How to draw a peony. Watercolor: tips and features of the technique

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Watercolor is one of the most difficult techniques in painting.

Depicting flowers, the artist must be attentive to their details. Petals, stems and other parts must be connected, it is important to understand how this flower grows. Without understanding, the picture cannot be complete. The best option is to represent nature "through". This makes it easier to draw the constituent parts of the plant. In this article, you will read about how to draw flowers in watercolor.

Subtleties of technology

Watercolor is different from all possible painting materials. This paint is designed for light, "airy" drawing. Pictures should not be too bright. It is by no means impossible to “hammer” watercolor, drawing it thickly, as if with gouache or oil. Be sure to somewhere in the picture should show through the color of the paper. This is considered an indicator of superior skill. Painting with watercolor does not involve working out the details. More important is the task of conveying the shape of objects, in this case, these are peonies. Watercolor can be combined with other techniques. For example, when the work dries, some small details can be drawn with a pen over the paint. It absorbs very well and is easy to do.

Materials for work

If you want to write a decent work, then the approach to drawing must be serious. This means that you need to prepare everything you need. Large amounts of water are used to work with watercolors. You can pour it into a glass or any other vessel.

Watercolor paper needs a special one. Since this paint is necessarily mixed with water, the sheets must be dense. To do this, there is a special watercolor paper with a rough surface on one side and a smooth surface on the other. You need to draw on the rough side.

Brushes for painting in watercolor technique are also special. Best suited natural, squirrel. If there is no way to find these, synthetics will do.

Getting Started

It is necessary to determine what will be the main thing in the composition. If there are a lot of flowers, it makes no sense to draw them all in detail. It will take a lot of time and effort, and in the end will bring down the impression of the picture. It is better to focus on a specific flower and draw it in as much detail as possible.

The first step is to draw the background. These should be the pale colors that are present in the environment of the flowers. Do not paint over the areas where the peonies will be. Watercolor cannot completely cover any color. Due to the fact that the paint is liquid, when overlapping, the colors will mix or mud will turn out. Therefore, it is better to make as few mistakes as possible when painting peonies in watercolor. Gradually fill sections of the sheet with different color spots. Be attentive to nature. Use more shades, you canobtained by mixing primary colors from the box on a special palette (paper or plastic).

The next step in deciding how to paint a peony in watercolor is to sketch out the main, foreground. Mark with a color spot the vase in which the peonies stand, and the stems that stand in it. Make long, narrow brush strokes according to the shape of the petals. You should not take a lot of color on a brush at once, limit yourself to pale strokes. If everything is done correctly, proceed to the next flower.

Drawing the main elements

Flowers that are closest to you should be made bright. And those who are behind them, let them remain pale. The main thing is to let the viewer understand that the vase contains not a few flowers, but a bouquet of peonies. The thicker the bouquet, the more pleasant it is to look at the picture.

Don't forget the shadows on the flowers. The darkest areas must be highlighted by painting peonies in watercolor. You can get the color of the shadow by mixing pink with dark brown or navy blue. It's better not to use black for the shadow, it will create the effect of dirty colors.

When working on nearby flowers, do not wait for pale strokes to dry. Taking bright paint on a brush, it is enough to draw it over the petal. The paint will flow beautifully over the wet trail from the previous step.

Completing the painting

When the accents on the main peonies are added, it is worth taking care of the greenery. You can add bright colors to some leaves or stems. This will give the picture a summery juiciness and freshness.

A good trick when painting flowers with watercolor is to add shades from the environment to the leaves and some of the petals. This is called "reflex" and helps to integrate the background with the subjects of the composition.

Another good move is to darken the edges of the picture. You can do this by taking on a brush a color a tone darker than the one with which you painted the background. It is necessary to smear the paint with water so smoothly that the contrast of light and dark is not so noticeable. If you put a picture in a frame, it will look more presentable than without it.