In the following step by step video demo, The Watercolor Misfit demonstrates how she paints a realistic flower using watercolor.
In this video, Carrie shares her method for painting realistic watercolor flowers, which she developed to suit her style. She starts with a pencil sketch on watercolor paper, then outlines it with a micron pen to create a basic shape, almost like a coloring book. Carrie emphasizes not adding too much detail at this stage, just a basic outline.
Next, she thickens the lines on the shadowed sides of the flowers to add depth. The crucial part of her process involves crosshatching for shading, where she draws lines in one direction and then adds another layer perpendicular to the first. Carrie uses this technique to mimic the veins on flower petals, deciding where shadows should fall.
For coloring, Carrie doesn’t just use a single layer of paint; she layers multiple colors to add depth and realism. She starts with light yellow-green washes on the stems and buds, adds purple where shadows are darkest, and then layers a vibrant green on top. This multi-layer approach makes the flowers pop out, looking more three-dimensional.
Carrie then paints the blossoms, breaking away from thinking of poppies as just red by starting with a yellow wash, adding orange, and then red, where the crosshatching is darkest. She tones down the reds with a contrasting green glaze to add realism. Carrie’s secret to realistic petals involves letting the colors blossom and bleed into each other while wet, creating natural gradients.
Carrie discuses the importance of layering colors and glazing to achieve a more realistic look in watercolor flowers. She encourages viewers to think beyond basic colors and layer multiple hues for a more dynamic effect. She uses her crosshatching technique for shading and wet-on-wet painting for blossoms to create depth and realism.
Leave a Reply