Flower Drawing

Welcome to my studio, my name is Rae. Join me today as I paint a really beautiful, really simple anemone flower in my Louise Carman journal using just ink and a little bit of water. As you can see, I absolutely adore sketching in this journal. It's just on some plain cartridge paper, nothing special here, but I like to curate my little sketchbook so that I've got something really memorable to look back on in the future. Part of my own ink and liner wash journey, I suppose. I really enjoy journaling and this is part of my everyday life, so I've chosen a fresh page and I would love you to join in with me. I'm using a pen from Tom's Studio, this is a Lumos and it has a 0.2 nib, but you can use any water-soluble pen that you have. And remember, your free outline is waiting for you over on if you'd rather trace down your image and rather than just sketch it out as in the way I'm doing here. Now, if you're wondering why I'm using a pen to just draw onto my paper rather than a pencil, I find that it's really, I suppose, liberating because if I use a pencil, I know I will go back over it time and again, erasing those lines because they won't be right. This way, I have to work with my errors and make them work with me rather than against me. So I suppose I'm saying to myself, it's okay to get it wrong. This won't be a perfect sketch and nor is it intended to be. It's meant to be part of gentle journaling, art, creating pieces of art that don't have to be perfect, nor do you need to have a lot of tools. Okay, all I'm using is a pen and some paper, not watercolour paper, just ordinary paper. I'm not even sure where I got this paper from. I think it was Flying Tiger or somewhere like that. My Louise Carmen journal is a special item for me because it was a gift from Paris and I absolutely adore using it for sketching and commonplacing, which is something I've touched upon in the past. I don't use it for journaling as such, but just a little bit of integrated writing is in there as well. And maybe I can talk to you one day about my journaling ecosystem. But for now, we're just drawing freehand with this beautiful pen that has water-soluble ink. Now, the key to this painting is to have water-soluble ink because you want that paint to melt when you add water, but more about that a little later on. Okay, so once I'm happy with the outline, I switch to my watercolour brush. Today, I'm using a brush from Deep Deep Light, just a little bit of water there. This is a Tintoretto mop brush and it's a size 2. It's great for activating this ink. The brush I'm using has a fine tip, which means I can control where I want to activate the ink line. I can direct the ink where I want it to go. You'll notice I'm using a kind of wiggly motion here, just to activate the ink that I've laid down with my pen. The reason I like doing it this way is because I want it to have a more controlled look. Now, when I go onto the fronds or the leaves, you'll see that I use a slightly different technique, but for the flower, I wanted to have a more controlled look. So I'm just really, very lightly almost tickling that pen line and just gently merging that paint into the paper. I want all my lines to be activated, which means that when they are dry, I can go over it again with another layer. We're using this much in the way that we would use watercolour, where we're building up our layers to create different values in that. So I continue this process by just almost throwing the water on this section because I wanted to have a looser look. Now, before we carry on, I just want to gently mention that if you'd like to join in with us, I've shared a free outline on my Patreon. They're available on the free membership level and they're there purely to support this video and are yours to keep. My paid Patreon content is very different from this, so let's just pause a moment to take a look and then we can jump straight back into this video. Earlier, I mentioned Patreon, which is where I slow everything down and go deeper into botanical painting. Alongside the free outlines, there are three membership levels for anyone who'd like more time, detail and guidance with me right here in the studio. Now, Clematis is the core membership tier. This is where I share longer, more considered botanical art tutorials, materials, outlines, reference photograph, in-depth process so that you can create art that you are proud of no matter what level that you're at. And for those who'd like more personal support, my Rose tier includes everything from the other two membership levels along with one-to-one time with me via video call, individual critique and a video response made just for you. Magnolia is my monthly mini tier. Now, this includes shorter, more relaxed lessons, things like quick doodles, small studies, podcasts and informal explorations that fit easily around your everyday life. Remember that if you're a member of the Clematis and Rose tier, you'll also have full access to everything in the Magnolia tier, so nothing is missed. All of the tutorials across Patreon are suitable for all levels. I teach using a learn-to-paint-as-you-paint approach, so whether you're just starting out or whether you've been painting for years, you can follow along at your own pace. Patreon is also very easy to use now. Everything is kept in one place. You can use the search bar to quickly find the tutorial or topic that you're looking for without having to scroll endlessly. And if you're planning to stay for a while, do take advantage of the annual membership. My Patreon is about making space for depth, learning and evolving botanical art practice. If that sounds like something you'd enjoy, we'd love to see you there. Okay, so you can leave and join Patreon at any time. Now at this point in the painting, everything's totally dry. It really has to be 100% dry before we add more detail, otherwise the ink will stick to the damp ink and you won't be able to reactivate it. You can see me here, I'm just adding a few squiggly lines to depict the stamen and anther in the middle of the anemone flower, okay? Really, really simple, just a few really, really easy shapes. The reference photograph for this is over on Patreon, as mentioned just now, and you can give it as much detail as you want to. All I'm doing here is just adding some more ink to add a little bit of tonal contrast. Some of these lines I'm going to activate with water, and some of them I will probably keep in their true form, which gives this flower a little bit more shape and a little bit more definition. But I'm also utilising the ink so that I can activate it again with water to add a little bit more depth and contrast. I'm putting the ink down where I want those stronger colours to be. There's nothing to stop you, of course, from adding a little bit of colour to this. So I'm going back in with my brush, adding a little bit of water, and I'm just taking off the excess using a bit of kitchen paper and just activating it again in the way that I did with the first wash. Very much like using watercolour, where I'm building up the colours one by one. Only this time, of course, I'm using ink instead. The great way about using ink in this way is that the sky's the limit, really. I stumbled upon this technique by accident when I bought the wrong ink. I have spoken about this before, but in case you're new to my channel, I bought the wrong ink. This is from Tom's Studio when I bought my Mini Lumos last year. I fell in love with the products that Tom sells. This isn't sponsored, I bought the products myself, and I really, really enjoy using them. But I did want to buy a waterproof ink, but I bought the wrong ink. And of course, when I went to add my watercolour to apply the colour to a line and wash, this happened. But what I was left with was this beautiful monochromatic painting. And since then, I've developed this technique to make it work in my favour. I've not looked back, not at all, because I really enjoy making my errors work with me. It's something that's so freeing, and it makes art journaling a lot more interesting. I'm continuing the process now, making sure that every layer is dry before going in again, because as mentioned before, it's really important that you wait for this ink to dry. If I were to go over it with a damp, it would stick, as I said before, and you don't want that to happen. It has to be 100% dry. And I'll keep rebuilding these layers now until the painting is complete. It's up to you how much tonal variation you want to add, or how much detail is entirely your choice. It's your painting. At this point, we still have a few minutes left before the video finishes. And so it's going to be my chance to say thank you for watching. Stay until the end so that you can see the finished painting. If you haven't subscribed to my channel already, I would love to see you here as one of my regular viewers. So do consider subscribing and hitting the little bell on the side. I'm going to say goodbye and let you watch this video in peace. Thank you so much for watching and stay until the end, and let me know whether you've enjoyed it. My name is Rae, and I'll see you soon.