like the clump you
want to take the clump of flowers as one
um I'll just a little bit darker than I
normally would so you can see it it's a
water color pencil so I will be able to
dissolve it I'm using regular watercolor
pencils not the ink tents so I think you
can see that I'll bring it up a little
bit closer hopefully you can see my
lines there I know it's kind of bright
um but as soon as I get in painting I
think that we won't have any trouble so
one of many is for colors cuz hydrangeas
can be different colors I think I'm
gonna use I may use some mauve oh there
goes the furnace it's such a beautiful
sunny day out today but it's still cold
it's still February hopefully that's not
a that's not a problem for you and I'm
gonna do I think a little bit of
cerulean blue it's a color I don't use
very often you can use cobalt or
ultramarine if you don't have cerulean
just add a little more water to it I'm
gonna use something to get a little bit
of um emerald green for the for the jar
that over there I'm using my travel
palette of cotton paints because I
figured I could actually get my palette
in view for you and that would be a
little bit easier for you
and I'm going to start by wetting the
jar and you know you could do this whole
painting with watercolor pencils if you
prefer you could sketch everything out
and then liquify it with the water and
then if you needed to add more paint
just touch the tip of your brush to the
lead and do it that way
now emerald-green see how bright that
and transparent that is that would be a
more staining color and like your SAP
green or your chrome green so if you
want to blend you wanna make sure that
you have plenty of water right now I
just want to get kind of a basic color
there a little blue in there for the
water I like to reflect other colors I'm
gonna be using in the sketch here this
is going to be a quick painting it's
going to be under 20 minutes so I'm not
gonna worry about details or anything I
just want to get those colors in and I
didn't really like that blue that I had
sketched with so I'm gonna put a little
bit of that in there too this is I'm a
Derwent watercolor it's called
Kingfisher blue that's a color that I'm
using here
right I can go in add a little bit more
detail later but I just wanted to get
some some sort of color in there for the
time being
alright so now we're gonna go to the
flowers that's looking a lot lighter on
my monitor than it is on my paper my
paper is much darker so when I play this
back hopefully hopefully it'll look good
alright so what I'm going to do is just
grab some of this blue with my round
brush and I'm just gonna start dabbing
in some shapes over here okay the
interesting thing about hydrangeas is
that they can change color and people
think it's due to the acidity of the
soil and well it's somewhat due to the
acidity of the soil but it has more to
do with the aluminum in the soil and you
have to have a certain pH for the
aluminum to be able to be kind of pulled
up and extracted and it can like vary
quite a bit from area to area you could
have blue hydrangeas in one spot and
then like ten feet away I have pink
hydrangeas it's kind of strange
they can either the pink ones can go
blue and the blue ones can go pink but
the white ones will always be white so
it's very very interesting I'm going to
do some pink ones up here I'm going to
be careful here and here and here
because they're touching wet spots in my
picture and I'm just gonna put in some
blobs basically cuz when you're looking
at something like hydrangeas or lilac
something like that your brain cannot
see every single petal at the same time
we'll paint some with detail at the end
but to begin we want to one just get in
the basic shapes because your eyeballs
can't focus on every bit of that picture
at once I'm painting on Fabriano soft
pressed paper because I don't anticipate
I'll have to lift too much off here so
you can use whatever kind you like this
is just a what I would consider a
practice sketch so um so use whatever
you like
sometimes I get asked can I can I paint
on cardstock well you know I have like
you know stamped images and water
colored them on cardstock it's just not
going to take the amount of abuse or the
amount of water that watercolor paper
can take so I don't think it would be
that great for practicing techniques but
if you using it for a card or something
I can't you'd be fine I think I'm going
to add a little bit of marine blue to
that interesting color mixing there I
don't think I've ever painted a
hydrangea before this will be this is a
first first for both of us probably all
right let's see I think I want to get
some more I think I want to have a
warmer pink so what I'm going to do is
undercoat a little bit of yellow over
here spread that around a bit
and then going with my my mom so I don't
want to go Orange I'm just gonna put
some colors in there my jar seems to be
pretty dry the soft pressed paper
doesn't seem to blend as well so I can
kind of go right if it's something like
this or I want to paint quickly it's
actually a positive because I can go
right next to it and not worry about it
I'm gonna let those colors blend and
then I'm going to go in and add more
details later I really hope that furnace
isn't too loud in the background
I know sometimes I'm painting I get kind
of mellow and I don't speak up very loud
and let's see I think I'll do another
blue over here and I want to add some
shadow to that so I think I'll do some
ultramarine blue so it's a little bit
darker and a little bit I think I'll add
actually I think I'll put some of that
mob in there I think I'll put a little
bit that green in there anything that's
gonna make me a nice grey mix all those
colors
yes a nice gray blue kind of indigo
color so I didn't use my burnt sienna in
blue combination I use a lot because I
don't have burnt sienna in this picture
so I'm using colors I already have and
I'll be using that and other shadows on
these blue flowers and I think I'll do a
very similar color over here start off
with my blue
and mixing some of that gray color
grace funded cuz when you have a palette
like lots of color sometimes it's fun to
try the colors you don't necessarily use
I generally use the same six colors all
the time but it's fun it's it kind of
gives you a kind of out-of-the-box way
of looking at stuff when you go with
different colors alright while that's
drying I'm gonna focus on the jar a
little bit and I'm gonna use some of
this this grey that I mixed up um I
wonder is this helpful being able to see
my palette because I can totally use a
smaller smaller set for my little quick
tutorials I'm like that's easier for you
to see when I'm mixing up I'm going to
add this shadow here at the bottom now
typically I would turn this around to
have this closer to me so I could have a
little more control on this but I want
you to be able to see it kind of from
your perspective how you do looking at
it and I want to put a water line in
here I would say right about there now
my ellipsis may be completely weird and
off and strange and I apologize if they
are because I'm not looking at them
straight so so it's a I could be
completely crooked with these and I know
what I'm telling until I turn around
seems to look alright from here but
you won't know until where til I'm done
and I flip it around
it's a little strong I'm gonna soften
that up a little bit with some water
and I think not liking this so much here
I think I want to actually maybe just
wet this whole thing oh I have to this
is too wide over here so I need to blend
that out before it stains I need to I
could tell that's a mistake already I
could tell it doesn't look great so I'm
just gonna go in and obscure it you get
rid of it jars are one of those things
that a lot of times the more you do it
the worse they get cuz you you get off a
little bit then you try to compensate
and then you're way off I'm just gonna
throw in some juicy watercolor here cuz
cuz I am alright a little bit the stem
in for that and I think I'm gonna grab a
little SAP green for that
and
throw it in though a couple and I help
care if it blends out because I do want
to be a little bit distorted from the
from the water and I might actually end
up putting some Brown in there after all
I don't know we'll see I think I can
actually make my own Brown I think I'll
take some of that yellow I had used
which was a cadmium yellow medium and
add some of that mauve to it and you can
get myself a decent brown that way maybe
a little green added to it see that you
just kind of kind of make your own mud
and sometimes it's a good thing like
when you want to make a brown I haven't
used any red but the mob is kind of
replacing a red here so I'm going to add
some of that in there yeah looks pretty
Brown there I know that I had it in
and I think I'm gonna put some of that
in amongst here could you be able to see
some stems and stuff and I want to put a
few fluffy leaves and I'm gonna use that
SAP green again and I think I'm gonna
put I think they're kind of like
heart-shaped leaves kind of the point
getting water at the top I think that's
what they have so I'm gonna throw a
couple of those in there remember this
is just a sketch it's an exercise gets
you ready for a day of painting or in my
case a little uh a little time to create
a little bit for my kids got home my
house was just a wreck and I had to I
had to tend to that before I could come
downstairs and play and I only have now
like an hour before the kids go from
school so it's like I I need to I need
to paint something what am I gonna paint
don't you hate it when you have time and
you can't think of what you want to
paint or what you want to create that's
so frustrating a good thing I have the
request list that's all I can say
all right foreshadow on that I'm use
some ultramarine blue and some of that
SAP green to give me kind of like an
evergreen color I'm just going to add up
near the flowers so it can kind of be
kind of like a shadow because it's
tucked in the flowers are blocking some
of the light to it and I can get my
brush any brush has a beveled edge like
this or kind of piece of credit card or
whatever I can scrape in my veins into
the wet paint
can you go over a little bit if you
don't feel like it's dark enough
I get a little bit darker of a line if I
use the kind of piece of credit card I
do notice that and also notice that my
cotton paints are a little bit lighter
than the Engram
I generally paint with if I'm using a
big pallet because the Engram are
artists quality and they've got a little
bit more pigmentation but these are fine
these aren't bad paints at all
or shot over here
so this paper you really need to kind of
get in there while it's wet if you want
them to blend you have to kind of work
about it but that's kind of what I
needed here for a tutorial
oh great oh I won't have a little bit of
a shadow on the table uh someone's of a
shadow is it as a reflection so what I'm
gonna do is just add some and add some
water down here it's gonna have soft
lighting nothing too strong so I'm just
kind of adding water all under the end
of the base pull it up a little bit so
you can see a little bit better and then
I'm just gonna kind of add any any of
these colors I've used already
it's a very soft look here I'm showing
you a lot of little cheats is what I'm
doing because these little cheats are
how you paint quickly kind of like a
magician you fool the eye but you know
you just kind of put in these blurry
little um blurry little lines and your
brain puts it and put the rest of the
picture together it's just a little
crafty cheat so I made great I took that
Brown that I made with a little
ultramarine blue and I'm gonna add that
really really close touching and that's
going to give me that just a little hard
shadow and that's going to fade away to
nothing I can go and add some of that to
my my faces walks I try to repeat my
shadows here and there so I don't end up
with anything that looks really out of
place or discordant I decided that while
I'm doing my painting tutorials I'm
going to just kind of throw a little
smattering bits of kind of arts enos you
know explain why we do certain things
and instead of it being so hit or miss
because when you've been painting
forever you don't think about you know
composition as much as you know when
you're starting out you're trying to
figure out why some pictures look really
good and some just look awful so I'm
going to try to add some of that's that
info in as I'm working all right
it's a little harsh
so you just I remember to wet year any
areas that look a little harsh and
you're just let them out okay so to do
the flowers hydrangea flowers generally
have four petals per each little flower
on a hydrangea has about four petals I
think I'll zoom in just a bit since
you've seen me do all my mixing I don't
think you need to see that any more
necessarily so I think this will be the
easiest one to show you on and I'm just
gonna kind of draw few of these
individual little puddles
okay then I'll just let my brush I'm
just kind of
pull in the color
okay you don't want to go to define just
do a couple full flowers and then just
throw in a few petals after that
I'm using just mah but I'm letting the
colors underneath kind of show through
okay you got to let the now let the let
your underpainting do the work okay and
now I'm just throwing in kind of Wiggly
lines cuz your brain sees the two petals
in front and we'll fill in the rest of
the blank so it'll say oh yeah that's a
hydrangea look at all those petals she
painted in there well no I painted like
two flowers and the rest are just
squiggly lines but nobody needs to know
that except for you know you guys right
right it's our little secret that we
used to know that how easy this is I
don't mind telling you how easy it is
and then maybe I can put one more full
flower in there and I'm still using that
same number six round brush this is
actually cotton brush um I just have to
make sure I'm very careful not to leave
any of these wooden handle brushes in my
water I typically use the plastic handle
blends because um if they get left in
the water overnight the wood isn't going
to swell and the bristles come loose or
anything like they can with the wooden
handle months so but these are nice they
come to a nice point they're very
affordable too which is nice as are the
echelons that I also use I am NOT a
brush snob I like synthetic brushes
because they're um they don't support
the fur trade and quite frankly they
work very well all right and then if I
want to put some little centers on there
I'm trying to Rack my brain here I think
that the centers on the on those might
be yellow so I'm just gonna hope that's
the case and dabbing a few just little
yellow spots here and there cuz we're
just you know we paint one thing and eat
down the rest we just kind of trick
everybody okay let's do a blue one
before we run out of time it's uh yeah
eighteen minutes here so I've got about
a minute and a half I'm gonna do a
little bit of ultramarine blue and ah
ultramarine blue and cerulean blue again
we're going to paint one or two flowers
and do another one over here
you know nothing fancy
wipe off our brush and drag the color in
and so you're gonna do this for every
flower if you have to add go and add
some more color go ahead and put very
much on there anything getting a little
more all right so what I'm going to do
actually I think I'll pause the camera
so I have a little time left and then I
will do the same thing for the you know
the rest of these and then come back and
show you the finished one so just hang
on I'll be right back in a couple
seconds okay I'm starting with that
pause we're rolling uh I wasn't sure um
so what I've done here I just took a
little bit of that dark that I had mixed
and I'm kind of going and adding a few
shadows um I did the same kind of
scribbly technique with the background
like I showed you before kind of like
that you know just to kind of give the
further away from you the flower is the
more random and squiggly you want it to
be