A fun way to practice and learn watercolor is to paint flowers. Taking the process step by step is the right approach to learn the technique. This time you can see how I made this painting with flowers.

As an inspiration for my painting I took a photo of my vase with fresh flowers. I like the colors and shapes of these flowers and I used the most inspiring shapes and colors for the painting.

Materials Used

Surface

300 g or 140 lb cold pressed paper

Watercolors

Moonglow purple, Carbazole Violet, Permanent magenta, Permanent rose, Alizarin Crimson Hue, Cerulean Blue, Ultramarine Blue, Turquoise, Kyanite Genuine, Cobalt Blue, Cobalt Teal Blue, Rich Green Gold, Sap Green, Undersea Green, Aurelin Cobalt Yellow, Yellow Ochre, Indigo.

Brushes

Flat Aquarelle 3/4″, Round 4, Round 12, and Oval 1/2″

Other

Silver pencil and white plastic eraser.

Using the photo as a reference I sketched the shapes and location of the flowers and leaves to make a composition. However, the flower vase was not copied on the sketch so the viewer’s attention is focused on the flowers.

Each flower was painted separately. Some of the flower’s hues were changed to make it more interesting to the eye. The shape of the flowers and petals are not identical to the reference photo. I used a little bit of imagination in developing each flower shape. The watercolor medium made easier to reach the movement effect on the flowers. This is one of the most amazing qualities of watercolor.

Step 2

In this step you can see that almost all the flowers and leaves are painted.  Also, notice that the colors of the flowers are different from the reference picture to enhance the focal point.

Step 3

After finishing painting the flowers the next step is to work on the background. To make the middle flower the focus of interest I used Indigo and Ultramarine blue around the petals and lighter blues around the leaves. On the outer flowers cerulean blue and yellow were the main colors around the petals.

Step 4

In this step color was added around the outer flowers. Notice that the background color is lighter. I used turquoise, cerulean blue, yellow and cobalt blue for contrast with the rose and white colors of the flowers. Lighter color is used to not distract the eye from the main focus point, the middle flower.

Step 5

Almost done with the painting. In this step there are the final touches of the painting. Finishing the light background around the outer flowers and leaves. Adding a little more color around the middle flower to enhance the focal area. I switched to the round 4″ inches brush to go in the smaller areas and I used the bigger round brush for the outside.

Finish painting

To finish the painting a little more color was used in the middle to enhance the focal point. Also, more color was added on the details of the petals and leaves. In addition, the background received the final touches to be sure the painting is pleasant to the eye.

After looking and observing the piece from different angles the picture was finished and ready to be signed. I hope you enjoyed this demonstration as much as I enjoyed painting this picture.