Bright Lily | My Watercolour Journey

 Hello Friends!

Last week, I expressed that I'd been dabbling in watercolours and taking a free online watercolour class. Today I'm sharing my second creation from this class and feel like I've improved already! This painting is called Bright Lily and after drawing out the floral by hand, I took to my watercolours again. I'm slowly getting a feel for the amount of water to use and how to pull up colour to create highlights and folds. I have 3 more classes and that means 3 more creations to share, along with some other creative projects I'm going to share soon! So please stay tuned to deezinesbyd :) I appreciate all your support!

As mentioned, this floral was drawn freehand. I am new to watercolouring but I have been drawing since I was in elementary school. I took art courses including drawing and sculpture in high school. And I've taken many courses throughout the years on a diverse range of art topics including perspective and colour theory. I had my daughters ask me how I drew this floral and I had to explain to them, so thought I'd explain here... and of course there's a dash of talent there. I come from a long line of creative folks!

Like what you're seeing? Pin this picture for later on Pinterest!

Here is the initial sketch of my lily. It's not so bright yet but that's coming. My pencil is a 4H lead pencil and this is why it hardly shows up. I don't like using a dark pencil simply because I don't want to see the lines through my painting. So to steer clear of this issue, I stay away from B pencils and stick the harder H end of the sketch pencil spectrum. (B pencils are softer and result in darker, thicker lines).

My colour palette for this tulip was as follows:

Petals: 

- No. 36 Rose Madder Deep

 - No. 35 Carmine

- No. 40 Lemon Yellow

- No. 51 Sap Green Light

- No. 20 Raw Umber Deep

Leaves:

- No. 58 Sap Green Deep

 No. 51 Sap Green Light

- No. 20 Raw Umber Deep

- No. 46 Burnt Sienna

This class recommended using masking fluid for the stamen or you could choose to use white gouache after the painting had dried to paint these in, which was what I did. Gouache has an opaque nature to it especially when used in it's more concentrated form and it is less transluscent like watercolours, even though it is water-based as well. So, I used the gouache in maximum concentration with a small detail brush to add my stamen, along with some splatter over the petals (where I did water down the gouache slightly).

What I learned...

1) I really got the hang of being able to lay down a bit of a wash and then build on a darker colour while the paper is still wet. This meant I wasn't adding too many details with a dry brush like I did in my last painting, creating a more watercolour look. My last painting looked more like it was sketched rather than watercoloured because I failed to use the wet brush effectively. But I think I've got it.. or I'm getting there!

2) I was able to add green along the edge of the petal and carmine in the center and allow them to meet by the wetness of the paper to create a gradient rather than mud. This is not too hard but you can be tempted to overlap the two colours and end up with that mud I mentioned.

3) In my last painting, I was unable to get the hang of the technique where you take your clean brush, mostly dry and pick up some of the colour layed down in lines to create highlights that end up looking like folds on the petals. This time, I really got the hang of it and was pleasantly surprised at how much it steps up your painting. You can see this in all my petals!

4) I'm still working on the gradient on my leaves especially when it comes to controlling the water on my brush. I will keep practicing this, as you can see I need work on my leaves. 

All in all, I feel like from painting 1 to 2 I have improved vastly! I really love how this one turned out and can't wait to work on the next class. 

 If you are interested in the class, it's taught by Elena Vavilina. The class is in Russian but there is a voice-over in English with okay translations and subtitles. I, personally, got the most from the visual aspect of the class as opposed to the explanation (even though that was also helpful).  I'll leave a link to the sign up here. It's competely free and I just used the art supplies I have on hand (in the supplies list below). 

Link to the class sign up : Flower Marathon With Elena Vavilina

I hope you've enjoyed coming on this watercolour journey with me. See you next time!

Also, don't forget to check out/follow me on my Instagram account @deezinesbyd, where I have a lot more content and cardmaking ideas too! 

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