Want to paint something pretty today?
These mini flowers are the perfect practice subject to build your confidence
and get you painting something you're proud of.
Hi guys, welcome back, my name is Shayda and today's watercolor tutorial is designed for the absolute beginner.
We're going to get you painting even if you've never painted, even if you have really cheap supplies.
I myself am using a Canson watercolor sketchpad, and I have a 48 pan watercolor paint set from Mungyo.
And then my brush - I'm gonna do all this with one brush.
It's a number 2 pointed round brush.
You might want to grab a 1 or a 0 if you're just getting started - it's helpful to have a really, really tiny one.
But all of these supplies are linked in the video description if you're interested
Now I'm starting by mixing up a nice, warm green. This is a mossy green that's in the palette.
But if you don't have a mossy green
maybe just mix in a little red or brown into your green and then I'm mixing up a nice hot pink so,
dark pink with a little bit of red, and we'll start with a rose.
For this little flower
you're simply going to paint a tiny little pink spiral
and then get the paint off your brush and come back in with water and sort of bleed that
circle out put a little bit of extra paint at the center and that's it!
Let's do it again - little broken spiral - messy spiral, get the brush wet and
then bleed that circle out - bleed the paint out and then come back in with just a little more pigment and
put a little in the center. A very loose rose.
Then I'm using that green that I mixed up and I have a bit on the tip of the brush
I'm adding some stems and then I'll use the same brush and I just add a bit more pressure
I pull the brush across the page,
and whatever sort of shape emerges, that is my leaf and then to finish the first one,
we simply take a little bit of that pink and dot some more pigment at the flower's center.
Okay, next one, this is a fun one.
You are going to paint a couple circles and then we're going to join all those circles
maybe do one more with these tiny little lines and we'll give that a stem. Let's do another one
I'm going to start with the circles here and
then we're going to join them all together. Maybe do one more and
at the stem, maybe a leaf or two and this is the sweetest,
simplest little floral.
Next I'm mixing up a rich, mustardy dark yellow.
This is a yellow with a little bit of brown in it.
If you don't have a color like this in your palette just take a nice sunshine yellow and add extra brown or orange.
And then I am going to come over here and do these tiny little four or five petal flowers.
You can see I just sort of pulled the brush across the page. I allow whatever loose shape to emerge
it could be three, or four, or five petals and
these are some very loose, very tiny, little flowers. We're going to paint a whole bunch of them in a cluster.
Some are smaller. Some are bigger. Some are just a basic little heart shape.
And then I am coming back in with a dark green. You could choose any sort of contrasting or darker color
we're adding stems. And again, we're adding leaves and I make those leaves by
pulling the belly of the brush across the page.
I kind of just go with whatever shape emerges.
And if you need to, flip that page upside down
if you prefer to pull the brush towards your body give yourself that advantage
Next I'm mixing up a really dark, rich, purple and for that color I'm mixing purple and brown together.
I want a really rich, warm shade,
and then i'm going to start again in green with my stems.
We're going to do two, or three, or four little lines here for the stems. This is sort of a lavender flower and
You're going to come in with that rich, dark purple, and just do these little pairs of ovals little oval brushstrokes
you can either pull the brush towards you or
push it away from you and just allow the brush to kind of hit the page and just leave it at that.
You can do some more watery brushstrokes as well to get that nice
watercolor look and just put a little extra pigment into the wet area
and let it bleed out and it looks nice and loose.
For the next flower we begin with a stem and I'm going to do kind of a "Y" shape,
so two stems that meet, and then I am adding a bunch of little leaves - same formula
just pull that belly of the brush across the page, allow a loose shape to emerge, don't overwork it
and you can add as many leaves as you like.
And then up at the top of each stem here,
I'm taking a peachy blush color
and I'm just pushing that brush away from me doing these easy loose brush strokes to make a flower.
While I've got that brown mixed up, I'll also add
stamen on the yellow flowers by doing a bit of dotting, and maybe I'll add a few
little lines to these brown leaves as well.
Our next flower is a Daisy or a Black-Eyed Susan. We're doing some dotting and brown for the stamen.
Then I come back with that yellow and I just pull that
brush towards me, make these loose petal shapes.
You can do four, or five, maybe add a little extra pigment,
just don't overwork them.
Whatever shape emerges when that brush hits the page,
just leave it. It's perfectly imperfect.
And I'll do these thin little leaves
I do some stems and then
add these tiny little oval brushstrokes
to make these kind of raggity, shaggy Daisy leaves.
And I'll tuck one last one in behind there
All right for the next one we're going to do some berries.
I always love adding berries to my florals.
This is another great little mini painting that you can add to adorn any book or card.
I am just doing a cluster of circles and then I come back in with a dark color - a black, blue, or brown.
Just on the tip of my brush and we join all those berries with a stem and
finish them by adding some little leaves
and then maybe a little dot or a few little lines at the top of each berry.
And what would our florals be without eucalyptus?
I start my eucalyptus with a stem, and then these pairs of leaves
they keep getting larger and
sometimes you'll only do one because it's facing the viewer.
So you actually can't see the pair and
I might lengthen that stem a little bit,
add a bit more pigment to those leaves, and that is my simple eucalyptus.
Here's another fun painting that fits in perfectly with your little mini florals:
Begin with some stems. There can be two, or three, or four and here again
you're going to make these tiny little blooms by simply
letting the fresh hit the page and then just let it be so we just pull it towards us or push it away and
you're just letting the belly of the larger part of that
paintbrush kind of touch down on the page for a moment
and whatever little oval shape is there, that's what you stick with!
And for our final little mini flower, I am doing a little fan shape of these tiny
linear brushstrokes
and you can do this light, dark, add a little extra pigment there.
And then I'll come back in with a green, or any other color
and we're going to give some stems to join them all
and then for this one I'll do these really thin lines for leaves - something different.
And we'll just tuck a whole bunch in there
To finish these mini flowers
I like to come back in once they've begun to dry
and add some shading, so I might darken one side of each leaf,
or add a little bit of a darker color at the bottom of the larger leaves.
You can add some delicate lines if you like to, or if that's a little bit like,
"No, I think I'm gonna mess them up", then just skip that but I'll put a little line down the center of these.
And for these tiny little four petal flowers, I like to add just a bit of darker pigment at the center.
Alright, that is our mini florals practice project all done.
I hope you enjoyed painting along with me today.
I know certainly had a lot of fun with this.
Thank you so much for watching.
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