How To Paint a Peony Flower in Watercolors {Easy Tutorial} Video Lecture

good morning friends it's Lindsay here
the frugal crafter and we're gonna paint
a picture of a peony today and I just
wanted to first go over some new paper
I'm going to work with today this is
Strathmore 400 series watercolor paper
it's fairly inexpensive and you can find
it at any of your big box art and craft
stores now this is a block of paper
meaning it's unlike a pad that's loose
on three sides it's actually bound on
all four sides therefore eliminating the
need to stretch it
so that's your something that you may
want to consider it's usually a little
bit more than a pad but it's worth it
for not having to stretch it or tape it
down now on the edge you'll see a spot
on one of the edges where there's no
dumb tape and what you do is you slot
when you're done you slide a palette
knife in there and you just slice it off
the top and the next sheet is ready to
go we're going to begin by drawing with
a watercolor pencil you can use a
regular pencil too I'm just using a
watercolor pencil so I can draw a really
dark and and then not have to worry
about my lines there after so what I'm
going to do is start with kind of like a
semicircle here okay I'm going to start
drawing my petals a little bit darker
but I want to get that this a focal
point flower here and I'm going to put
we're kind of seeing it from the back so
I'm going to put the kind of the back
area where the stem is going to touch
right in there
and then I'm going to throw in a few
leaves this is a peony flower by the way
the one of they're some of my favorites
my mother has a bunch growing in her um
in her backyard she has a green thumb my
sister has green thumb I skipped my
generation apparently but it was funny
we had big plans yesterday we were going
to on drive to New Hampshire and go to
Santa's Village and we've been planning
this for a couple of weeks
um and wouldn't you know severe
thunderstorm warnings all day yesterday
and so we decided we'd still get
together but we would skip driving that
far and we were just hanging around the
house and oh we had a really fun day um
I was really funny cuz my nephew who was
not yet five he's always been a little
leery of me I'm not sure why my mother
thinks it's because I represent
Authority which I find just totally hard
to believe but um but I think it's the
fact that I have three kids so I don't
put up with anybody shenanigans and and
you know he's an only child so you know
he's always testing to see what he
and get away with and and uh last a
couple weeks ago we found a snake in my
mother's basement and I unlike a lot of
the other people weren't afraid of it
and I actually touched it and I'm like
okay go put in the field let it go and
so then I think now in his mind
I am the fearless woman who will help
him obtain his goal of having a pet
snake so we went on a trek to find a pet
snake yesterday it was so funny I'm
gonna start a list a little bit of an
edge will flower here just kind of off
the page I'm just putting in some wiggly
petals mm-hmm you see all I'm doing here
is just Wiggly lines within my shape and
that's really all it is to to draw these
petals so I wanna put a background and
I'll get back to my snake store in a
minute so to paint my background what
I'm gonna do is just wet my bucket the
bottom of my bucket was not very clean
I'm gonna brush that right off there um
I'm just gonna wet the background here
and the cool thing about water color is
the paint's only going to go where the
paper is wet so go ahead and wet your
paper don't worry about it getting into
the flower a little bit um but really we
want to mostly just wet the background
so that our flower will stay nice and
bright I am just gonna kind of gently go
over the edge of the flower because I
want to I want I don't want it to stand
out like a sore thumb when we go to
paint it so that's fine - we just soften
that up a little bit on the edges we
just want the majority of the flower
though to stay dry so that we can
control our paint on there later all
right so if you tip your paper like that
you'll see that it's shiny wherever it's
wet and that's what we want go over near
the stem a little bit more and we're
going to add some ultramarine blue up to
the top here just going in I like to mix
it on your palate a little bit first
like I'm doing here because that way you
won't end up with a big glob on your
brush because once you if you get over
like a concentrated glob on your paper
it's very hard to control so I'm gonna
go ahead and throw some of that in here
don't forget a little where you don't
want it just give it a little give a
little blot went a little crazy without
there that's alright not Fairless
remember I'm the fearless snake oh yeah
so what we want to went all around the
property looking for a pet snake for my
young nephew
yeah like what are we gonna do if you
actually find this his mother's not
gonna be impressed so I asked said your
mother's not gonna want you to have a
pet snake
well we're gonna put in the cage on the
porch oh I see that sounds like a
foolproof plan
oh yes luckily I didn't find one my
sister would not have been happy
all right so mixing a little else burnt
sienna and into my blue and making some
gray and we're gonna put some of that in
around remember this is just a
background it's gonna dry so much later
so really don't fret if it looks a
little dark it's gonna be lighter but
better just it's so much easier to do
the background now because you don't
have to worry about messing up your
painting so you get to be fearless like
out Lindsay be fearless like out Lindsay
then I grab a little SAP green here I'm
really gonna water that down that's
pretty pretty bright and I'm gonna add
some this in here I'm just gonna kind of
go around to the edge of my flower and
let it spread around and this is at this
point I also like to add in any colors I
contemplate or I think I'm likely to use
in my painting so that way I'll have a
nice harmony throughout the piece Oh dab
in my SAP green a lot more at the bottom
here can use some more of my ultramarine
blue with that too and that will darken
it up a little bit without making it
muddy and that's kind of nice to throw
in here at the bottom I just basically
like to get something down I don't like
a stark white background but um you know
there's nothing wrong with a bat a white
background if that's what you like it's
going to give us some contrast these
flowers going to be very light pink so
we want to make sure we get some
contrast there and it's so much easier
to get your background in when the paper
is wet than to try to put it in later
because then you end up with these
awkward edges so I'm just trying to help
you avoid that I want to add a little
bit of yellow and I think I'm going to
go with a cab yellow light or you can
use a lemon yellow just a nice bright
fresh springy yellow a cool yellow a
warm yellow would lead more towards
orange a cool yellow is more towards
green just throw some of that in there I
just want some nice soft edges and then
I want the illusion of some more flowers
in the EM in the background so what I'm
going to do is actually just get some
you can use mob you can use rose
whatever you plan on using for your
flower you can dab some of that in into
the wet paper just kind of put some
splotches back there if you get mud just
wipe off your brush and put some more in
you can always blot it out if you get if
it gets like to to gray I don't really
mind that but if you don't like that you
can just simply blot it out with a clean
paper towel I feel like I want a little
bit more ultramarine up there in the sky
so I'm gonna go in and add some of that
before it dries I want my background
very soft and blendy so that's why I'm
working wet into wet so whenever so I
get asked that a lot when do I always
have to work a wet background no you
don't you can do whatever you want but
if your backgrounds wet your colors will
blend and it'll be soft so just keep
that in mind if you want a soft blended
look make sure your papers wet if you
want hard edges make sure your papers
dry you know that's it ends all it's all
up to you how you want to do it all
right I'm gonna let this dried and then
we'll come back and we will paint the
peonies okay the background is mostly
dry it's try enough for this um for this
purpose and what we're going to do is
now grab a small like a half inch flat
brush and I'm going to start working on
these petals in the center so I'm just
going to wet this pedal and as you can
see it's already pulling some of the
color that I sketched with so it's kind
of pretty and what I'm going to do is
add some color to the center on the
stamp petal I'm using that same mob that
we put in the background you can use a
rose or whatever color you want I'm just
going to add it here into the center
here at the base of the petal and mom is
too kind of a staining color so so we
dampen the pedal first so that well
it'll help it blend and then I clean my
brush and just blotted it and then I'm
just working over the edge so it would
blend out so it's such a technique to a
nice blended petal there they are now
what I can do with my credit card
scraper tool which I have over here I
can just scratch in a few vines a few
veins I mean
gives me a nice subtle look and if I
want I can go in with a little bit more
to accentuate it right there in the
center let it seep into those lines see
when you paint over it you really get a
nice uh really good a nice detail there
and bring it up so you can see I'm going
to do the same treatment on on the other
petals as well I like to skip though I
like to go next door so that I don't
spread out the paint there I noticed
that this paper it's not blending - it's
not um it's very easy to control your
paint on this I hadn't used this in a
while so I thought I would get a pad of
this when I was placing an order for
some frames and other supplies I figured
I would I would throw this on the X it
was um it was a good price and I know
it's an easy to find affordable paper I
know that I don't even feel like we
really need to blend too much because
it's already pretty blended I'm just
gonna soften it a little bit gonna go
one in my scraper scrape in some of
those veins I like to vary each petal a
little bit so that it they're all just a
little bit different and then you can
see that paint just kind of gather and
soak into those those scratches because
really when you scrape your kind of
damaging the paper but it it's you're
using that to your advantage
now I also feel like I want a little bit
of shadow in there so I'm going to grab
some of that ultramarine add it into
some of that mom it's going to give me
like a purple color and I'm going to put
that in there that's kind of going to
give that a little bit of a shadow since
there are brighter petals here at the
top and I want to have a little bit of
contrast there so look at the
ultramarine in there to give that a
little bit of a shadow and I think it
won't do the same thing to one of these
petals in the back here I'm just
actually going to go right in there with
the that mix paint a few of those
because they don't really need to be I
don't need to spend quite as much time
on every single petal and if it gets
into all that green it's just going to
make it grayer I'm not worried about
that life's too short to worry about
your your paintings you should have fun
and I think I'll just grab what I have
left of that gray and just throw in just
a little bit right in there all right
now it looks pretty sloppy but don't
worry Bo uh we'll wrap pull it all
around here and down here on this flower
which is really not our focal point I'm
just going to go ahead and wet the whole
thing and we've got our pencil marks
that are going to help us keep our
definition and I'm just going to add
some of the mob to that maybe a little
bit brighter here at the bottom let it
blend up I don't want this one to be as
pronounced I'm going to put some SAP
green in there leaf there I think well I
have my SAP green out I'll actually put
the stem in for this guy I'm still using
that 1/2 inch brush but if you prefer to
use around you can go ahead and use
around and I want to put some of the
leaves in um so I'm gonna grab my sorry
I'm a little froggy I'm a little froggy
in the morning I apologize
mmm excuse me I'm going to start by
having my brush kinda right up against
the stem and then I'm gonna press it
down and these are kind of long petals
i'ma twist and lift as I go now if that
is to say me in color then I can grab a
little bit of my ultramarine and I can
add that just kind of drip that in for a
little bit of a shadow and it helps it
look a little more lively so you can do
that and you'll need quite a few of
these and feel free to turn your paper
around if you need to I find it's a
little bit easier for me to pull a leaf
towards myself than it is to go the
other direction and if you do it in one
stroke which that one didn't come out
quite right quite right for one stroke
but if you can do it one stroke it does
it does look a lot more natural and you
can use any kind of combinations of
yellows and greens to do these leaves
it'll just kind of look like the sun's
hitting them more if it's good it's got
more yellow it'll look a little bit more
of a mature leaf if it's
more green if it's got more blue than
it's got more of a shadow in it nuts you
know just do a variety of them gives you
a lot of plants here and that's just
going to help add a little interest to
your background that's why you don't
worry it's about too much time with the
background because because you're going
to cover a lot of it up so you might as
well you know practice get that practice
in get kind of break the ice a little
bit enough those first things you do
that make do the back wet and wet the
Rabb know that HA wet and wet background
first and break the ice for that and
then um and then as you get more used to
it you kind of refine as you build up
there we go oh my goodness I'm in
archival words today who go back to my
snake story we did not find a snake we
looked all through the field who looked
up against the buildings um we we found
a couple holes which we think might have
like a hedgehog or um I had almost or
something but we did not find any
anything of interest although my nephew
was happy to to bring home whatever he
should find wherever sort of rodent or
Eno she should find I think my sister's
very relieved that I didn't find
anything all right so let's go back into
mob here and let's go what um water pail
is a cool thing about the inktense here
by using it as a as a sketching medium
is that once it once you've done that
first wash over it it's actually going
to it's actually going to be permanent
once it dries so that does have a little
bit of an advantage over just a
traditional watercolor pencil but I have
to say I really like having the option
of both inktense pencils and watercolor
and of course we don't have either go
ahead sketch it with pencil you don't
need to have you need to have it is fun
if you're kind of wondering what to ask
for for your birthday if you're a
painter if you're watercolor painter
some inktense pencils is a great a great
addition to your kit I think just plain
watercolors is the best way to go if you
don't have anything I'm take a little
bit of that lemon yellow now or cadmium
yellow light I'm gonna add quite a bit
of water to it on my palette here let's
see I can bring that over I'm adding
water to it I don't want to have it
really really bright and I'm going to
blot it even on my
paper towel and then I'm just going to
give it a little bit of wash here at the
top of the petals and that's just going
to warm it up and make it feel like the
sun's hitting it so like it's trapping
some of that light and I just want to
get that tips of those petals just blot
your brush and wipe out any if it's too
bright just blot your brush and wipe it
out I just want I like having that that
warmth in the flower do a little bit on
that one too and that's the thing you
don't need to add detail to everything I
think we you know when we're painting
we're like oh well we're gonna look at
everything get it add detail to every
little thing know you detail one thing
and then everything else will look
natural that's I kind of a mark of an
amateur painting is is to see everything
in sharp detail it looks very flat you
need to have some things detailed and
some things need to be fuzzy so that it
looks like the way your eyes see things
even the way a camera seat sees things
if you look you know a beautiful
photograph usually only part of it is in
focus and the rest is kind of out of
focus I'm just going in adding some
shadows with my mom now I'm gonna be
careful not to go over that purple too
much because mauve to go over the yellow
too much because mom is kind of purply
and purple and yellow are opposites and
they'll make mud so got to be careful
about that same thing with that yellowy
green that we're using them I'm gonna be
careful that we don't let those mix up
too much or we're gonna get mud so I'm
just going in and adding some dark and
around the petals wherever I feel like
it needs a little contrast and I like
that more of the purpley color up into
the center of the flower that's
generally how they generally get a
little bit lighter out to the petals and
there's building up some of that color
going in behind some of those petals
and you know just kind of DAB until ya
take a pee all right now I'm going to
work on this um this part right here I'm
going to start by with a damp brush just
kind of liquefying the pencil marks here
now if you're not using a pencil you can
just wet the the these little leaf areas
and then I'm going in with some SAP
green I'm just going with the color kind
of spread out I'm going to try to keep
it away from the flower if you wanna let
the flower dry first before you do this
go right ahead I just want to keep this
video under 20 minutes it's looking like
I might be able to achieve that or might
do it over because I hate to edit and I
hate to make you suffer through a long
video you know you say you don't mind
still alright now I'm gonna let this dry
and we'll come back and we'll finish it
up alright I want to define my stem a
little bit so what I'm going to do is
I've cleaned my brush off and I've
squeezed up the extra water and I'm just
lifting the stem a little bit there so
the stem comes all the way up to the top
of the flower and I'm going to add a
little bit cadmium yellow in there
alright it brightens it right up then I
want to put a unifying wash over the
flower because now that I look at it it
seems a little too um to start to me so
I'm just brushing clear water over the
entire thing gently and maybe avoiding
the yellow a little bit at the top and
I'm going to do a really light wash of
the mauve use whatever pink you were
using or purple or whatever you're using
for that just a very soft wash over
there because it's looking a little too
too hard edge to me and if you want to
add some more detail you can use your
credit card scraper just to go ahead and
throw in some veins and I think that's
really all the detail you're going to
need for this and do a little bit of
that wash back here just be careful to
avoid the green and really you don't
really need to add too much more of this
I think maybe I'll put a little bit of
detail down here onto this flower I'm
just going to use my brush I'm getting a
half of it in the mauve and I'm just
going to kind of go around and
accentuate some of the petals so I hope
you liked this tutorial please give me a
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questions leave them below and until
next time happy crafting