Handpainted Flowers

My maternal grandfather was actually a famous artist in Sweden, but I didn't inherit his talent. Still, I willingly took on the challenge of learning how to paint flowers that could be used in scrapbooks, because I would love to pretend that I do have artistic talents. I found three simple techniques for painting flowers that were easy and yielded great results. Believe me, if I can make these, so can you.

Watercolor Pencils

The easiest possible technique could be considered cheating, as it involves watercolor pencils instead of paint. Since you use a paintbrush and the final effect looks painted, it counts in my book. For this technique, you'll need a set of watercolor pencils, a paintbrush, water, and sturdy paper to prevent the water from weakening and tearing the paper. I used paper from a watercolor pad I had purchased for my children to use.

First, I drew a stem with a leaf, using a green watercolor pencil and making sure to fill in the outline with color. I added a darker line in the center of the leaf for dimension. Next, I drew a center circle and petals. This is a very simple flower, much like ones I would doodle when I was a child. Again, I added extra lines for dimension, but this time I used orange to highlight the yellow petals.

The final step was to paint over the flower using a wet paintbrush. It's best to do the lightest colors first so you don't accidentally drag the darker colors onto the lighter ones, unless of course that's a deliberate choice. When I did the painting, I used the brush as if I were applying paint, rather than just washing over the whole surface with the brush. That way I was able to control the blending of the orange and yellow, and I was able to keep the colors from bleeding into other areas.

Brush Strokes and Dots

One of my favorite flowers is lavender, so I loved learning how to paint lavender at a ceramics shop several years ago. Lavender is quite easy to paint, since it only involves brush strokes and dots. To paint lavender, I used acrylic paint, a paintbrush, and canvas paper. I imagine a cardstock would work well too, since you really just need a paper that won't buckle when it gets wet. For paint colors, I used purple, blue, red, mustard and two shades of green.

The first step was to freehand draw a slightly curved line with the darkest green paint. Next, I drew leaves at random intervals along that line. I made thicker longer ones first, starting at the stem and heading out on an upward diagonal. Then I went back and added thinner ones in between to fill it out a bit. Next I switched to the lighter green and repeated the process, but this time filled in the spaces between the dark green with the same brush strokes. Be sure to add a few small strokes of the lighter green in between the top two dark green strokes.

Once the stem is done, it's time to add the flower. For this, I used the back end of the brush. I dipped it in the red paint and touched it down above the stem, creating dots. The first dot is always the largest, and each subsequent dot gets smaller. I can usually get four or five dots before I need to dip the end in the paint again. There is no exact science as to how many dots to make, but essentially you want to create a final shape that is slightly wider at the bottom and tapers to the top. After the red, repeat the process with the blue and then finally the purple. If you use the purple last, it will be the dominant color in the lavender, which is what you want. I think my lavender flower would have been better if I had used a burgundy instead of red, but I didn't have it on hand. You can experiment with the colors to find the best combination.

For this final step, you should use a brush with a smaller back end. The alternative would be to make the first dots, the ones that are larger, on scrap paper or on your paint tray so that you will only make small dots when you work on your lavender. I added a few small dots of mustard-colored paint at the top to finish off the lavender blossom.

One Stroke Painting

The final technique might look the hardest, but once you get the hang of it you get spectacular results. Even though I don't really have the hang of it quite yet, I loved the flower I was able to create. This technique is called One Stroke Painting, and I learned it from a book by Donna Dewberry. I highly recommend picking up one of her books if you are interested in this technique.

The basic idea behind her technique is that you load up your brush with two colors at the same time. Donna Dewberry has a line of specific brushes to use with her technique, but you probably don't need to buy them unless you plan on doing lots of painting this way. I used a flat-tipped brush, and dipped it on an angle into purple paint. I then dipped the other corner of the brush that had no paint on it in the white paint. Following the directions in her book, I placed the brush on the paper and then moved it upwards at the same time I rotated it to the right. I repeated this five more times to create each of the petals. She actually had five petals in the example I was looking at, but since I'm a novice, I had space left over that I needed to fill with a petal. It certainly cannot be used in a field guide for flower identification! The next time I make one I will shoot for more purple and less white; however, I love how the purple and white blend together.

To finish it off, I ignored her directions for making the dots in the center using a paint bottle that had a tip. Instead, I again used the back end of a paint brush to add small yellow dots to the center of the flower.

I know that my flowers are never going to make me famous as an artist. I don't care, because it was so enjoyable to paint them. I felt much more talented than I really am. Even though I have five sons, someday soon I'm going to have to create a scrapbook page using at least one of these flower-painting techniques.

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