Whether you are a beginner to painting, a beginner to gouache, or simply an artist that wants to learn more about painting florals, ‘Painting Florals with Gouache’ has something for you.
Tutorial: How to Paint Loose Watercolour Lotus Flowers
This week on our Youtube channel I posted another floral watercolour tutorial – How to Paint Loose Watercolour Lotus Flowers. Lotus flowers are one of my favourite flowers to paint as they sit nicely above the water and I hope you enjoy watching this tutorial as much as I had fun creating it. To watch the tutorial please visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fxrgb4SIPmQ
We upload tutorials twice a week on Youtube and we previously posted a tutorial on painting water lilies which will set you up perfectly for this lotus flower tutorial so why not grab your paints and paint along with me after reading these tips and tricks below?
Painting Lotus Flowers
To start this painting I like to draw in a guide lightly with a pencil. This helps me balance the flowers and help with scale. Lotus flowers have beautiful open petals so I start by drawing the stems and seed head in various sizes onto the paper. I then follow up with the smaller closed buds to add a different variant to the composition.
My top tip for painting this style of composition is to think about where you are going to start and how the eye will see the final painting – it really helps further down the line!
Once I have composed the basics I start by adding loose oval petals onto each seed head and work my way around each flower to create the basic shape by anchoring each petal to the middle.
Painting leaves
Lotus flower leaves look like a combination of rhubarb leaves and lily pads and they are a beautiful green. My top tip for painting the leaves is to mix up various greens to use so that you can blend and mix them. The shape of the leaves are loose and you can create wonderful shapes by painting the edge of each leaf and working inwards.
By using different green you will create ridges to give them depth. I love this way of painting as it looks much more realistic and pretty.
Specs – Painting Florals With Gouache
- No. of Pages: 144
- Size: 7.83 x 0.36 x 8.99 inches
- Cover: Softcover paperback
- Binding: Sewn
- Publisher: Page Street Publishing
- Published: November 3, 2020
- Language: English
- Weight: 10.6 ounces
The book has a sewn binding and soft cover. The paper is high quality, thick and glossy, with bright intense color. There is some weight to the book, making it sturdy, but it is still sized and light enough to make it an easy carry.
With a little initial prep, the pages lay flat enough to see full pages without holding onto the book. This makes it easy to read and follow the instructions while painting.
The book is broken down into an introductory section, five tutorial sections, a section of sketches that can be used for the tutorials, and ends with acknowledgments, information about the author, and an index.
The first section of the book introduces the reader to gouache, the tools that Vidhi uses, a brief explanation of color theory and shows the techniques that will be used in the book.
None of the initial explanation is deep – this isn’t a text book. Vidhi gives you enough to get you started, shows you what you can expect from the book, and then gets to the tutorials.
Vidhi Khandelwal’s artwork is stylized in a way that takes inspiration from many types of folk art, with simple shapes and layers of color. Her palette is full of earthy and neutral colors. I was surprised to see the only yellow was ochre. She doesn’t use bright or brilliant colors, yet the effect is lively and colorful.
The style is highly decorative, lending itself to borders and cards. Although the tutorials are aimed at painting on paper, they could easily be used on other surfaces, such as wood, journal covers or any surface that is gouache-friendly.
As the title implies, these tutorials are all done in gouache. However, they could easily be done in acrylic though they would look a bit different.
Personally, I’d use this style mostly for cards, but I came away with ideas that I can incorporate into my daily work as well.
The Instructions
The instructions are laid out in easy-to-follow steps, clear language and lovely illustrations. Each tutorial starts out with a brief explanation of the project and the techniques that will be used.
The colors to be used are shown in a labeled palette, with each color assigned an alphabetical character.
The instructions that follow use the alphabetical color instead of the color name. On one hand, this is handy. I found that a little annoying – my memory isn’t that good these days. I didn’t want to keep looking back a page or two, so I just wrote the character=color the border with a pencil. Many of you will be able to remember without having to write it down.
The tools and materials are listed for each tutorial.
Each tutorial has four – eight steps, starting with the shapes to be used in the painting.
As the steps progress, Vidhi lets you know what size brushes to use and the technique used for each bit of detail and layers of color. At first, if you are a beginner, you might need to refer back to the beginning of the book where techniques are explained. They are repeated often enough, though, that you’ll soon catch on and won’t need to look back.
The instructions cover:
- sketching the drawing
- filling in the basic color
- adding detail and texture/techniques to use
- shading
- highlighting
There are only six techniques: Wet on Dry, Wet on Wet, Layering, Stippling, Flat Application and Line Drawing. These are basic techniques used for any wet mediums (watercolor, acrylic, gouache, etc.), so this book is an excellent way to learn them.
Painting Florals With Gouache – The Tutorials
The book contains twenty tutorials. They are grouped into five sections: Wildflower Meadows, Romantic Garden, Tropical Botanicals, Succulents, and Botanical Typography. The tutorials in each section has a specific focus.
Wildflower Meadow
This tutorial focuses on simple painting and delicate forms.
The tutorials are Floral Spray, Mixed Round Berries, Delicate Phlox, …
… Lavender and Daisy, and Meadow in Bloom.
Romantic Garden
This section focuses on more complex flowers.
The tutorials are A Rose Bunch, Black-Eyed Susan, Anemone and Poppy Garden, …
… Magnolia Branch, and Holiday Floral.
Tropical Botanicals
This section focuses on leaves and composition with multiple forms and shapes.
The tutorials are Hibiscus, Mighty Protea, …
… Anthurium Pattern, and Graphic Monstera.
Succulents
This section focuses on textures and contrasting colors.
The tutorials are Bunny Ears Cactus, Blooming Torch Cacti, and Terrarium.
Botanical Typography
My favorite section! It focuses on using and combining the floral techniques you’ve learned with calligraphy and on creating beautiful alphabetical characters painted in flowers.
The tutorials are Floral Letter, Floral Word, and Floral Quote.
