You can paint a beautiful watercolor flower wreath with little artistic skill or talent if you know a few tips. These watercolors look lovely framed or make great cards.
Gather your supplies: Watercolor Paper, **watercolors, watercolor brush or waterbrush, pencil, black pen, heart cookie cutter (optional), kneaded eraser, scissors.
**Watercolors: After taking a watercolor class I now use the Daniel Smith Essentials Set (a limited palette) plus a few favorite colors for most of my watercolor projects, but there are times when its nice to use premixed colors like the ones found in the Koi Watercolor set.
You can make the wreath any shape you want. For the round one I made I traced the top of a drinking glass that was the right size. For the heart wreath I folded a piece of scrap paper in half and cut a heart. I laid it on the watercolor paper to make sure it was the right size and then trimmed a little more until I was happy with it. You can also trace around a heart cookie cutter. Center it on the watercolor paper and traced around it very lightly making a hit and miss line. If its too dark the pencil line will show through your watercolor. If you need to you can use a kneaded eraser to lighten the pencil before you start to paint.
First paint the flowers on the wreath. Using a light or medium pink color make a simple rounded rose shape leaving plenty of white space. This is an important tip: Leave lots of white space! Do this on each step. Try to paint the flowers in a random pattern, alternating which side of the pencil line they are on. Another tutorial on how I paint watercolor roses can be found here.
Second add the light green leaves. In watercolor you work from light to dark. Do dabs of paint leaving lots of white space. Don’t try to paint individual leaves. Add dabs of medium blue for little blue flowers. Keep it random looking.
Next add darker green leaves, darker pink on the roses and a darker blue on the little blue flowers.Let some of the light colors show through. Use a variety of greens doing the darkest green last. Remember watercolors dry lighter so don’t be afraid to put some strong color on. Don’t fill in all the white spaces. The white spaces act as highlights and give it a fresh, spontaneous look. Add a few little vines and stray leaves here and there. Stop adding color when you are happy with the way it looks.
If you want you can add a few leaf shapes and flower outlines with an extra fine black pen. If you do use the pen to add detail make sure the watercolor is completely dry. Don’t outline everything. Keep it simple. I also like to add a wash of color and some paint splatters. First wet the paper around the wreath with clean water. Next brush on the color you want. I like to make the color the darkest in the corners and on the edges and have it fade as it gets near the wreath. Then add a few splatters of paint to give some texture. You can do this while the paper is still wet and the splatters will be softer and blend in more. If you want the splatters to show up more wait until the paper is dry. Use a round watercolor brush loaded with paint that has lots of water in it. You want the splatters to be light in color. Flick the brush across your finger. Practice first on paper towel until you like the results. More splattered paint tips here.
Splatters on dry paper.
Here are some more watercolor flower wreath ideas:
With a wash of green paint on wet paper (below).
This is my favorite watercolor flower wreath and the one I have hanging in my art room.
Happy Watercolor Flower Painting!
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Oh wow, this is so creative. Thanks for the tutorial. Thanks also for joining Inspire Me. Hugs, Marty
Very sweet and a great tutorial!
Great tutorial, Tammy! I love to watercolor and these are very inspiring!
Hi Tammy,
So nice to meet you!
What a sweet wreath!
I’ve always enjoyed painting with watercolours and your visit to my blog and my subsequent one here has sparked my love for this hobby once again! Thanks so much for the tutorial and I intend on visiting past posts to catch up on some pointers!
Beautiful work, and thanks for the tutorial! Valerie
smashing results and a great tutorial, Happy PPF, Annette x
http://nettysartadventures.blogspot.co.uk/
Really pretty, I would love it if you shared this Show Your Stuff:
http://juliejewels1.blogspot.com/2013/07/show-your-stuff-84.html
Beautiful, it looks like you are in the spring full of love.. Saludos
WOW. You make it sounds and look so easy BUT I have NO drawing or painting skills whatsoever. You are incredibly talented. Your watercolor flower wreaths are incredibly beautiful.
Great tutorial. YOu make it look easy but these are wonderful xox
I love the tutorial. These are beautiful without so much to them. I’m still learning the water color Blessings, Janet PPF
Great tutorial.
Happy PPF, have a great weekend.
xx
Beautiful garlands. Thanks for sharing the process
Beautiful! Great tutorial, too, thank you! <3
really beautiful and such a great tutorial-thank you for sharing-I need to give this a go! Happy PPF!
Very pretty thanks for the tutorial!!!
Hugs Giggles
Ohhhh thank you for sharing the process. This is just wonderful.
amazing art here! love these!
What a wonderful tutorial! And your work is absolutely gorgeous. Thanks so much for sharing!
these are really beautiful. I so wish I could paint like that.
Beautiful!! You make it look effortless. It never occurred to me to paint the flowers first.
So pretty! Your heart watercolor wreath is a work of art!
Jody
Gorgeous!! =) Thanks for sharing at the Pinterest Power Party!
Thank you so very much for sharing your knowledge and experience with us! I’ve just recently discovered your work, and now look in regularly. I’m working on my ‘splatter’ technique — it’s coming along, slowly! And today I’m going to try a wreath!! You have been a wonderful inspiration!
What an awesome tutorial…I feel like I may even be able to do this! Thank you!
I love the step by step! These are beautiful!