Hibiscus watercolor painting tutorial Video Lecture - Master the Art

hi there Lindsay here the frugal crafter
today we are going to paint this lovely
hibiscus picture by request using
watercolors and a waterproof pen and I'm
using the pasca acrylic paint pen you
can use any permanent pen that you have
such as a micron or a sharpie or Copic
or any sort of permanent ink pen but I
was just trying out this acrylic pen
just to see how it worked and the only
difference was that you kind of have to
shake it up and press the tip down onto
your paper to get it going first I'm
starting with the center of my hibiscus
just making um kind of like a wiggly
dotty circle and then I'm making the
base of each of the petals just by
making kind of double lines coming out
around the center now for each petal
it's kind of like a ruffle II wavy sort
of oblong shape now watch how I'm doing
this I'm gonna do about 3/4 of the of
the pedal there and then I'm going to
stop because the petals overlap each
other and I'm working in pen and I don't
have a pencil guideline so I really
don't want to make any mistakes and have
any weird lines so I am looking at a
photo reference on my computer and I'm
keeping my head still I'm just kind of
picking up with my eyes and peak it down
to my paper and so I don't get skewed or
distorted and I'm just sketching what I
see rather than sketching basic shapes
like I do typically if I am drawing in
pencil the reference photo I'm working
from is by Katrina over at paint my
photo and I will put a link in the video
description so you can find it now I'm
drawing a couple of leaves right at the
top of the flower now I used a little
artistic license and that's not exactly
where the leaves were but I thought it
worked a little better visually on my
paper here and I'm going to continue
adding a few more leaves to fill up my
space now the picture that I'm looking
at is more of a square orientation and
I've got more of a long paper here more
of a portrait orientation paper so I'm
going to show you at the end of the
video how I fill that in how I add a
stem and just kind of go from my
imagination to add a pleasing rest of
the picture I guess the best way to put
it actually I do want to apologize for
the voiceover I was live narrating but I
just was not on my game today and you
know several times like right here I was
just kind of talking with my hands not
really doing anything to the picture and
I'm like oh my word I'm not making
people sit through that
so I decided I'd speed it a little up
and speed it a little up speed it up a
little so you could watch it in a more
concise manner I'm using clear water and
a soft brush to wet the background
basically wet everything except for the
flower so you're going to go over the
leaves with water in the background you
want to be careful not to drag water
over the petals if you do it's not a big
deal I do in a couple spots but it does
you know it is nice if you can be
careful and not get the water into the
petals because the paint's only going to
travel where the paper is wet
the paper I'm using is kind of unique
it's a Strathmore aquarius - i believe
and the unique thing about this paper is
that it's partially cotton and it's
partially synthetic so it has the
appearance of paper it feels a tears
like paper but it's a little bit thinner
than watercolor paper as you can see I
don't have it taped down and I'm using a
lot of water and it's not buckling and
also that the paint tends to sit on top
of the paper rather than sinking in so
you get more of a vibrant look from your
watercolors I think you can still get
the Aquarius or the Aquarius - papers
available from Strathmore um I bought it
by the sheet many years ago but I think
it's still around it's kind of a nice
compromise between you PO and your
traditional like arches watercolor paper
you get the best of both worlds you get
those you get a papery paper but it's
also got that a bit of synthetic that
you know doesn't wrinkle it doesn't warp
and it you know keeps your colors bright
so it's just it's just a fun surface you
may love it you may hate it you know but
it's something that's fun to try and
this is one of those parts where I
wasn't doing anything and it's just kind
of docking apparently I'm adding a
little Indian or English red both of
those Reds are very similar very similar
to a burnt sienna and you could use that
absolutely if that's what you had I just
was in a huge creative rut and I needed
to just break away from my normal colors
and I want to thank everyone who leaves
requests because I had several people
this week requested hibiscus and I had a
couple people request earlier to paint a
hibiscus but I hadn't seen a photo that
I wanted to work from and I didn't have
any there there ain't no abyss kiss is
growing in Maine and January dear that
just don't happen
I mean they barely grow in Maine at all
and I've seen the plant I like the Home
Depot and I'm thinking you got to be
kidding me I'm gonna have that dead in
two days I'm not even gonna bother
taking that home now I've let it dry a
magic of YouTube and you can see how the
color does shift as it drives but I
still have a nice matte velvety look to
the color I really like that you're
going to want to wet one petal at a time
so I'm just doing this out big one in
the front now the reason you don't want
the whole flower is because you want to
be able to control where your paint goes
and I'm just using a number six
synthetic aqua on any like toll painting
number six synthetic brush would be very
similar it just you don't want anything
that's going to carry too much water you
want to be able to control it a little
bit especially on this paper and I've
got some kind of I would say alizarin
crimson but it really looks too fuchsia
it looks almost like an opera but I'm
not sure what the color is actually
called in yoga but I would say use like
a magenta or or quintic a drone magenta
I think I know I'm butchering that but
hopefully you can tell the word of
trying to say and I'm adding a little
cadmium Orange so I am just like going
to town with colors I usually don't use
just I'm telling you what I had my wax
melter on with some like tropical
pineapple ewwww yummy wax melts in it
I had my space heater blasting under my
desk and I'm painting a hibiscus with
crazy bright colors I was just like okay
I've had enough of like sub-zero Maine
January I need to break out of this rut
now I folded a paper towel and I'm just
kind of lifted up little stripes of
lightness on the petal just to give it
kind of that on that bow kind of light
paper II look and I'm scraping in some
more darker lines with my credit card
piece that I just kind of I just take
old expired credit cards and I just chop
them up and I keep them in my supply
drawer and I use those for whenever I
need to and you need to scrape lines
into my into my pictures I really like
that color you can see that it's subtle
I decided to go with a lighter colored
hibiscus rather than like one of the
bright reds or the bright fuchsias that
are more solid toned because I didn't
think it'd be as interesting to paint I
like it when a petal has like light
medium and dark values and you can
really see the texture
got like a like a crepe paper retexture
to it here I'm adding like a darker
color and if you notice it's underneath
where the adjacent petal is overlapping
it so it's on the underside and that's
just going to give a little visual depth
and a little bit of shadow under that
petal now I'm turning the paper
obviously though I'm wetting the petal
that's not touching the one I just did
and the reason for that again so we
don't have our colors bleeding together
where we don't want them and I'm going
to repeat the same process I did before
so this time I decided though I would
see it doesn't really matter what colors
you start with I thought I'd start with
yellow this time just for you know
something different and then I'm going
in with my magenta and we'll get some
orange in there as we go so yeah I was
ready for something something summery
it's nice it's nice too when you're in a
bright you can't think of what you want
to do to be able to look at those
requests and come up with some really
cool ideas and they're a little orange
and you can see that the pedal was
wetter on this one so the color is
really flowing here I'm guiding it a
little bit with my brush just kind of
dragging it around now if you had any
situations where you got some green into
the petals you can just use your magenta
nice and dark in those areas and it will
just like look like the edge of the
petal has a little extra shadow or a
little stronger and pigmentation it's
not a big deal so please don't feel like
you have to start over if your
background does it come out exactly the
way you want a background is a
background now I have finished the other
petals in the same method but what I'm
doing now now that that's all dry I'm
just taking a little bit of that magenta
water down and I'm dragging it in from
the edges anytime there's like an indent
on the edge of the flower I'm dragging
in some of that magenta or orange just
like a watery wash and it's going to
make it look like those petals can have
ripples and like crepe paper enos to
them so just go around there and do as
much as you want or as little as you
want or not at all if you don't want any
at all
you could also deepen the color if
you've got one petal that's a little bit
lighter like I had there you can just do
a light wash and also if you have a
pedal that you didn't really scrape
enough into you can wash over it and
then scrape on it too if you hear any
scratching and scratching in the
background it's not the credit card
scraper it's actually my cat's got to
get a scratching post right behind me so
Oh crazy little noises
I'm glad this isn't a sponsored video
because I can believe that crazy noises
in now to paint the leaves it's the same
way we did the petals you simply want to
just wet the petal with clear water and
you'll notice it's actually going to
liquify the pigment that you have under
there so if you had any weird blooms or
gobs of paint you didn't like you can
actually go in there and smooth it out
now I'm adding some more of that oxide
green it's either I really think it's
hookers green but they do have weird
names in the yucca paint line so it may
be called something like Russian green
number 12 I have no idea but it's like a
hookers green and I'm adding that close
to the flower and you know you could use
like SAP green with a little bit of
ultramarine or a little bit of phthalo
blue or pressure blue to it if you if
you don't have it and you want a more
similar color now I'm adding some of
that CAD yellow light or lemon yellow
any sort of like cool yellow that's a
yellow I'm using the whole way through
I think it's CAD yellow light because
it's so pink and then I'm just using my
brush to guide it around there a little
bit you feel free to you know go back
add some in blossom o until you get it
right watercolor is not scary it's not
permanent as soon as you put it on the
paper you definitely can play in it so
you want to just go around and do the
same to the other two pedals now here's
a trick since your paint is going to
stay wet a long time when you're working
went into wet and especially if you're
working on a paper that's got a lot of
sizing or some synthetic elements to it
you can actually paint several parts at
once so if I wasn't doing a video when I
first did those petals I would just grab
two petals that were across from each
other and pain them at the same time
like I'm doing here to these leaves it's
uh it saves a lot of time in fact a lot
of times when I'm painting I'm impatient
and I'll have like four paintings going
at once and when one is too wet to work
on instead of stopping and drying it I
just grab the next painting and I'll
work on that for a bit and I just kind
of trade it around now I'm just free
handing in a stem and I'm kind of
thinking that I need to do something
else on the bottom of this picture but I
do want to deal with these leaves while
the paint is still wet so I'm dragging
out a little bit of shadows and scraping
in as normal with my credit card scraper
because that's like my favorite my
favorite tool and then I'm pulling my
stem down a little bit further now pay
attention to balance when you're working
you can totally
a free hand you can totally add things
you don't have to be and you shouldn't
be a slave to what your photograph shows
you if you're working from a photograph
feel free to edit feel free to add feel
free to embellish you're an artist it is
your right to do that so I've just added
another little leaf here and a little
more color I like to have a lot of color
I like to drip color in and keep it
really pure and you know really washy
and loose and then after it's dry I can
always go in and add more details that's
me that might not be a comfortable way
to work for you but I would recommend
trying it just to see because you'll
never know if it's for you or not until
you try now I know the splattering is
not for everyone I really enjoy doing it
I think especially if I feel like one
side of the pictures a little too heavy
then um I splatter anything I want to
splatter a little bit of yellow into the
center of that picture too because the
center of the flower is yellow and that
just kind of looks like that pollen is
just kind of coming free there in the
middle of the picture and again use your
judgment if you don't like the splatters
don't do it you may want to do some
collage on there you may even want to
paint this in your art journal and you
know add some journaling there or just
sew over portions of it that's a great
thing you can do if you're not happy
with a with a bit of a paper a piece of
a painting just so over that puppy and
you know collage something there right
something there no no they think you
playing it that way you're the artist
you're in control it's your picture if
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watching I do appreciate it until next
time happy crafting