Mixing flowers to create paint

By following these steps and applying the finishing touches to your abstract watercolor flowers, you’ll be able to create a stunning, polished piece of art that showcases your unique style and creativity.

Creating Stunning Abstract Watercolor Flowers: Tips and Techniques

Creating abstract watercolor flowers is a wonderful way to express your creativity and add a splash of color to your life. In this blog, we’ll explore tips and techniques to help you create stunning works of art featuring abstract watercolor flowers. Let’s get started!

Choosing the Right Materials

Before you begin painting your abstract watercolor flowers, it’s important to select the right materials. This will ensure your artwork looks its best and lasts a long time. Let’s take a closer look at some essential materials to get started.

Paper Selection

To create vibrant abstract watercolor flowers, you’ll want to use high-quality watercolor paper. This type of paper is specifically designed to hold water, which allows the colors to blend and flow beautifully. Look for the following features when selecting your paper:

• Weight: Heavier paper (140 lb or 300 gsm) is ideal, as it can handle more water without warping or buckling.
• Texture: Watercolor paper comes in three textures: hot-pressed (smooth), cold-pressed (medium), and rough. Cold-pressed paper is the most popular choice for painting abstract watercolor flowers, as it provides a nice balance between smoothness and texture.

Watercolor Brands

There are many watercolor brands on the market, so it can be overwhelming to choose the right one for your abstract watercolor flowers. Some popular artist-grade brands include:

• Winsor & Newton
• Daniel Smith
• M. Graham
• Sennelier

These brands offer high-quality pigments and excellent color vibrancy. If you’re just starting out or on a budget, student-grade brands like Cotman and Van Gogh can also provide satisfactory results.

Brushes and Tools

Having the right brushes and tools will make painting your abstract watercolor flowers much easier. Here are some essentials to consider:

• Round brushes: These versatile brushes come in various sizes and are perfect for painting petals and other flower elements.
• Flat brushes: Use these to create bold strokes, fill in large areas, or create interesting textures.
• Detail brushes: Small, fine brushes are great for adding intricate details and finishing touches to your abstract watercolor flowers.
• Palette: A mixing palette is essential for blending and mixing your watercolors. Look for one with multiple wells to keep your colors organized.

Now that you have the right materials, you’re ready to start painting your abstract watercolor flowers!

Basic Floral Shapes

Before diving into the world of abstract watercolor flowers, it can be helpful to familiarize yourself with some basic floral shapes. This will give you a foundation to build upon as you experiment with different techniques and styles. Let’s explore three popular flower shapes to get started.

Roses

Roses are a classic choice when painting flowers, and they can be easily adapted to create stunning abstract watercolor flowers. To paint a rose, follow these simple steps:

1. Start by painting a small circle or oval in the center of your rose. This will serve as the bud.
2. Using a round brush, paint loose, curved strokes around the bud to create petals. Vary the size and shape of your strokes to give the rose a more natural appearance.
3. Continue to add petals, working your way outwards and increasing their size to create the illusion of depth.
4. Add color variations and softened edges to enhance the abstract feel of your rose.

Daisies

Daisies are another popular flower choice and can be easily transformed into abstract watercolor flowers. To paint a daisy, follow these steps:

1. Begin by painting a small circle or dot in the center of your daisy. This will serve as the flower’s center.
2. Using a round brush, paint elongated oval shapes around the center to create petals. Vary the size and direction of your strokes for a more abstract look.
3. Add color variations and blending to the petals and center for a more unique and artistic appearance.

Tulips

Tulips are a beautiful and simple flower shape that can be easily adapted for abstract watercolor flowers. To paint a tulip, follow these steps:

1. Start by painting a curved line for the stem of your tulip.
2. Using a round brush, paint teardrop-shaped petals along the stem. You can vary the size, shape, and angle of the petals for a more abstract appearance.
3. Add color variations, blending, and softened edges to create a unique and visually interesting abstract watercolor tulip.

Now that you have a basic understanding of these floral shapes, you can begin to experiment and create your own unique abstract watercolor flowers!

Favorite Paint Mixtures: Permanent Rose (PV19)

With spring flowers blooming in abundance and as I begin to bring them into the studio to paint, I realize that Permanent Rose is one of my go to paint colors when my subject matter involves flowers. I love its bright rosy color, its transparent quality without being overly strong and staining.

This quinacridone pigment (PV19) is one versatile color. It also happens to be my favorite color to mix with neighboring reds, oranges, and yellows when I want a vibrant color but also want to allow for subtle shifts in value and tone.

In my opinion, it may be the hardest working paint during the spring and summer season.

For my examples today, I thought I would share floral images to reinforce how helpful Permanent Rose is when mixing the correct shades of pink, magenta, and lavender. Permanent Rose is somewhat cool in its pure form, however it mixes especially well with yellows and oranges to emulate the glowing affects of yellow sunlight shining through translucent pink flower petals.

Permanent Rose is also a stellar color to select when you want to mix warm glowing oranges. I have found that when I want a particularly saturated orange, I often do not use cadmium orange but a mixture of Cad Lemon or Cad Yellow Lt and Permanent Rose, to achieve the glowing bright orange I am after. Permanent Rose also mixes well with Burnt Sienna, so when a muted orange is required you will be able to mix a softened, less saturated orange that still has an earthy warmth to it.

In the previous two examples I shared how Permanent Rose shifts warm rather easily, however the nice thing about this particular pigment is that it also shifts cool into the purples and blues with ease. Some of the most luscious purples come from mixtures with any of the Cobalt blues, turquoises, and greens. And when you use a high concentration of Permanent Rose mixed with medium, this pigment will create some beautiful effects as a glaze.

Permanent Rose is a transparent, a quinacridone violet pigment, that is strong and clear, and makes lovely mid-tone pinks. I love how it mixes with other paints, those similar in color as well as its complementary colors. It makes really deep blacks/purples when when mixed with viridian. I have found that is color is amazing in how versatile it is. When I used to paint the figure more often, it was almost always a color I relied on to add the rosy blush to a fair-skinned model. And now that I paint so many flowers, it is a color I always make sure to have on my palette.