In this tutorial, I will show you a fun, colorful and easy way to play with watercolors.

You don’t need to have great drawing skills for this one—this is just all about juicy, bold colors and a whimsical design!

This project is great if you have trouble achieving large watercolor washes in your paintings, because even the background is made of small, discreet sections.

This makes it more manageable for the beginning and intermediate watercolor artist.

Materials

Lids to use for making circles. I’m using storage container lids, since it’s easier for me to get my hand all the way around it. Water glasses, mugs or jars would work fine too if you have them.

Watercolor paper I’m using a cold-pressed paper, but you can use hot-pressed if you prefer, it will just have a different look to it at the end.

Watercolor paints I use Winsor Newton paints from the tube. I haven’t tried pan watercolors before so I can’t say how they will work. Just don’t use the dinky little Crayola paint trays!

Decent Watercolor brushes I use DaVinci Cosmotop brushes, which are a natural/synthetic blend. They are affordable and work for whatever technique I need.

A Waterproof Black Pen

Tracing Paper

A Lightbox or Glass Table

I order my supplies from Dick Blick but your local Michaels or other craft store will probably have most of what you need if you are really eager to start.

Let’s Draw Our Flower!

On your tracing paper, create your flower. My approach was to draw something childlike,  and it turned out looking like a whimsical sunflower. I like!

You are welcome to use a photo reference if you like, but don’t get too lost in details.

Once your flower is complete, use your lids/jars to create circles around it. I find it easier to go from biggest to smallest.

It’s easy to get too carried away with circle-making. Here are some suggested guidelines to keep in mind:

• You don’t need to have every bit of background be within a circle.
• Try to avoid having circles that barely touch each other.
• Try to avoid having circles that barely touch your flower outline.

I use a mat to check my composition.

Once I’m satisfied, I go over the drawing with a dark pen so I can more easily trace it onto my watercolor paper.

I also make adjustments where needed to the design. In this instance, I wasn’t comfortable with where the circle touched the edge of the petal, so I “fudged” the flower design a bit.

Use a small amount of tape to temporarily attach your tracing paper to your watercolor paper.

I suggest beige masking tape, but I ran out so I used this blue painters’ tape.

Tracing is done! We’re ready to paint!

Start with your paint pen. You can also use fluid ink, a waterproof marker, or acrylic paint if you wish, and any color will work.

I chose gold because I want to give this piece a jewel-like look for a little nouveau-fancy look!

Just make sure whatever you use is waterproof. This is very important!

Tape your piece to a piece of foamboard or other firm surface before you begin painting.

Begin painting your petals. I used a variety of yellows:

• Transparent yellow
• Indian Yellow
• Winsor Yellow
• Quinacridone Gold

Paint just one small area at a time. The lines you created will help act as a water barrier between the shapes.

I like to place plain water in an entire area and then add color over the dampened paper.

This is called charging and this is what helps one color flow into another and create interesting stained-glass textures and colors.

Once some areas have dried, I lift out some color from the center of each shape to bring back some of the white brilliance of the paper.

First round of the petals are done! I may come back and make some changes once my background colors are laid in.

I’m also not thrilled with the center, so I will figure out what to do with that later.

(Yes, watercolors can be surprisingly forgiving!)

Next, I begin painting the leaf and stem with the same technique as the petals, just charging color into one section at a time.

You can mix your own greens or use them from the tube. I’m kind of doing a bit of both. The colors I’m using are:

• Green gold
• Thalo green
• Indian Yellow

I want to paint the flower, stem and leaf in warm tones and the background in cool tones so that the flower really stands out. Be aware that some greens can be on the cool side, so use more yellow to warm them up.

The flower is now all painted! You can see that I lifted some of the orange-y paint from the center of the flower as well.

Still not thrilled with the effect, but I will get back to it later.

Painting the Background

I’m using a variety of cool blues and purples for my background circles. Again, I’m charging paint into pre-dampened sections.

I like to use 2 or more colors per section. My colors are:

• Indigo
• Winsor Blue (green shade)
• French ultramarine
• Quinacridone purple(?)
• Cobalt

If you are just starting out in watercolors, a project like this is a great way to see how colors interact together. You will notice that ultramarine makes a granular effect because it is more opaque than your transparent purple.

The goal for these circles is to paint each section unlike the one next to it as much as possible.

If they are too similar, don’t worry because you can make adjustments later.

I also want to keep the sections that touch the petals on the darker side to make the flower stand out more.

The first layer of circles is finished!

Let’s go back to the petals. They need a little oomph.

I am locating the sections that lie within the smaller circles and glazing with some orange.

Chances are you will need to re-outline all your sections with your paint pen. I made my lines even a little thicker.

I decided to use gold paint in every other ring in the center of my flower. It’s Dr. Ph. Martin’s gold iridescent fluid ink.

It has a slightly different look than the paint pen so you can still see the original outline.

I also darkened the alternating rings with sepia.

I’m checking my composition and colors again with my mat.

 

I want to embolden some of my circle sections, so I glaze over with more purpley-blues.

The Final Painting

Sign your name and you’re done!

Please feel free to post comments and share your art with me! I am happy to answer any questions you may have about this process.

I am eager to find out what other art tutorials you would like to learn on this site, so please let me know below. Thanks!