How to Paint Flowers Beside a Path, a Watercolor Worksheet

Here is a Free How To Paint Flowers Beside The Path Worksheet.

 

I love the world God gave us and it is a joy to paint a picture of a garden path on a sunny day.

I know this little lesson will be meaningful for you. This picture is simple in composition. It is like an impressionist painting and not intended to be overly realistic. I always felt if you wanted something as real as a photograph then you should buy a camera. With paint, you can interpret and give expression to a scene that a camera is not designed to do. But you can use these ideas and put them to your own use.

A WORD ABOUT PRINTING THE WORKSHEET

If you have problems making this worksheet to prin,t CLICK HERE to visit my how-to-print page for some suggestions or try the updated link below.

How to draw flowers beside the path, watercolor worksheet

My printables are free, so print as many as you like. They take a lot of my time.  I often have to create several images before I get the right one for an illustration.  It is a lot of work, but I am glad to have the opportunity to inspire others.

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Here is a link to a file that may print better.

CLICK HERE for a PDF file.

SUPPLY LIST

You can use any watercolor paint. I prefer my small Windsor Newton paint set; it has a nice selection of colors. I also use Grumbacher Paints in the tubes.  You can easily find these at any craft store like Lobby Hobby or Michaels. (Look for coupons online.) You can collect lots of paintbrushes, but it is better at the start to keep it simple with a few small, medium, and medium-large brushes and a combination of flats as well as rounded paintbrushes. For these art lessons, I use Strathmore series 300 Watercolor paper. It is economical and available at Michaels and Hobby Lobby and online. 

PRINTABLE LESSON NOTES.

BEGINNINGS
Trace the design onto 140-pound watercolor paper. It is a heavy paper that will not buckle. If you have trouble tracing through the paper, try holding it against a window with the light shining behind it, and then you should be able to trace it easily.

This design is not to be painted exactly as I did but it is a guideline, so you can change things and make it your own special picture. So feel free to experiment. 

 

FIRST WASH

Use a medium brush and wash in the pale blue sky, keep the paint watery, and do not worry about the trees you'll paint them on top of the blue later.

In the same way, use watery yellow-green and wash in the foreground flower area, 

BUT BE CAREFUL NOT TO PAINT OVER THE TULIPS, go around the tulips. 

In the same way, use watery sandy brown and wash it on the road.

LET IT DRY  

Do not feel you need to finish the painting all at once. Take breaks and come back after a while. Some artists work on a picture for several days to finish a painting. And some artists do a painting once to work out the mistakes, like a practice painting, and then paint a second one after they know what will work. 

BUILDING IT UP

After the first wash has dried mix a deeper green by adding a TINY dab of red or blue to your green. With a small brush dab green into the trees.

Carefully work the lower foreground by dabbing green to make it look like grasses and leaves. Leave yellow areas between the green. Work the dark dabs in rows that get smaller as they near the trees. 

BUT BE CAREFUL not to paint over the yellow-green flowers or the tulips. LET IT DRY

After the second step is dry, repeat if the colors need to be darker in the trees and grasses.

For the distant trees add a little brown to the green and work in the shadows of the trees. Let it dry before you add any tree trunks or branches.  Do the tree trunks in two steps a medium brown and after the medium brown has dried paint in the dark brown. Mix a little blue or black for the darks in the tree trunks.

TECHNIQUE

To get an impressionist feel do not try to be overly realistic. Try to use your brush with small dabs and short strokes. Just touch the brush to the paper over and over until it builds up. BE PATIENT! LET IT DRY IN BETWEEN COLORS AND STEPS. 

TULIPS

Paint the tulips in steps. First, with a small brush wash the pink-red over the tulips and let it dry. 

Use a darker yellow to add some detail to the yellow flowers. If you have problems mixing a darker yellow try a TINY touch of black or orange. The trick is to keep it suggestive like an impressionist painting. 

After the pink wash has dried mix a little lavender or blue and red to make a darker color for the details. Use the tip of the small brush and DRAW the details of the tulips. Draw the shadows around the bottom and on one side and draw the shadow inside the bowl of the flower. 

Sign and date your work.

(c)Adron D. 9/22/20