You can use your easy watercolor flower paintings to decorate your journals, to create cards for friends or as artwork to display on your wall. The whole process is deeply relaxing and it’s a lovely way to spend an evening or an afternoon. Looking for more watercolor inspiration? Check out our watercolor painting ideas for beginners, learn how to paint a watercolor galaxy or our how to use watercolor pencils guide. In this easy watercolor flowers guide, we’ll look at the basic techniques you’ll need to master before you begin and what materials you’ll need to get started. We’ll be breaking everything down into clear steps for you to follow, so you’ll be able to paint beautiful watercolor flowers even if you’ve never used these paints before. Feel free to adapt this watercolor tutorial and create your own designs!
Tips for painting effortless flowers
In this step-by-step guide, I’ll show how to paint a loose watercolour peony flower with lots of texture in its frilly petals. I worked from real life, which you can do too. Alternatively, you might want to find a peony photo to use as a reference, or you can paint along just by looking at the photos I’ve provided.
Peonies are one of my favourite flowers and I’ve been getting very inspired by them lately. I just love the way their flower heads are so tightly packed with overlapping petals, each so delicate and thin, but collectively such a dense, large bloom.
We’re going to use washes and colour layering to create a loose watercolour look.
Painting in this style is fast and fun, so grab your paintbrush and give it a go right now!
If you don’t have the equipment and paints I recommend, get creative and try with what you have handy.
- A peony flower/or reference photo as your reference.
- Mop paintbrush – Rosemary & Co Size 3/0
- Daisy palette (for mixing watery paints)
- Water bowl
- Paper towel
- Watercolour paper (I recommend Arches cold pressed paper)
- Paints (see colour list below). I use Winsor and Newton paints.
Paint colours needed:
- A pink colour of your choice (I used Opera Rose, Permanent Rose & Quinacridone Magenta)
- A green colour (I used Olive Green)
- An earthy yellow (I used Yellow Ochre)
- A contrasting blue (I used Cobalt Blue)
- Step 1: Place your peony flower (or reference image) as near as you can to your paper. This will help you to get as close up as possible to observe the shapes of colour and tonal variations as you paint
Step 2: Heavily dilute your pink colour (here I’ve used Opera Rose), and apply an initial first wash all over the flower head area. This will create the shape and patterned edge to your peony flower head. Take care to leave some areas white which will be the highlights at the end.
Step 3: Into this watery wash, quickly drop a thicker mix of the same pink colour (e.g. Opera Rose) into the areas where you want to create depth in your peony flower head. Watch how the colour disperses into the wet paint. It’s time to let this base colour fully dry, so let’s move on to the stem and leaf.
*TIP* when you’re using watery washes whilst you paint, you may see ‘watermarks’ appear around the edges of the wet area, where the pigment can’t travel any further. These are to be welcomed. They’ll all add to the textural effects of your loose watercolour peony petals.*
Step 4: Water down your green paint (e.g. Olive Green) to a watery consistency. Then use your brush to form the stem and leaf shapes underneath the peony flower head. You’ll see it then really starts to take shape!
Step 5: When the flower head area is dry, it’s time to return to it. Using the tip of a clean brush, apply a layer of the pink (Opera Rose) colour to begin creating the textured edges and shapes you can see in the petals.
*TIP* To create the various shapes, load your brush with clean water and gently drag, or blend the colour outwardly.
Step 6: It’s time to add more depth and definition to your peony. We want to create the impression of creases in the petals and show their delicate papery texture. For this, you’ll need to introduce some darker pink. I used Permanent Rose, and used it at a thicker, less watery consistency. Look closely at your reference flower (or photo) and notice where the darker areas of pink are. Then apply your pink mixture to the corresponding areas on your painting.
Repeat the process of softening these bolder marks by using a wet brush to drag the pigment around. This will help create the various shapes and shades in your peony.
Step 7: While your petals are still wet, add an enhancement by dropping in a little of your earthy yellow colour to the centre of your peony. I used Yellow Ochre as my colour for this, and kept it quite watery. This addition will give the illusion of the centre stamens coming through. Now let this layer completely dry.
Step 8: Whilst the flower part is drying, we can return to the stem and leaf section. Using a watery mix of your green paint, add more pattern and detail to the leaves. Using a combination of thicker and more watery paint will help add more depth and create a variety of greenery effects.
*TIP* To enhance my painting, I also included a little of my pink colour on the leaves to show the way the leaves reflect the flower colour. Adding enhancements like this can help bring unity to a painting.
Step 9: Working quickly whilst your paint is still wet, gently soften the edges of the stem and leaves by blurring them into the background with a very watery pink paint mix. This will really bring out the loose watercolour look, and have the effect of uniting the greenery with the pink petals at the top.
Step 10: Continuing with your watery pink mix, now also gently blur the edges of the flower head into the background. This will create a soft atmosphere to surround your peony. Now let the painting completely dry.
*TIP* If you feel like your paint is too watery, you can use a paper towel to gently lift off any unwanted excess water or pigment.*
Step 11: Once your peony flower head has dried, and take your time to add in extra layers of textured edges. Look really closely at your reference to decide where they should go. You’re repeating the same process as Step 6 for this, but this time you’ll want to use an even darker pink mix. Here I used Quinacridone Magenta to create more depth. For this stage, you’ll want to work wet-on-dry, so let each layer dry before repeating the layering process. Where watermarks have formed, try to keep them as part of the painting. They add to the textural effects to my petals and will help bring your peony to life.
Step 12: As a final enhancement to bring out the colours in your peony flower, it’s time to introduce your blue hue to the background. I used Cobalt Blue for this. Make sure the painting is dry before you begin this stage. Then using a watery brush, apply some watery blue pigment around your peony. With the side of your brush, blend the blue paint outwardly and across the background to create a light wash. Now leave your painting to try for the final time.
I hope this step-by-step guide has helped inspire you to paint your own Peonies and given you the confidence to paint texture in watercolour.
Remember to keep your cut peonies in fresh water and they will last many days, so you will have plenty of time to paint them.
If you paint your own peony, I’d love to see your results, so tag me on Instagram and use the hashtag #jenniferrosegallery so I can see how you got on. You can also find me on Facebook
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Iconography Vs 3D
The first thing I can say is that I will try to go over a flower that has depth to it. Some people drawing flat icon flowers, and that also can be very very cool! I love them, but I think studying normal flowers helps a lot in improving art.
Think about 3D shapes and how each big side is a plane. That will catch the light and interact with it. Cube has 6 sides, but other shapes can have a lot more. The point is to try to tackle flowers in planes.
Petals on flowers sometimes get complicated, so I suggest practicing ribbons. It starts off simple, but make sure to give it some thickness.
Add some sides to it in perspective and draw along the way to see what the shape is for it.
Using the same technique you can use lines to show depth for the petals. It is a great practice to see how the form and shape of it come around. This is not for making pretty art, but it is helpful for future growth. Do not hesitate to try and do many attempts. It takes time.
The hardest part is to think of lines as a 3D shape. Our brains have a hard time translating line into form, so that is why this exercise is so good.
Starting with lines that will overlap each other is a good way to train your eye.
Then you can add planes and see which way is side up or down. The main goal is to give it 3D form and follow the flow of the leaf.
You can refine the linework and add shading. The main idea is to find 3 values that will work and push it from there. Think about where the light is coming from. Think about the planes that you drew before.
Creating flower with lines
After doing lots of small drawings like that. Learning how to draw cubes and circles and cylinders, it is great to start drawing actual flowers!
I just drew a simple base and showed myself in which way the petals will start moving. This helped me to decide the shape of the flower and other things like that.
Find a good reference! One that has form and harsh light helps. It is a lot harder to see form if the light is even. Good angle where it is not too complicated also useful.
If this is going too fast you can always watch my video, I fail and learn a lot while drawing this one. Not every drawing is created perfect 🙂
Here I continue to add petals and think about 3D form. Just follow where it is going and how it will curve in each direction.
Making these small studies helps a lot and will improve your line understanding. I really like this approach because the results do not have to be perfect. It’s just for learning.
Shading with ink
After some time you can start adding more appealing shading with your line. Using cross hatching and line weight will help you to go forward.
A simple flower sketch will help you to get started. Feel free to download it and draw on top of course.
Follow the form, but now from edges. This is the same exact thing, but you want to make the shading more fun and interesting. I just grabbed a simple G Pen and try to make the lines thicker towards darker areas.
After finishing, make lines darker where the shadow will be. Usually, it is at the side of the petal or where things meet together ( like the center of the flower for example ).
Now you can just make a new layer and create colors behind the line. It is super easy, especially if you use fill tools for CSP. I made a recent tutorial on that as well!
There is also a video inside, so should be easy to follow.
Another thing that I do is to add some color to the line. Using only black usually looks harsh. Flowers are more gentle and I feel like you can get better results with colored line art.
Using simple clipping mask is going to do the trick 🙂
Using simple grass or ground will help to bring the flower into the scene and help to blend things together.
You will need
- Buy the Winsor and Newton Cotman watercolor set from Amazon for £26.12
- Buy the Winsor and Newton Professional watercolor set from Cass Art for £49.95
You can find more recommendations on our best watercolor paints guide.
Watercolor paper
One of the biggest mistakes beginners make is using the wrong kind of paper for their watercolor paintings. If you try to use paper that’s too thin, it won’t absorb the water and will warp – which doesn’t look great. Using watercolor paper will help reduce the chances of this happening and keep your paintings looking neat!
Here are some recommendations for watercolor paper pads for you to try:
- Buy the Winsor and Newton A4 watercolor paper pad from Amazon for £10.02
- Buy the Daler Rowney Simply Artists watercolor paper pad (pack of 2) from Amazon for £12.99
Watercolor paint brushes
Choosing the right brush can also make a big difference to the look of your finished painting. It’s worth having at least one fine paintbrush in case you want to add some small details or slender stems to your flowers. These are also handy for painting tiny blooms and foliage.
If you’re painting loose watercolor flowers, opt for a rounded brush – it’ll help you to create the shapes of the petals more easily and prevent your painting from looking too precise. You want it to look relaxed and perhaps even a little untidy!
Here are a couple of brushes that I would recommend:
- Buy the Daler Rowney Graduate Spotter brush from Amazon for £3.95
- Buy the Pro Arte Prolene W3 brush set from Art Discount for £14.25
If you’re looking for more paint brushes to buy, check out our best paint brushes for artists guide.
