Question from Phyllis:
On another topic, more art than nature study, I have a question for you: do you have any tips for drawing/painting white flowers? We’re trying to draw these flowers with watercolor pencils right now. In the past, I’ve drawn a background behind, and left the white. Any other ideas? It’s hard!
I did some experimenting and found a way to easily include white flowers in your nature journal. Using a watercolor wash and then putting the white flowers on top is one solution to the problem.
Steps:
- Make a watercolor wash on your page and then let it dry.
- Sketch lightly with pencil your flower’s leaves, stem, and blossom.
- Use watercolors and paint your leaves and stems.
- Use white watercolor paint and very little water to fill in the white flower, keeping the paint very opaque.
- Let your paints dry and then go back to add darker details and shading.
I use tube watercolors with great success.
We made a short video tutorial for you to watch.
I really like this book and even though it says it is for use with acrylics, I find it perfectly applicable for watercolors as well. If you click the Amazon.com link below, you can preview the pages inside. I love the visual index at the end of the book.
Many families wait to offer watercolors from a tube to their children. In our family, we found these watercolors to be a lot of fun and the boys learned early how to only squirt out a little at a time. I gave each one their own set along with their own palette and brushes. With a little training, you can offer these paints in your family as well.
Enjoy!
Barb-Harmony Art Mom
Yes, but the white goes so FAST!!
We were outdoors with trees today, but next time I told them we’d take out the watercolors and I think we’ll do flowers.
We have a really full bed of yellow irises blooming right now.
Thanks for the lovely tutorial / video.
Heather,
I usually end up going to down to Michael’s and getting extra tubes certain colors of paints. I do the same thing with colored pencils and end up purchasing extra greens and browns.
Alecat,
You are very welcome. I always wonder if my little videos are of much use since I am no professional and I’m just sharing how I solve problems with art projects.
Thanks for the comments,
Barb
I remember in art class once we had to draw a white still life (white vase, white lily, white rock, etc) without using the color white but make it recognizable as a white object, ie. not abstract and wild but really looking to see all the colors that are in the color white. It was an interesting, very difficult, very memorable assignment.
Jennifer,
Great point. White is just another problem to solve when it comes to making something look real. I love that there are so many things to learn about color as we work in our nature journal.
My challenging art project when I was in college was to draw/paint glass. I think I worked most of a semester getting the hang of that concept.
Thanks for the comment,
Barb
Thank you so much! I’ve been away from the computer, so I’m just seeing this now. Now I can’t wait to get a tube of white and try this. It might be a while, but I’ll let you know how I do when I get a chance.
You are welcome Phyllis.
Barb