How to paint abstract flowers in pink watercolor?
How to paint abstract flowers? Pink watercolor flowers
Would you like to learn how to paint abstract flowers with watercolors the way artists do? I will show you how to paint pink watercolor flowers just in 7 steps. Easy, casual, and emotional, like this in the rose flowers painting.
First, let’s select a reference. On our street, a fantastic rose bush is flourishing, perhaps this is a decorative rose hip. I took a picture of him in the evening light. Here is the one.
Let’s take a look at these lovely flowers presented here in the form of inflorescences. These are bright pink flowers. Almost the entire bush is in the shade since it is evening time. Only the tips of the petals are illuminated by the rays of the setting sun. The colors are rather cold – pink fuchsia, a little warm pink flashes, and somewhere even purple in the deepest shadows. On the right, small delicate daisies are blooming in the foreground; they add elegance to our plot. Our greenery is almost all cold green, slightly replacing with warm green leaves touched by the sun. The fence is dark brownish with greenery in the background.
Composition is important
As an artist, I’m looking at this photo and thinking about that evening. You can just draw as in the photo, it will turn out beautifully. However, I remember it well, that evening it soon began to rain. It got dark early. But the rose hips still glowed in the darkness with their bright pink lights, reflecting in the raindrops, creating an extravaganza of pink and green splashes of color. This is the picture I want to paint. It will be all our rose bush, also against a dark background. But already washed out by water, fluid, playing with the elements. We’ll paint abstract pink flowers in watercolor which is ideal here.
Perhaps, having read this far, you will ask why I devoted so much space to describing the plot and examining our painting’s subject. After all, I could immediately go to drawing and painting with color. The most important thing for a true artist is the vision of the plot, composition, and image perception. Having seen and understood all this, it is already easy to paint a picture. Everyone will have their own view since each of us is an individual. But that’s good. I am sure that each of you will succeed! The main thing is to freely approach the task, let your hand guide you, give it freedom.
Next, I will tell you step-by-step how you can paint similar abstract pink watercolor flowers yourself. And so, let’s get started!
What materials do we need?
Watercolor paper is the most important thing. Get a good professional paper. I love Arches paper; it holds water very well, has an enjoyable surface, and retains its vibrant color even when painting on wet. You can take the paper of any other respected grades, the primary condition is 100% cotton content and 300 g / cm. I do not advise thinner paper, because when it dries, it may go in waves.
Watercolor paints are our precious stones, which we will skillfully mix and, like magicians, create a new image on a blank sheet. I have tried many colors. I loved Daniel Smith with all my heart for its fantastic beauty and richness of pigments. Right, I take some of the dyes from Mijello. If you have different colors, don’t worry. Any watercolor you have will work for this watercolor. It is only desirable that they go in tubes and easily squeezed onto the palette. If the paints are in cuvettes, then they must be well-soaked well before use. Just sprinkle with water and wait 5-10 minutes.
For our pink flowers watercolor, I selected the following paints, below I give them in order of arrangement from left to right, starting from the top row, as they are shown in photos:
Top row – 7 shades of pink, our primary color:
- Jaune Brilliant from Mijello
- Bright Opera from Mijello
- Rose Madder from Daniel Smith
- Quinacridone pink from Daniel Smith
- Permanent red deep from Daniel Smith
- Quinacridone purple from Daniel Smith
- Perylene Maroon from Mijello
Bottom row – additional colors that will shape and enhance our work
- Naples Yellow from Mijello
- Hansa Yellow Light from Daniel Smith
- Olive Green from Daniel Smith
- Sap Green from Daniel Smith
- Terre Verte from Daniel Smith
- Hooker’s green from Mijello
- Indantrthrone Blue from Mijello
The palette into which we will squeeze out the paint and mix the shades we need. I used a plastic palette with paint compartments, but now I like the usual white big plates. I spied such a secret from another watercolor artist. It seems to me that since the plate is round and empty, has a smooth surface, it gives a lot of freedom in mixing colors. You may use the palette you’re used to.
Brushes for drawing in different sizes – from the most significant, thickest N12 to a thin liner. I prefer squirrel and synthetic mix brushes. They are great in painting on wet because they do not take in so much moisture while keeping their shape perfectly and are obedient. I only have one small pure squirrel brush, I like to use it for little details with a free streamlined shape. You also need a wide goat brush for watering the paper. Use whatever brushes you are used to, which you love. Each artist has their own. My brushes, palette, water containers are shown in the photo.
Plexiglas tablet is ideal. It does not absorb moisture and has a perfectly flat surface. Therefore, the paper spreads very well on it, and when wet, it retains moisture for a very long time, which is extremely important in watercolor painting.
You need two water tanks, one for dark shades rinsing and the second is for wetting and light shades.
You will need a hard-soft pencil (HB), an eraser, and a reserve mask for chamomiles and light flower petals.
Now that everything is ready with you, everything is at hand. Let’s get down to work itself. It will take about 1.5-2 hours to paint our abstract pink flowers in watercolor.
How to paint abstract pink flowers in watercolor just in 7 steps:
Step 1. Choosing a composition, making a pencil drawing
First, let’s select the most advantageous composition of our work. Let’s take another look at our reference. Its main hero is a rose flowers bush located somewhat to the left. It has a beautiful shape, beautiful rhythm of colors. But the foliage in the photo occupies the entire foreground. In my opinion, the more interesting character is the rose hips, so we will enlarge and place them in the middle on the middle ground. Foliage, on the contrary, will serve us more as a frame of bright colors, since it has a color that is opposite in the spectrum. We will place the daisies in the foreground and make them thin, graceful. So that they only create a light play of light, a breath of the night breeze.
Step 2. Apply reserve mask
To leave particular areas light and not be afraid that they will be covered with paint, we will apply a special reserve liquid. Pour the liquid into a plastic stopper or some other small container. We don’t need much. If your reserve liquid is thick, add some water to it. I also recommend adding a little watercolor paint – preferably blue, so that the applied mask is clearly visible on the paper and creates a contrast to the primary color of our work. My reserve mask and cork look like on this Photo.
We take the thinnest brush – liner, lather with ordinary soap to not spoil the brush. Next, carefully paint the areas that we want to leave light – stems, daisies, tips of pink flowers. Just as if we did it with ordinary gouache. Apply a thin layer of liquid, then it dries faster. I got it like this Photo.
Dry the reserve mask, that is, wait until it hardens. It usually takes about 15 minutes. While the reserve mask is drying, do not forget to rinse the brush thoroughly.
Now we have time to prepare the paints.
We are waiting for 15-20 minutes. You can simply check with a finger, and when you are convinced that the reserve fluid is dry and does not stick to the skin, let’s move on to the next step.
Step 3. Wet the paper
We put our paper sheet on the tablet. We place the tablet at an angle of 20-30 degrees to the table surface. The more inclined the tablet is, the more the paint will flow due to the gravity, and, conversely, with a flatter arrangement, the color will flow less.
Wet the sheet thoroughly. To do this, wet a wide goat brush with the water, smoothly, calmly saturate first the reverse side of the watercolor sheet, then the front one. We try to brush evenly with a brush, we wet the edges of a sheet of paper along the perimeter exceptionally well. When the reverse side of the paper is filled with water, carefully turn our sheet face up and repeat the process.
We wet the entire surface very well, distribute water evenly, and pay special attention to the sheet’s edges. We make sure that the surface of the paper remains flat. Air bubbles may appear under the paper. In this case, carefully lift our sheet by the corner, wet the seamy surface again in the area where the cavity arose. I also recommend moistening the surface of the tablet itself, then the water is evenly distributed. Over time, the leaf will soak and become even.
If you look at the sheet from an angle, you will see that the surface is shiny at first. It is necessary to wait 10-15 minutes until the surface becomes dull. So, our sheet is ready. We can start painting.
Step 4. Painting pink flowers and green leaves in watercolor
As you can see, in my artwork, bright illuminated pink smoothly flows into shadow, blending harmoniously with green shades. Individual flowers, such as the top one, have a somewhat gathered shape, and I let the bottom ones flow.
Let’s start at the top of our composition, draw the topmost flower on the paper prepared earlier. Just apply the bright opera shade with a brush. Since the sheet has been wet and has a matte finish, the paint will flow only slightly and your brush strokes will retain their shape with minimal change. Immediately draw a branch of foliage next to it, creating the leaves’ shape from their base to the tip.
Let paint to flow even more
Next, I start to let the paint flow even more. If I want more spreading of the pigment than on the top flower, I moisten a particular area a little extra. Next, I immediately paint the abstract flowers with the Bright opera pigment, directly add the Permanent deep red shadow and even darker Quinacridone purple. I used Rose Madder for the lightest transparent areas and Perylene maroon for the most profound dark regions. You can add Jaune Brilliante or even a little yellow Naples Yellow and Cadmium Yellow on warm areas. Although I almost have not used finally used the group of yellow shades.
As soon as we have painted one rose flower in watercolor, we immediately frame it with greenery. Only then do we move on to another flower. In my work, I use 4 brushes at the same time: one for light pink, one for shadow pink, third for light green, fourth for shadow green. This way, I save time, which is vital in watercolor painting, and paints.
We paint green leaves, slightly deviating from our pink abstract flowers so that it does not cover the flowers, you need to give the paint space to flow. The leading warm green color is Sap Green, sometimes with the addition of Olive. Shady green areas are Hooker’s Green and Terre Verte. Pink and green colors will flow towards each other, forming exciting combinations and effects. To make it enjoyable, I add a little blue to the green. I used Indanthrone, Indigo, Lunar Blue, or other dark blue pigments will also work.
Wet painting technique
I would like to draw your attention that in this wet painting, we take the paint from the palette in the same state as it was squeezed out of the tube, practically do not dilute it with water. If the paint is very thick, only a few drops of water can be added. This allows bright colors even after the paper has dried.
In the course of our painting, we see that the reserved areas remain white. Very well. When all the paint is dry, we can remove the backup liquid and keep the attractive white ornament.
So we move lower and lower along the sheet, allowing different paint colors to smoothly flow into each other, creating the abstract play of pink flowers and green foliage paint. We will get something like photo:
Step 5. Painting the night background
We use the chosen blue color – Indanthrone, Indigo, or any other deep dark blue for the background. The second color in our background will be a complex brown, which we will make ourselves by mixing pink and green. Play with colors – try mixing a cool pink Bright opera and a crisp green Terra Verte, a dark Permanent red deep Hooker’s green, or other pink and green pairs on the palette. You can mix a little blue with them.
These browns, mixed by yourself, will look much more attractive than any purchased brown. Therefore, the colors you get are sophisticated when applied to the surface of the paper, they will give different shades, sometimes mixing, then, on the contrary, breaking up into small particles of primary colors.
So, we got with you the brown pies we need. Now take the largest brush and apply them 2-3 cm away from the flowers (about 1 inch). This will create a glowing aura around the rose flowers painting. Feel free to paint the background, trying to make it more diverse. This is how it is shown in the first photo below. We close all the white space, step back a little to create an inner glow of flowers and leaves, the second photo below.
Step 6. Add Effects when paint abstract flowers
Create the effect of raindrops. To do this, spray it with water over the still-wet paint. Wet a medium-sized brush in clear water, gently. We take another clean brush in our hands and sprinkle water on the sheet with one brush on the other. You’ll get raindrops. You can also spray a little pink or green paint – you’ll get an extravaganza of flower splashes. Rainwater streams can be added. To do this, moisten the brush in clean water and gently touch the surface, allowing it to flow. You have a lighter furrow, a gap in the dark, cloudy sky. Experiment with effects on your abstract flowers painting. I got the same effects as in the photo.
Step 7. Remove the mask fluid, put you signature on the rose flowers painting
We leave our sheet to dry. When the surface is dry, and the paint will not leave marks on your fingers when touched, you can gently glue the paper edge’s perimeter with masking tape to the tablet. This will ensure that the sheet dries evenly, keeping the sheet of paper flat.
If you are in a hurry, you can dry the surface of the sheet with a hairdryer. When the surface is completely dry and warm, remove the backup fluid. To do this, simply rub the reserved areas with your finger, like an eraser.
Let’s step back and take a close look at our work. How to paint abstract flowers – easy, not difficult? Everything is excellent, very good. We put our signature. Now the artwork of rose flower painting is ready!
I hope this post on how to paint pink abstract flowers with watercolors has inspired you to create something that you love!
Any questions on what we’ve just leaned? Please feel free to ask questions or sharing your ideas – I’m happy to help you!
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