I absolutely love painting flowers! Whether you’re having a bad day, good day, sad day or insane day, flowers just have a way of cheering the soul. Today, we are going to be painting a hyacinth flower and hopefully help you guys capture a bit of joy on your watercolor paper. If you want to learn how to draw this flower, check out my previous video on how to draw and ink a hyacinth flower. If you’re ready to start painting, let’s go ahead and get started! Watch the full tutorial here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5vmxJpZgYY
Step One: Painting Your Base Color
- The first thing we are going to paint is our stem and leaves. With a small angled brush, mix up a very light green. I used PH Martin’s Grass Green heavily watered down for this wash.
- The next thing we are going to paint is our flower petals. After washing your brush, mix up a very light blue wash and paint where your shadows and mid-tones would be located. Leave your highlights white. I used PH Martin’s Hyacinth Blue for this wash.
Step Two: Adding Color Details
- Some, but not all, hyacinth flowers have a tiny stripe which comes from the center of the flower to the petal tip. We will be painting this detail next.
- Using the same watered-down blue as earlier, add a tiny bit of purple. Make sure the purple you are adding has a slightly “bluish” hue rather than a pink or “reddish” hue. These details are mainly in shadow regions of your painting and would appear cooler in color than warm.
- On the opened flowers facing us, paint a stripe coming from the inside of the flower and pulling out toward the tip of the petal. Next widen the base and come to a point at the tip of the petal to create a star-looking appearance. I used a liner brush for this technique.
Step Three: Adding Shadows to the Flowers
- With the same color as earlier, first paint all the “tattered” flowers which are hidden inside the flower cluster. This will make it easier for your eye to concentrate on the shadows for the other more detailed flowers.
- Using the same color as earlier, mix up a slightly darker bluish purple hue. With this color, paint your first layer of shadows on your petals.
- TIP #1: Here’s a tip for you: when you’re beginning to paint with a new color, always start in an area that will be darker than your current color. In our case, find an area that would be an intense dark shadow and place your color there. Sometimes when mixing my colors, I’ll try the paint on a scrap piece of paper and think it’s the correct color, only to paint it on my paper and find out it’s still not quite the right color I desire. By placing it in a region I’ll paint darker later, I don’t have to worry about removing the entire color from the paper. I can simply glaze a darker color over top and correct the color easily.
- TIP #2: Here’s a second tip for you! When painting your flower shadows, make sure to paint in the direction of the petal’s growth or veins. This will give a more natural appearance.
Step Four: Adding to the Stem and Leaves
- Let your flowers dry a bit while you mix up a new color. Using the same green as earlier, add a tiny bit of red. This will give the appearance of a deeper, more neutral green. Once the color is mixed, paint your stem’s and leaf’s shadows. If you’re not sure exactly where these are located, check out my shading video.
Step Five: Highlighting Warmth
- Add warmth to your leaf with a tinge of yellow where your highlights would be located.
- Then, mixing a watered-down pink, add a tiny bit of purple, then use this color to tint your highlights on your petals. This final detail really adds dimension and a hint of warm color to your painting.
Step Six: Final Shading for Flowers
- Once again, mix a deep blue with a hint of purple. With this color, paint your darkest shadows on your petals.
- After this is complete, add more purple to your mixture and then add a bit of orange. This will tone down your purple/blue mixture to a more neutral color. With this color, paint your darkest shadows on the “tattered” petals — the ones inside the cluster.
Step Seven: Final Details
- Look at your painting very closely now. You may even want to let it sit for an hour or so and then come back. Sometimes the drying process can change some of your previous details. It’s here where you do some tweaking where you see fit. Do you need more shadows, or perhaps your pink highlights got a bit lost as they dried? Go ahead and correct them now.
And that’s it! You have finished your watercolor painting and have a beautiful hyacinth flower to frame. As an added touch, with Higgins black ink I created a small black frame around my painting, but that is completely up to you. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial!
Lots of love on your art journey!
Carrie