How to paint daffodils in watercolour

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For further examples of Paul’s work, details of his painting courses and holidays, as well as tutorial videos and details of his Freestyle watercolour brush, please visit his website at www.paulweaverart.co.uk

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

Colours

Winsor yellow

Cadmium yellow

Raw sienna

Permanent rose

Cerulean blue

Burnt sienna

Ultramarine blue

Alizarin crimson

How to paint flowers in watercolour with Paul Weaver

Flowers provide exciting subject matter during the spring and summer months, offering vibrant colour, elegant forms, tonal variation and design potential. I particularly enjoy the way bright sunlight enhances the translucent and reflective surfaces of flowers and foliage, and the fluid transparency of watercolour makes it ideal for capturing these light effects and organic forms.

Tulips, watercolour on Bockingford Rough 140lb (300gsm), (35.5x35.5cm).
Painted in two washes, the simple forms allowed for a loose, expressive approach.

Three-step strategy

My three-step strategy for painting flowers is designed to keep things fresh, minimise mud and preserve transparency.

Step 1: Tonal rough and composition plan

This is essential if I am to paint with economy and conviction. Painting without a plan is like going into a new city without a map, the one thing you can be sure of achieving is getting lost! With a clear route forward, I lightly sketch the main shapes onto the watercolour paper with a 2B pencil.

Step 2: The underpainting

I aim to cover the whole sheet, establishing all light passages while reserving any highlights as white paper. This is the foundation of the work, paving the way for all washes to come by helping me relate everything to the whole, rather than scattered bits and pieces. The main ingredient that describes light is tone and to judge it accurately, it must be seen in context, in other words against another tone. If elements are judged against white paper when later they will be surrounded by colour, it’s likely they will need reworking and making stronger, which of course risks creating mud. The foundation wash provides a guide to pitch the next wash accurately and in one go.

Step 3: Mid-tones, darks and details

It is these passages that will describe the shapes within the picture, using the underpainting to pitch their strength as accurately as possible. I especially enjoy revealing bright flowers and leaves by painting the rich, dark negative shapes around them, using the underpainting to create the lightest colours of the blooms and foliage. With discipline, practice and a little bit of luck, a painting can be finished in no more than two washes, creating a vibrant and luminous result.

Regarding the painting sequence, I always work from background to foreground, light to dark, establishing the main masses first and finally the details. It’s vital to observe the edges of shapes carefully – are they sharp, broken, soft or lost and found. This determines if I am working wet-into-wet to create blurred edges or soft transitions, or wet on dry paper if the definition is sharp, rough or broken.

DEMONSTRATION: Sunlit Daffodils

Put Paul’s three-step method to the test, as you paint these Sunlit Daffodils, step-by-step.

Inspired by the sunlight falling across this vase of daffodils I made a quick tonal sketch. This helped me decide to make a focal point of just a few carefully drawn blooms in the top-left third, set against the dark background, and to simplify the rest of the flowers on the right. I also felt the glass vase was an important feature, enhancing the light effect with its highlights and cast shadow.

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I sketched out the main forms in 2B pencil, followed by the underpainting. A wash of Winsor yellow was applied across the flowers and background, adding some cadmium yellow and raw sienna to strengthen the tone on the right. Permanent rose, cerulean blue and burnt sienna were used to establish the main masses of the vase and table, allowing colours to mix and travel on the paper. The highlight on the vase was left as untouched paper.

When all was dry, I developed the deep shadows of the background on the left with ultramarine blue, alizarin crimson and a little burnt sienna, followed by a loose suggestion of the flowers on the right, using cadmium yellow, burnt sienna and cerulean blue, allowing the colours to run and mix on the paper. This step illustrates just how quickly volume and depth can be created with a single wash over the underpainting, one tone informing the other.

Again, when all was dry, I painted the shadows on the petals of the flowers on the left. This created more definition and volume, as well as enhancing the effect of the light. I used cadmium yellow and burnt sienna to model the distinctive trumpet shape at the centre of each flower, along with permanent magenta mixed with a little cerulean blue for the shadows on the petals.

FINISHED PAINTING

Sunlit Daffodils, watercolour on Bockingford Rough 140lb (300gsm), (35.5x25.5cm).

Finally, I painted the vase, working wet-into-wet to create soft edges and suggest the blurred forms of the stems seen through the water and glass. I started this with a wash of Winsor yellow and cerulean blue, quickly adding darker mixes of ultramarine and alizarin on the right. Note how the dark tone of the vase defines the petals of the flower hanging over the edge. The base of the vase was made of brass, suggested with raw sienna and burnt sienna, allowing it to melt into the shadow on the right and connect the vase to the table surface. The painting was essentially completed in just two layers of paint throughout: the underpainting and then one more wash to model and define mass and details.

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