Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Happy Spring! How to Paint a Loose Watercolor Daffodill

"Spring"
A watercolor painting by
Karen A. Cooke


Happy Spring!  The daffodil has always been the flower that tells me that it is Spring!  I have loved this bright yellow flowers since I was a little girl.  In springtime, we would pass a huge field of these flowers on my way to and from school.  An elderly woman would sell bouquets of these and my mom would stop and let me purchase bouquets of these flowers regularly on my way home from school.  These flowers always make me smile!

The painting above is a quick, loose watercolor from a photo I snapped in our front yard. 

All elements of this painting are loosely painted with minimal amounts of detail.  The painting was also painted on a slight slant to allow the paint to flow on the paper.

Supplies Needed:
Watercolor paper (type and size of your choice)  - I used a 95" x 7"  watercolor sketchbook
Brushes: round (size of your choice based on the size of your paper)
Paint:
  • Cadmium Orange
  • Cadmium Yellow Light
  • Cadmium Yellow Dark
  • Sap Green
  • Ultramarine Blue
Painting Instructions:
Lightly sketch the flower on the page along with the stem and leaf placement.    You can use my painting as a reference, take a photo yourself or paint in plein air outside. 

Flower:
Using the round brush and painting wet on wet, paint the flower working from light to dark and leaving some of the spaces unpainted and white for highlights.  Refer to the photo above for color placement.  White the flower is still wet, drop in the Sap Green at the base of the flower.

Stem and Leaves:
Using the round brush and painting wet on wet, use shades of Sap Green and Ultramarine Blue to paint the stem and leaves.  Note the yellow at the base of the stem as well as lighter shades of green and blue. 

Finishing touches:
See if you need to add addition leaves or splashes of yellow or light green in various locations on the page. 

Tip:  Loose watercolors are intended to be loose and flowing, so not attempt to paint in details - that is the joy of loose watercolor painting!

Photo used for the painting

Congratulations!

Happy Painting!
Karen



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