Materials:
*Daniel Smith Essential Mixing Kit Watercolors (This is a great set if you know you want to paint for a long time to come and if you want to get really good at mixing your own colors)
*Porcelain Palette - The plastic ones don't tend to wash off as cleanly and the paint beads up in a way that you can't really see what color you mixed. I also love that you can leave your paint on this palette, let it dry, rewet it and use it again the next day or week or month ect! You could also use a simple white plate if you already have one of those at home!
*Brushes - I used the AIEX detail set for this painting
*Paper - I used Master's Touch 4x6 for this project (I use the back of the paper because the front is weird) it is super well priced though because it will go on sale for 50% off pretty often
* Watercolor Pans - A lot of people suggest moving tube paints to pans and letting them dry because it helps you use less paint. I chose to put mine in these little tins and then I wrote the name of the paint on the bottom and glued a paint swatch sample to the top. I love that they are really easy to store this way and are easy to travel with! You can also use them straight out of the tube so this is optional!
* Mini Spray Bottle - Optional - Spraying your dried paints with a little bit of water before you paint makes it much easier to lift off color.
*Two Water Cups - Empty Jelly Jars, spaghetti sauce jars, whatever you have on hand
*Thin Dish Cloth or Paper Towels - Great for picking up paint if you went too heavy
*Pencil and Eraser
Other Notes:
* If you feel like you added way to much water or color dab it gently away with your wash cloth
* Leave white spaces, this is an easy way to give your painting dimension (and you can always fill them in later with a light wash if you don't like them)
* Use one cup of water for rinsing and the other for getting clean water
* Watercolor dries much lighter than you may think so if you think you laid down too dark of a color, it will probably still dry fine
* Try not to mess with a "mistake" usually the more I try to fix something, the worse it looks! If you just wait for it to dry and look at it later you can address it then! Most times mine dries fine and I think, ok I like that now!
* Your brush should have enough water on it so that your color moves easily and you can get good coverage, but not so much that your color pools out instantly on your paper, this just takes practice.
* If you feel like a color is too saturated and you want to tone it down add a little bit of the opposite color on the Color Wheel (complimentary color).
* Be careful when mixing with French Ultramarine as it is a "Granulating" color. These colors tend to separate on the page which is awesome in landscapes and other less detailed projects but tends to frustrate me when working on close up detailed projects.
* To make brown mix three primary colors.
* At the end of your project tell yourself three things you like about your painting, this habit has been a game changer for how I perceive my paintings!
Step one is to draw the outline of your project! You can print off the template below or draw your own freehand!
I only drew the stems and petals of the poppy onto my watercolor paper so I would have freedom to do whatever petals I wanted.
And then I erased my lines until they were barely visible (you can't erase once you have painted over a pencil line).
At this point I like to mix all the colors that I think I will want for the painting using the handy mixing chart that comes with the Daniel Smith paints. It's insane how many colors you can make from primary colors!
I chose to mix up a Purple (Quinacridone Rose + Phthalo Blue), Green (New Gamboge + Phthalo Blue) and Orange (Quinacridone Rose + New Gamboge) but you can choose whichever colors you like best!
Using the number 3 size brush (I used this size brush the whole time) I painted the lupine petals first by making vaguely heart shapes for the petals that went up the stem in rows and then at the top had only one little petal to finish it. I also added some tiny lines that look like super small petals on a few of the edges to suggest more petals on the other side of the flower.
While the lupine was still wet I added in a little bit of green going up the middle to show the stem. Nothing too obvious, just a stroke here and there and then a small squiggle at the bottom that could be a leaf or shadow or whatever, I just liked it! I like doing the stem when the flower is still wet because the green bleeding into the purple is really pretty to me!
Then I did my second lupine but for this one I added a little more blue into my purple so that the lupines wouldn't be identical which would look a little flat and unrealistic.
Time for some poppies. I started with the larger poppy keeping in mind that I drew the underside of the poppy to be showing. (So it will probably be darker because it is shadowing itself.)
For my orange color I had one section of it remain a bright non diluted mixture and then to the side I added a lot of water to give myself and really light version of the color. Then I started painting each petal one at a time.
For each petal I took the lighter orange, outlined the flower, lightly rinsed my brush (so there was still some orange on it), filled in the petal (leave some little white gaps that pointed towards the center of the flower), then picked up some of the darker orange and dabbed it into the base of the petal (since that is where it would be darkest due to shadows). I also made sure to leave a little white spot in the middle of the flower which helps the flower show its form.
Then I while my petals were still wet I dabbed in my green to the center of my flower where the stem attaches to the petals. This help give a smooth transition between the orange petals and the green stem. I still avoiding the dead center where I had left my nice white negative space.
Maybe a smidge more green!
Then on to the second poppy! Since we will be able to see the center of this flower I left a nice big empty space to add in some poppy seeds!
Then I added in a nice simple stem for the first flower, still leave my center white spot intact. Filling my brush up with a good amount of paint and water so I would have enough to get me through the whole stem in one stroke. If you want a really thin stem hold the brush more upright and apply very little pressure. If you want a chunkier stem tilt the brush a smidge and apply a hint of pressure.
You can tell I didn't have quite enough paint/water to make it down the stem before I started getting white spaces, but I kind of like how it looked so didn't try to fix it!
For the poppy leaves I followed the same outline and fill process as we did for the petals. Outlined with my green then filled with a slightly rinsed brush, leaving some white highlight gaps. Then I added a little blue to a small portion of my green and dabbed that onto the bottom of edge of the leaf. The second leaf I made thinner, as though it was facing away from us, and followed the same process.
Then I added a small connecting stem from the small poppy towards the base of the first stem.
Lastly, the little bud! For this guy I drew the stem and the "Y" shaped base.
Then lightly rinsed my brush and filled it in leaving a small white gap near the top for a highlight. Then I dabbed in some blue/green near the base and let that spread in the wet paint.
I also used the dark purple to add little dots to the middle of the second poppy for its center! You could also mix a gray using Pyrrol Scarlet and Phthalo Blue.
Lastly I added some blue/green scribble shadows to the base of the flower with very watered down paint!
After that I like to let it dry and if anything needs to be touched up I address it then! It's really good for me to step away though or I can really turn it into an overworked mess!
All done! If you make your own version of this tag me on insta because I would love to see it!
All tutorials shown on www.LaurenChaseCo.Com are intended for personal use only. You are permitted to sell your painting from this tutorial but please give credit to the tutorial by including "Tutorial by www.laurenchaseco.com" on the back of your artwork. This does not permit you to make prints or sell more than 5 originals of this design.
留言