Taken from the April 1999 issue of The Artist, Richard Taylor offers advice on how to paint the white flowers of springtime in watercolour on white paper.

Fresh, pure white spring flowers are a pleasure, and challenging to record in watercolour. The slight buttery yellow tint of tulips and the cool blues of white irises provide subtly coloured subjects for painters – but they usually require ‘something extra’ in the composition or study to allow the white really to come alive.

In all the illustrations here I found it necessary to include a few leaves or stems for the white to stand out against or, where no such additions exist, I have invented some background colour, choosing appropriate paints to enhance the colour values of the flowers.

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White on white paper

Coloured backgrounds are often the most effective way of visually ‘pushing’ a white shape forward and ensuring that it stands out against the white of a sheet of watercolour paper.

I use a ‘wet-into-wet’ technique to create my backdrops, using the following procedures.

First, some care is taken to wet only the area around the flower heads with clean water, using a large brush – but one with a good point to reach round the leaves and petals. Before this has time even to begin to dry or evaporate, assorted colours (usually those within the general colour scheme of the particular arrangement) are dropped onto the paper and allowed to bleed freely. I will only, usually, use two or three colours at a time in this process.

As most white flowers will require both a little warmth, tempered with a colder, fresher colour, I tend to choose from ultramarine violet, ultramarine, Winsor blue and cobalt blue.

This particular background was painted with ultramarine violet and Winsor blue only.

This exercise can be undertaken with confidence if you are careful with your wetting, as watercolour paint is reluctant to run from wet onto dry paper – it will stop naturally when it hits a dry patch.

It is also important that this process takes place on wet, not damp paper. If watercolour paint is applied to damp paper (paper into which water has fully soaked but not yet dried) it will spread outwards from its point of application, but will leave a stain at the point of initial contact. If, however, you apply paint to paper whilst the water is still sitting on the surface, the clear water will carry the paint, creating a series of soft blends without hard edges as it dries.

Light and shade

A high element of restraint is required when painting light and shade in white flowerheads because you will have to leave much of the white paper unpainted – I believe that you will not achieve fresher, purer, more natural white than that of your watercolour paper.

Only a minimal amount of paint is required to create the shadows formed as petals overlap and twist, or as you look deep into the recesses of cone-shaped flowers.

I use a size 1 brush for this process and will normally work onto dry paper to allow the maximum amount of control.

I usually seek out the darkest areas – often around the point where petals overlap – and run a line of watery paint along the edge of the overlapping petal. I usually use a combination of ultramarine violet and Winsor or cobalt blue for this application. Before this has time to dry I run a line of clear water along the other edge of the paint (not the edge that makes the overlapping petal stand out) and pull this outwards.

This process dilutes the paint, graduating the shadow, and allows you to blot the outer edge with a sheet of kitchen roll to prevent a hard-edged shadow from occurring as the paint dries. Most shadows found inside flower heads will be soft and graduated – few will contain hard-edged shadows.

As in most cases, you will find that the introduction of other elements into your study will be particularly valuable – the background tonal wash and the stem of the lily in the illustration above are essential for this particular composition to work.

Painting foliage

All flowers have stems, and by far the vast majority will have leaves attached – if not, you may well find it useful to include some in your composition by ‘importing’ them from appropriate flowers.

I find it useful to include leaves – they add a welcome flash of colour and they can also act as a backdrop against which your white flower heads may be seen. Daisies, above, shows how the strength of the foliage surrounding the white flower heads makes them stand out.

The leaves themselves were created by painting a mixture of sap green and Winsor blue onto an olive green underwash (below). The areas directly underneath the flower head and in between the petals were treated to a particularly deep mixture of green. This was painted with a size 1 brush, and pulled downwards into the painted leaves.

Detail of Daisies, above


Demonstration: White tulips and irises

Follow these steps to practise the technique for making a white flower stand out on a sheet of white paper.

Step one

Firstly, the background colours and tones are created by allowing the colours to bleed and dry freely.

Once this is fully dried, the underwash (olive and sap greens mixed together) is applied to the leaves and stems, making the (as yet) unpainted white flower heads stand out even more.

Step two

Once the underwash has dried, the application of the main colour (sap green and Winsor blue) strengthens the white images even more.

Step three

The areas where the flower heads join the stems were underwashed with a watery wash of cadmium yellow.

Step four

When this had dried, the shaded areas were painted with a very watery mixture of ultramarine violet and Winsor blue. The translucency of the paint allowed the yellow to show through.

Step five

Once the wash had dried, a few sharp lines were painted on to represent the areas where petals overlapped each other.

Step six

Finally, the addition of coloured flowers into the composition works as a visual ‘booster’, giving the viewer a sense of contrast – something against which to compare the white visually.


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