Watercolor Flower

WATERCOLOR FLOWER

This is a lesson I have taught maybe over 30 or 100 times... lets just say allot.  You can teach basic watercolor technique with it and discuss the beauty of things around us, things we may overlook.  If I could paint flowers, live, beautiful, vibrant flowers, for the rest of my days, life would be bliss.   I guess I really could if I wanted to...no.   I cant commit to one art form.




BASIC STEPS (Basic is in bold text, elaborate descriptions are underneath)

1. Introduce students to Georgia O'Keefe by showing them one of her flower paintings, I prefer Red Canna, 1924.  

Ask students what it is.  Some may recognize it.  Draw a standard cartoon daisy like flower (think..Murakami flowers) and talk about the difference between that flower and georgia O Keeffe's flower.  Talk about how, as an artist, you choose what you paint.  You dont have to paint the whole image, you dont even have to paint what you see, maybe you will paint what you feel.  For todays lesson we are going to paint a part of what we see.  Part of a flower.  Ideally, you would paint this flower together, then put fresh flowers in front of the students, or go outside, and have them paint a flower however they feel like painting it.  

2. Draw the flower together

THE PAPER:I use cheap watercolor paper at the store, because I consider this a practice.  We make a simple taped border with masking tape to create a white frame.  THE FLOWER: This could be fresh, real flowers, or a print out of one you took, or most likely googled.  I choose lilies.  I love the phrase "lilies of the field".  The Lilly I used for years not longer appears on google images and I cant find it on my computer.  So if you find a good one, save it where you can find it again.  I label the petals, and talk about how they may not look like a petal, they might look like a rock, or a hill. Lines that make up the edge of the petals might be a rainbow or arc.  This is also a good time to point out negative space.  In the case of the flower I just painted with my class the whole flower seems to be one shape, the background, or negative space, makes triangles on the edge of the paper, that may be easier to draw than the actual petals.  If you want to integrate this with science or botany, talk about the parts of the flower and what they are for.  The parts I said were shaped like a bean, and the freckles on the petals have much more interesting names I'm sure.

3. Paint a background color Behind the flower (optional)

I should put optional behind all of these descriptions of what to do!  Paint LIGHT TO DARK and normally, FAR TO NEAR.   In this case we didnt paint far to near because our background was simple ( no tree branches, etc)  We did paint light to dark.  This makes it so much easier to correct mistakes and avoid covering up the lighter areas.  Glazing (painting layers of watercolor) is a technique that makes watercolor appear rich, and can bring an image together.   For my flower we painted the background bright yellow because it seems like yellow shines through the petals to me.   Remember, when painting a large area, have your students make a large puddle of water in the watercolor tray for the yellow.  Use a large, bright (square) paintbrush to paint it in.  As this layer dries start mixing the colors for you next layers in more puddles.

4.  Paint in the rest of the colors, LIGHT TO DARK

After you have the colors mixed in the tray in puddles that are big enough to cover the  areas they are needed, begin painting.  TIP: AVOID SCRUBBING THE PAPER.  There is no need to go over an area over and over with the same color, it will not make it darker if you immediately do it and will end up scrubbing through the paper.  If I paint an area and I dont like my edges, I wash my brush out dry it a little and go over the edge, or take a lighter color over it.  For the particular flower we were painting, the color tends to burst from the center.  None of the brush strokes go horizontally across a petal, but from the inside out.

5.  Add details and the background

Add the "freckles" on the petals, dark shadows you may have missed, and paint in the background.  This is a good time to talk about color theory.  What colors would look the best?  Why?  What would a black background look like compared to light blue?  Art is about making decisions, and those decisions dont ever have to be backed by reason, however, it helps to talk about what affect different decisions have on the overall composition. (will any of this make sense in the morning?)

6.  Let it dry, take the tape off the edges, give it a Title

Carefull when taking tape off, it can take paper off with it and tear into the painting.  Let the students title their paintings.  Make sure they see each others.  If inclined, point out how different they all are even though you painted the same flower.  How did that happen?  This could be a great discussion!