Wildflower Watercolor Tutorial - Blanket Flowers
Let’s paint a beginner-friendly floral watercolor piece together! In this tutorial, I’ll be walking you through how to paint watercolor Blanket Flowers step-by-step. These vibrant wildflowers can be found all over Texas, and I love how bold and beautiful they are!
Grab your favorite watercolor painting supplies and let’s dive in!
Supplies
Blanket Flower Drawing
You can download my line drawing for free here! If you want to create your own sketch, I’ll walk you through how to do that in the next section.
Watercolor Paper
I prefer a 140lb, 100% cotton paper like Arches, but you can use any watercolor paper that you have on hand.
Watercolor Paint
I’ll be using different shades of yellow and red for this tutorial. My preferred paint brand is QoR, but any brand of paint will work for this easy breezy tutorial!
Round Brushes
This tutorial will work best with round watercolor brushes in a medium and small size. My favorite are the Princeton Heritage brushes.
Transfer the Drawing to Watercolor Paper
You have two options for creating the sketch for this tutorial. One is to use my pre-drawn Blanket Flower line drawing, and the other is to draw your own composition.
To use my drawing…
Download the free drawing by clicking here. Then follow the instructions in this blog post to transfer the drawing to a sheet of watercolor paper.
To draw your own Blanket Flowers…
Here is a reference photo so you know what you’re drawing!
You can draw a Blanket Flower in a few quick steps.
Start by drawing a small circle for the center of the flower
Draw a larger circle around the small one. This indicates where the edges of the petals will land.
Mark the center of the small circle with a little “x” so you know where the center of the flower is.
Draw some guidelines through the center “x” to help you know where to place the petals
Draw petals around each guideline and finish them with three prongs at the end
Need a more detailed breakdown of this process? Watch this part of my YouTube tutorial!
Breaking Down the Reference Photo
Before you start painting, let’s take a minute to look at the reference photo and understand how we want the painting to look.
Petals
The blanket flower petals are yellow towards the edges and have a bright red center. The red has feathered edges that mimic the jagged edges of the petal itself.
Center
The center of the flower is yellow with a darker maroon edge.
Now it’s time to start painting! We’ll be using a few main techniques:
Glazing - Adding multiple layers
Wet in wet - Creating a wet surface and adding more wet paint into it
Wet on dry - Adding additional watercolor pigment once a layer is dry
Painting the Blanket Flower Petals
When I’m painting florals, I like to take it one petal at a time. I’d encourage you to do that in your piece too! That will allow you to get the most precision and control with your piece.
Step 1: Yellow Base (wet in wet technique)
We’re going to start by painting the base of the petals with a yellow wash. Before picking up any pigment, start with a clean watercolor brush, dip it in water, and paint a layer of plain water on your first petal. You want to make sure that this is a thin, even layer on the page without any excessive pooling.
While this base layer of water is still wet, grab some of your yellow paint and start adding it to the wet petal. Painting wet in wet allows the paint to flow more smoothly and give that classic watercolor look.
Step 2: Red Center (wet on dry technique)
The petals have a red center with ruffled edges. In order to get a crisp, feathery look with the red part of the petal, you’ll need to wait for the yellow layer to dry completely. If you paint the red layer while the yellow is still wet, it will bleed and mix with the yellow pigment.
After your yellow area is dry, pick up some red pigment and start carefully painting it in from the center of the petal. Make sure to leave some of the yellow peeking out at the end of the petal. Add small feathered strokes at the edge of the red area to give it that Blanket Flower look.
Painting the Center of the Flower
The center of a Blanket Flower is shaped like a cone. When painting a cone shape, it can be helpful to make one side lighter and one side darker to indicate to the viewer that it is a round, 3D shape.
Mix up a darker red than you used for the petals to get more of a maroon color. I mixed Alizarin Crimson with some purple to get a darker maroon hue.
Step 1: Yellow Center (wet in wet technique)
To start, paint a layer of plain water in the center of the flower. Note: Make sure all of the surrounding petals are dry to prevent them from bleeding into this section. Then drop some yellow in at the center.
Step 2: Add Maroon Around the Edge (wet in wet technique)
While the center is still wet, pick up some of the maroon paint and drop it in around the edges. It will bleed with the yellow which is what we want!
Step 3: Lighten and Blend
If you find that the center is a bit too blotchy and dark, you can use a paper towel to gently blot it. This will also help it blend and give the center some extra texture.
Step 4: Add Dimension
To give the center a more 3D effect, add some darker shadows to one side using the maroon color.
Add Final Details
We’re almost there! The last step is to add some final details using the wet on dry technique. You can add darker red lines to the center of the petals to give them some extra depth and texture.
You can also play with using stippling (aka painting lots of little dots) on the center of the flower to increase its textured appearance.
Follow these steps for all the elements of the flowers in your drawing. And just like that, your floral masterpiece will be complete!
Want to show off your beautiful painting? Share it in my FREE Floral Watercolor Facebook group! Click here to join the supportive community of botanical artists and unlock more tutorials from yours truly!
