Transparent Watercolor Petals

Transparent watercolor petals, delicate and lovely.

Happy Sunday! 🙂

This week I thought it would be fun to share with you a simple technique for painting layers of soft petals in watercolor.

A few key points before we get started:

– the goal is to slowly build up color with each layer of paint

– start with a very light color

-each layer added is a little darker

– let each layer dry before adding the next one (very important!)

– a round brush works well for this (I used size 12)

Each layer of color is mixed to be slightly darker than the previous layer. Adding more water to a color mix will give you a lighter shade which works well for this exercise.

This is what I used…

Daniel Smith watercolors:

Layer 1-  Quin Rose + Yellow Ochre
Layer 2 – Quin Rose + Yellow Ochre  (slightly darker than Layer 1)
Layer 3 – Quin Rose + Yellow Ochre + Mayan Orange
Layer 4 – Quin Rose + Yellow Ochre + Mayan Orange (slightly darker than Layer 3)

First layer is very light and pale.

Second layer, adding a few different petal shapes with a slightly darker shade of pink. Things don’t look very good at this point, but hang in there it gets better. 🙂

The hardest part is waiting for things to dry completely between layers.

I also added a few tiny green stems to build up later.

Another layer adding a few more petals with a slightly darker color…

Layer 3 is looking a little better now.

Then a last 4th layer of darker petals. It gets pretty exciting at this point when the flowers start to take shape.

You could stop now or continue on and develop your painting further. I decided to just leave this one as is.

I hope you enjoyed this little exercise. It is an easy way to develop soft, delicate watercolor flowers. Let me know if this was helpful, I would love to hear from you.

Until next time, share a smile and sprinkle kindness all around.

Happy Painting!

Patty Anne

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