Start by drawing the outline.

Before you begin painting, prepare your colour mixes by adding the following colours in separate mixing wells to a milky consistency: cadmium orange, alizarin crimson, scarlet lake and lamp black.

Using a No. 5 brush, wet the wing cases of the ladybird two or three times to ensure the paper stays wet longer; this will allow you more working time. Let the water soak in a little.

Fill in the area with milky cadmium orange.

Drop scarlet lake over the top then alizarin crimson, leaving gaps here and there. This should result in a blurred effect.

1. Re-wet the wing cases. Do this by barely touching the paper and without going over the same area twice, to minimise disturbing the previous layer.

2. Using the No. 1 brush, add a mix of lamp black and alizarin crimson (see below 3a) to the darker areas of the ladybird.

3. Add a touch of the same black into a spare well and mix to a watery consistency. Add this to parts of the wing cases to give them a little more variation in colour. Give the painting a dry.

1. To give the wing cases more detail and interest, use the lifting-off technique. Look carefully at the photo and you will see curved lines across the shell. Wet the No. 00 brush then tap it a couple of times onto kitchen roll to take off any surplus water. Barely touching the paper, go over the same curved line a few times then quickly dab the painting with kitchen roll; this will reveal a nice light curve.

2. Check the photo for any other marks you can see and add a few tiny lifted-off dots to the top right-hand side.

1. Paint the black spots with the No. 00 brush and the same black and alizarin crimson mix from Step 3. Tidy up the right-hand side if you need to and reinforce any darks you see. Again, give the painting a dry.

2. If you are using white, mix it to a creamy consistency and paint the highlighted spots you see in the photo.

1. Clean the brush and use it to lighten and soften edges of the white to give a blended effect.

2. Mix the following colours to a milky consistency: cerulean blue; phthalo blue; lamp black mixed with alizarin crimson (50:50); and white for the highlights.

3. Wet the area just above the wing cases, which is called the pronotum. Drop cerulean blue over this area. Whilst wet, add phthalo blue to the middle of the area then the lamp black mix to the darker section. Give the painting a dry.

1. Using the lamp black and alizarin crimson mix, lightly stipple the darkest areas of the pronotum. Look closely at the photo to see all these details. Space the dots out towards the lighter area then very lightly soften with a damp, clean No. 5 brush. Once dry, add a few white highlights.

2. Follow the same procedure for the head and paint the front leg. We need to leave the back legs until after we have painted the greenery.

3. For the antennae, lightly cover with milky yellow ochre, pop in a few burnt umber marks and add the tiniest amount of the dark mix we used earlier, just to define a few edges.

Time to paint the plant life! For the greens you will need milky consistency versions of: lemon yellow; olive green; sap green mixed with burnt umber; lamp black mixed with burnt umber; and the white paint used earlier.

Using the No. 1 brush, wet an area and fill this with lemon yellow. Whilst still wet, drop in the olive green, covering most of the lemon yellow. Add smaller amounts of the burnt umber and sap green mix, just to vary the colours.

Follow the stages above for the rest of the plant and allow to dry.

1. Next start defining the blurry sections seen in the photo and paint them a little sharper. Very lightly outline the inner edges of each section using a creamy sap green and burnt umber mix.

2. Fill these areas in one by one by adding the darker lines using the sap green and burnt umber and the burnt umber and lamp black mixes, varying the strength of these colours as you work through the sections.

1. Give the painting a dry then use the lifting-off technique to add even more details, adding a few touches of watercolour white for those really bright areas.

2. When the white paint is dry, add a touch of yellow ochre over the top, but not over all the white areas. Do this in one go, otherwise you risk blurring the white paint.

3. Paint the remaining legs with the lamp black and alizarin crimson mix, adding a few white highlights tinted with a touch of the yellow ochre in places; this will give the legs a little bit of sparkle.

The finished painting

Ladybird, watercolour on 140lb (300gsm) NOT watercolour paper, (23x31cm)

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Follow more demonstrations from Paul:

• How to paint a long tailed tit
• How to paint a feather in watercolour
• How to paint a nest of blackbird's eggs
• How to paint an otter
• How to paint a kingfisher

Try painting insects in line and wash with Liz Chaderton

This demonstration is taken from the July 2021 issue of Leisure Painter. Enjoy endless inspiration with access to past and present issues of both magazines, plus exclusive video demos, tutorials and more, with our Studio Membership! Discover how you can join today.