Beginner in painting? No worries! My simple 7-step watercolor botanicals tutorial helps you paint effortlessly and easily.
Let’s Talk About It!
As an affiliate for several businesses, this post has paid affiliate links I may receive a commission on any purchases at no extra cost to you.
I love watercolor as it is a wonderful and rewarding form of art. It is perfect because it can be forgiving and I love that if I mess up, I can either scrub it away ( most of the time ) or use it as scrap watercolor paper.
I recently have ventured into watercolor botanicals as I love the colors and I can be as creative with it as I want to be. I have started to paint them individually to make clipart for my digital planners.
Creating watercolor botanicals for you can be a form of relaxation, inspire your creativity, and give you a true appreciation for how beautiful nature is.
Materials Needed For Your Watercolor Botanical Paradise
- Watercolor paints: For this tutorial, I will be using pan paints, but you can use a tube or the watercolor paint of your choice.
- Watercolor paper: Technically, hot-pressed paper is great to use for botanicals, but I am a cold-pressed type of gal, and that is what I will be using. The suggested size is 9×12
- Brushes: Always my go-to brushes are #2 and #6 round. My #2 round is perfect for my detailing that I will do, so if you don’t have a detail brush, no worries, a #2 round will do just as well.
- Palette or plate: If you are using tube paints, you will want some sort of mixing palette. Most pan paints have one in the cases they come in unless you don’t have one – a palette or ceramic plate will do nicely. Enamelware pans are my favorite! I’m a collector.
- Water container: Two water containers are always in my watercolor area as I use one to rinse the brush and one for clean washes.
- Paper towels or rag: Either or both, but paper towels are great for blotting. I keep an old wash rag and paper towels. You will occasionally dab your brush on the paper towel or rag if you have too much water/paint on your brush.
Now that you have your supply list, set it up in a comfortable area where you can be messy and creative to paint your watercolor botanicals!
Step 1: Choose Your Botanical Subject
There are many types of botanicals to paint such as flowers, leaves, fruits, or vegetables. We are going to create one watercolor botanical of each type.
- Hibiscus – A tropical plant I love because now that I live in Florida, I have one year-round outside my sunroom window.
- Fern – There are many types of ferns, and we are painting one that closely resembles the Western Polypody.
- Lemon – These are some of the easier watercolor botanicals to start with.
- Red Hot Chili Pepper – Let’s add some “heat” to our paintings!
Refer to the chart below to look at the colors, shapes, and textures we will be using or creating the effect.
Botanical | Colors | Shapes | Textures |
Hibiscus | Permanent Rose, Sap Green | Circles | Crepe |
Fern | Sap Green, Payne’s Grey | Oval | Leather |
Lemon | Lemon Yellow, Cadmium Orange, Sap Green | Ovals | Stipple |
Red Hot Chili Pepper | Scarlet Red, Prussian Blue, Sap Green | Triangle | Smooth Glossy |
You can substitute colors that you do not have. I suggest that your watercolor palette should always have Payne’s Grey, Prussian Blue, Cadmium Red, and Lemon Yellow.
From those colors, you can make a variety of other colors. Read more about Color Theory in one of my earlier blog posts.
Step 2: Sketch Your Composition
I used to be intimidated by sketching my outline. After learning to think about shapes, it made it a bit easier. I usually sketch my ideas on scrap paper first until I get it to where I am happy with it.
For our watercolor botanicals, let’s start with the hibiscus. Create a circle. Within that circle, you are going to sketch 5 wavy petals. Try not to take each petal to the center. See the example below. Once you have your petals made, erase your outer circle. In the lower right center of the flower (not in the petals, just the center part) draw a quarter circle and jet out 3 or four curved lines. At the base of each petal make two curved lines ( ). That’s it!
The fern is probably going to be the easiest one to sketch. Draw a long curved line. At the tip of the line create a pointed oval – not too big. For the rest of the fronds, you will have pointed ovals going out in each direction from the center line starting small and growing as each one goes down the stem until you have about 7 or 8 of them. Leave enough room for the long stem or lengthen your stem. Done.
Lemons are not as difficult as you think. It is an oval with slightly rounded pointed ends. To be honest, when we paint these, you won’t need a sketch. It is easier to paint the oval with your lemon yellow than to have the mark of the pencil on your watercolor paper. I only want to point out what shape you will be creating.
Red hot chili peppers are a long triangular, tube-like shape. Meaning that it will have a slight roundness to it at the top of the pepper and a curved part that goes all the way down to its point on one side of it.
Now it’s time to get these on your watercolor paper. It is up to you if you want to lightly sketch your watercolor botanicals on your paper or freehand paint them. The sketching part was mainly for you to practice making the form of the botanical.
Before we start painting, let’s get your watercolor paper set up. Using painter’s tape or a tape that won’t tear your watercolor paper, frame off your paper to either a table, chipboard, cardboard, or whatever you will use to tape your watercolor papers onto.
On your 9×12 watercolor paper, once you have it framed and adhered to your surface, you will then make four equal sections with your tape going vertical and horizontal. We will be painting each watercolor botanical in each section.
Step 3: Prepare Your Palette
Using all of the colors from above, you will want to get your watercolor botanicals palette set up. I like to use a spray/mist water bottle and wet my pan paints first and spray a small amount onto the palettes themselves. Spraying the pan paints gets them activated and easier to use.
Spraying water onto your palette will help you create a range of values when you mix your pigment in with it when ready to do so.
Remember, if you don’t have the exact colors I listed, you want to at least have primary colors of red, blue, and yellow, and any earthy tones you have will work as well.
Step 4: Start with Washes
Be sure when you are doing this tutorial, that you are doing one watercolor botanicals at a time from start to finish. The reason is that there will be some of the botanicals you still want to be wet for the next step.
The bullet points below will give detailed instructions as well as the graphic images provided will put you on the right path for painting. You will experiment with washes, wet-on-wet, wet-on-dry, and dry brush techniques as well as experiment with color blending and gradients.
- Hibiscus: Sketch your florals on your watercolor paper and paint in with your first wash using a #2 round brush. Use a bit more water than permanent rose pigment to get a light wash as this will be your base wash.
- Fern: If you need to sketch your fern, do so, if not, start with your stem placing a leaf at the tip. Work your way down by starting with the tip of your #2 round brush and drag and lift to create that pointed oval look. Make your sap green leaves longer as you work your way down the stem.
- Lemon: Use a clean water wash with a #6 round brush as this will be a wet-on-wet technique. Make your oval/lemon shape. Begin to drop in that lemon-yellow paint and help it along a little to disperse into your wet area.
- Red hot chili pepper: Using your red paint, do the same as your hibiscus and create your pepper shape. After outlining it with your paint with your #2 round brush, use water to spread that paint to the rest of the pepper.
Step 5: Add Layers To Your Watercolor Botanicals
Now is the time to add some layers and a few details. Let’s break them down one by one.
- Hibiscus: While the first wash is still wet, drop in some concentrated permanent rose in the areas shown below. Once they are close to being on the dry side, use clean water to pull some of that rose to the outer petals to soften the color.
- Fern: Add a small amount of Payne’s Grey to your Sap Green and drop that onto the lower part of your leaves. Rinse your brush and wipe it on a paper towel to smooth that darker green into the first layer.
- Lemon: Your lemon yellow must be wet from the wet-on-wet, as you will be dropping in a dab here and there of the vermillion to create a bit of a contrast and effect. You can also at this time drop some of the vermillion mixed with a tiny bit of Payne’s Grey to the bottom tip of the lemon as well.
- Red Hot Chili Pepper: Your pepper should also still be wet when you drop in Prussian Blue on the lower part of your pepper. Think of a real red hot pepper and you will see dark places on it. This is to mimic that effect. Once it is almost dry, smooth the harshness with a clean damp brush.
All of these techniques, layering, dropping in, etc., were all painted with a #2 round.
Step 6: Adding Texture and Lifting paint
At this point, you will want all of your layers to be dry before moving on to this step.
- Hibiscus: With a damp #2 round brush, pull the darker value near the center into the center which will create a light covering. This will give the highlight of the center of the flower.
- Fern: Add Payne’s Grey to your Sap Green and paint a thin line along the edge of your stem the whole way. You can also use that same paint mixture to add any other detail you need to your ferns.
- Lemon: Take your clean, damp #6 round brush and lift a small area of yellow paint at the top of your lemon to create a glare. It’s ok if it doesn’t go down to the white of the paper, you are only making that area lighter. Next, grab a very condensed lemon yellow onto your #6 paintbrush and stipple that onto your lemon. To stipple, you are making dots – You can also lightly squash your brush at the tip, but not to rough or you will ruin your brush. If you have a hard bristle brush in your painting arsenal, that would work even better.
- Red Hot Chili Pepper: I did not attach an image for this, you will also want to do the same lift highlight on your pepper. Look at the image in the next section and you will see that shiny glare.
As we get closer to the last step, take a break and let your watercolor botanicals painting dry.
Step 7: Final Botanicals Details
Let’s get to the final details of your watercolor botanicals paintings. These are optional but can be fun nonetheless.
Hibiscus: I love to spatter paint and I love to line my florals with a 005-micron pen. To spatter, you will place a very watered-down pigment and you can use either an old toothbrush or your paintbrush and spatter your paint onto your painting. Be sure to cover any areas you do not want spatter! That includes your surroundings! You can then take your paintbrush and smooth some of the spattering around or leave it as is. Your choice! No right or wrong here.
Fern: You can smudge some water over your painting to pull the paint to the outer part of your paper. This will create a loose or messy look to your painting. You can also spatter, or leave it as is.
Lemon: Add a few lemon leaves using your Sap Green and a little bit of Payne’s Grey. Another final detail could be to give your lemon a shadow as seen in the pepper image. See details for this in the next sentence below.
Red hot chili pepper: Mix your Sap Green with Payne’s grey and a bit of Prussian Blue. Create a topper for your pepper and a stem. After that, take your Payne’s Grey and paint a thin line under the pepper. Rinse and pat dry your brush and pull that line out to create a shadow effect of the pepper.
Step back and look at your watercolor botanicals. Is there anything missing? Walk away and come back a bit later for one last look. Fresh eyes are always best before you call it a day. Just remember, you can add, but you can’t take away as easily, so try not to overwork a composition that doesn’t need it.
Once you are satisfied, carefully peel away the painter’s tape and sign your work! Now pat yourself on the back and call it a day!
For more reading on watercolor techniques, read my post on Watercolor Techniques.
Creating watercolor botanicals can be a fun and rewarding experience, as there are so many things you can do with your paintings. You can create watercolor botanical clipart, digital stickers for digital planners, create patterns in Canva, or make notecards, there is so much more you can do and create.
You could even sell your creations on Etsy by opening a watercolor shop! I like to make digital stickers for the digital planners I sell on Etsy. If you want to open a shop, here are 40 free listings for you and me to use!
For more on Canva – join my friend, Pam who is the queen of Canva in my book. Plus my friend, Amanda, has a course on opening an Etsy shop! Check her out as well.
I would love to have you join me on my Facebook Group Watercolor Tutorials and Inspiration!
Stay Colorful, Stay Creative, and HAVE FUN!
~Laurie