First Steps Into Flower Painting in Watercolour!!

First step is the hardest and you've made it - yes you'll improve and it won't be long before you see some real strides forward. And don't worry about the granulation - I rather think it makes it all that much more interesting (unless you are doing a strict botanical painting that is). By coincidence I was doing a workshop of a country scene on Wednesday when I was approached in the middle of it all to show a lady how to paint a sweet pea flower - just hope she followed it as we didn't have time for her to try it out for herself during the session.

Its a greeat start ,Adele!

Adele you are so brave taking on this course I do admire you. Your petals really do have a nice shape, also I see the bottom left petal and the one just above to the right have worked beautifully with the lifting out. Hope you will keep us informed I am very interested to see how you get on.

Well done Adele. Practice, practice again and again, I can see that in a few weeks you will be mastering a lot of stuff, it's quite a journey to take (and taking it all in). Keep up the good work.

From small acorns and all that Adele.....this is a great start and the only way is up and onwards....just enjoy it, even the frustrating times. Hope you keep us up to date with your progress.

Thank you for your very welcome and encouraging comments Michael, Chandra, Carole, Margaret and Fiona. I shall try not to bore you with too many of the examples. Carole I can see those petals more clearly on here than on my paper, so perhaps it did work more than I thought. Also having a bit of trouble from my naturally slightly shaky hands - any tips for keeping a steadier hand?

Look like kisses to me Adele, heart shaped ones.

For keeping the hand steady it's just a matter of practice Adele. I used to sign write, you just keep at it and then the confidence develops. Then no more shaking.

I have a shaky hand mines age! :)

Pretend you're putting your eye liner on Adele...you'll be as steady as a rock!lol

Don't wear eye liner Fi - reason - my hand shakes!!! Thanks John and Carole. John I think they look more like deformed chickenpox to me. Carole, I'm no spring chicken, but thanks for the inference that I may be a youngster!!

I have big problems with painting flowers Adele. I find that it helps if (as far as possible) I have the subject upside down and don't look at it as a flower but as a series of shapes (only really works with photos as with an actual flower the light would be from the wrong side). That way I can paint one petal at a time without worrying if it looks like a flower. Once finished I turn the painting the right way up and step back. I find that MY paintings tend to look better from a distance... usually, from the other side of the car park is about right :-)