How To Paint Flowers in Watercolor

Sometimes watercolor painting outdoors is not always an attractive option.  For some of us, it is more convenient and enjoyable to take photographs of our favorite scenes or objects and paint them in the studio.  In the following watercolor painting video, Artist Debi Watson shares her techniques for doing just that.

First, Debi takes several photographs of her favorite flowers and brings them back to her studio.  Then, using graphite paper, she transfers the photograph to her watercolor paper.  The rest of the video tutorial is filled with very interesting and helpful tips and techniques for painting beautiful flowers in watercolor.  This is a great video for beginners!

How To Paint Flowers in Watercolor

A big thanks to Debi Watson for sharing this video lesson with us!  You can learn more about Debi  and find more free lessons, by checking out her YouTube Page Here or by visiting her Website Here.

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How To Paint a Rose in Watercolor Step By Step By Doris Joa

About Doris Joa

My name is Doris Joa and I am an artist from Germany.

My mediums are watercolor and oil. One of my special favorite subjects are Roses and figurative work. I paint roses and also other flowers in oil and watercolor. Beside Pansies, Rhododendron, Peonies, Daisies and Tulips, there are a lot of roses in my gallery on my website like Heidi Klum Rose, Sangerhauser Jubiläumsrose, Rose “Mein schöner Garten”, Rose Golden Celebration from David Austin, Rose Innocencia, Rose New Dawn, Rose Clair Renaissance, Rose Queen Mother, Rose Bonita Renaissance and more.

My goal is to paint in romantic realism. I am also doing figurative work, portraits, still lifes and in 2005 I have started a new series of colourful Horse paintings in oil. I also have started with doing postcard paintings in 4?x6? and other small studies .

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How To Paint a Rose in Watercolor Step By Step – Part 2

I have started with the painting.

Here is a photo of the drawing. As you can see, the detail is not very good. I am sorry.

At first I wanted to do a square format, but I did not really like it, so I changed the composition and now it will be a high format.

There are several larger roses, some buds and leaves.

I also have decided for my palette. I am using: Read more

How To Paint a Rose in Watercolor Step By Step – Part 3

I have worked a bit more on this rose painting. I darkened the leaves more around the buds. I did this with using sap green, alizarin crimoson and phthalo blue. I mixed the colours on my palette. I also added some of the rose colour on the leaves, as I described this Part V. Then I removed the masking fluid of the first rose, because I do not like to leave the masking fluid on the painting too long. I am fearful that if I leave the masking fluid on the paper too long, I will not be able to remove it, so I simply removed it.

I then began working on the rose on the bottom of the painting. Since this rose is not in the center of interest, I made the colours cooler than the other rose. I worked more with permanent rose, brillant purple, sap green, alizarin crimson and phthalo blue. I also used Aureolin, which is a cool yellow. I also greyed down the colours a bit, so this rose will not be a competition to the other rose. I still have to soften the edges there. In the first photo you will see a close up and in the next photo you will see the whole painting, so you have a good idea where I am working.

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How To Paint a Rose in Watercolor Step By Step – Part 4

I worked on the leaves more. I added more depth to them with a mix of alizarin crimson, phthalo blue and sap green. I also added more colour here and there to the roses. I also began painting some of the stems. Here I have started with an underlayer of indian yellow and then I added a wash of sap green and then I added alizarin crimson. I still have to paint some leaves, then I can finally with the stamens and adding the background. I love how this painting looks so far – hopefully you are liking it as well.

I have now begun painting the stamens and began to introduce some other colours to the palette:

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How To Paint a Rose in Watercolor Step By Step – Part 5

I have done the next step. Although I have not worked on all stamens yet, I did more work on the background. I was too curious to see how it would look.

I started at the bottom part, did at first a light wash of indian yellow, sap green, here and there a bit alizarin, a bit phthalo blue and let it mix on the painting. I wanted to see, how it would look with only a light background, although I already knew how I wanted to have it. And the result was, that I did not like only a light background, so I came back to my first idea.

I wanted to have the areas around the flowers more dark and to the side of the paintings it will be lighter. So I added more sap green, more alizarin crimson, phthalo green, phthalo blue (I mixed it on the palette but I also added each colour here and there direct on the painting). And I added a bit of paynes grey bluish to get a deeper dark. Be careful with paynes grey bluish. It can look dull and it is also an opaque colour, so other layers will not shine through. Be careful where you want to add it. Here is a photo of how the painting looks at this time.

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