I've looked into my photo archives and realized I had been playing with watercolors for several years now though not consistently. But it does show that with practice comes progress. It is inspiring to see a lot of artists share their techniques so I would like to do the same though I am doing this mostly just as a hobby. Obviously because it makes me happy!
Florals are in these days but I found it quite rare to see florals without leaves. So I decided to dedicate a few days to create simple watercolor flowers using a limited warm palette. In this case, I have used student-grade quality paints which is good enough for practice. Below I have listed the name of the colors found on the tubes though they can be replaced with any other colors that are quite similar. For instance, the red from the Pentel set can be replaced with alizarin crimson from artists quality sets. Vermillion and purple red were mixed then watered down to produce a light shade of pink. The strokes are quite simple to duplicate since there are mostly composed of just dots and lines using a wet-on-dry technique.
Color Palette for Flowers:
- Vermillion
- Red
- Purple Red
- Prussian Blue
On the other hand, the color palette I have used for the leaves is broader since I thought an ochre mixed with green would give a more organic leaf shade. Plus, yellow ochre has always been a basic in my palette even when I am using other type of media. I found it easier to do the leaves and actually painted them first. The same wet-on-dry technique was used. The darker details of the leaves (simple leaf variegation) were added after the first layer of lighter color has dried. Below is the list of colors.
Color Palette for Leaves:
- Cobalt Blue
- Ultramarine
- Deep Green
- Yellow Green
- Yellow Ochre
Materials used:
- Watercolor by Pentel Arts
- Soft sketch book by Monologue
- Synthetic round brush size 0
