Loose Watercolor Floral Elements

Every fully composed piece of artwork is simply a matter of elements combined. This pertains to ALL art, and floral art and composition are no exception. Today I will walk you through the very beginning steps of composition, starting with how to create several loose floral elements, including pinwheel flowers, cluster flowers, roses, and leaf branches.

Moving forward, we will also explore size, shape, and positioning, how in changing the arrangement of elements we inherently create versatility and movement within the art. We also learn how to control the flow of water and the magic of timing bleeds.

We wrap up adding all those special details that bring a piece to LIFE, and prepare for our class project, in which we put all our newfound knowledge to the page and put it all together, creating a loose floral piece of artwork.

Let's get started!!

SUPPLIES:

Canson 140 lb. cold press paper

Princeton round brushes, in a variety of sizes, specifically 6,8, and 10

Paint: Winsor and Newton Paints

Cadmium free red

Purple Lake

Cobalt Green Deep

Sepia

Winsor Yellow Deep

Aqua Green

Palette (or salad plate)

Cup of water

Paper towel to blot

MIXING UP COLOR USING VINTAGE HUES

If you're new to my page, this might be unfamiliar territory, which makes me excited to introduce you to the wonderful world of muted tones. I will show you how I create new, vintage-inspired colors using two or more paints. I also walk you through the paint to water ratio and how to create multiple washes.

CREATING THE PINWHEEL FLOWER

Likely my favorite bloom to paint - beyond the rose, of course! We use a simple 3, 4, or 5 petal strategy to master creating this darling blooms I have coined "Pinwheel Flowers" for their pinwheel-y shape.

CREATING BLEEDS BETWEEN FLOWERS AND LEAVES

Here we study the magic of timing to control the flow of water and paint to create a disruption on color, aka "a bleed."

CREATING LEAVES WITH MOVEMENT

If you've ever looked at your leaves and felt they lacked movement, sort of stagnant in their appearance, this is where I talk about using range of motion to create flow and movement within foliage!

CREATING A CLUSTER FLOWER

This is simply the pinwheel flower reimagined, playing around with size, shape, and positioning to create something that isn't new but sure feels like it!

ADDING LEAVES TO THE CLUSTER FLOWER

A self explanatory title, we are simply building upon our cluster flower by adding a few leaves and beginning to give the branch a flow. A pencil may be used as a guide to help the imagination along.

CREATING A LOOSE ROSE

I will demonstrate my technique on how to create a loose rose. (For more detailed instruction on how to create 3 styles of roses, ranging from a beginner's rose to advanced, please check my website RosalieGwenPaperie.com for my "Loose Roses Workshop") Here we create something very playful and carefree, one more element to add to our working piece later on.

CREATING A LEAF BRANCH

We will take what we learned earlier about creating leaves and attach them to a stem, which we then use later on to inflect movement in our piece.

ADDING DETAILS - Stems, Centers, Veins

Now we get to add all those special details to our flowers and leaves which are responsible for bringing our elements to LIFE!