Simple & Fun Dandelion Watercolour Painting

Hi, welcome to my dandelion watercolour tutorial where I use leftover paint. Let's get started. What I'm doing is starting off to apply some masking fluid. I'm using this old used scourer and I'm cutting a circle to match the size of the dandelions. You don't want it too perfect, you want it a bit rough around the edges so I'm just sort of roughing up there with my scissors there so it's not all sort of smooth and now I'm plucking out some of the green sort of scouring bits there to have some loose sort of edges as well so it'll catch the masking fluid and it will kind of create a nice textured edge. So I'm pouring some of the masking fluid into the lid. I'm using an old envelope, just tapping in the scourer there, just covering the whole of the sort of scouring surface there until it's fully covered and I'm just tapping the excess off onto the envelope there so I don't get too much of a blobbyness onto my dandelions. Then I'm just tapping very gently to get enough masking fluid on there but at the same time I need enough of the white paper as well coming through so you've got the background appearing through as well so tapping very gently as well to get some really yummy textures. Try to stay inside the dandelion if you can but it really does create the most amazing textures so it's a really nice way of doing it. If you don't have a scourer you could just stipple on with a brush or you could use an old sponge or even paper towel sort of scrunched up as well to create texture. What I'm doing now is I'm using a cocktail stick but you could use your twig or a very small thin brush and just applying some of the masking fluid with some of the seed head flying away there in the air but also some of the marks inside the dandelion and also on the edge. It does take quite a bit of time so there's a lot of prep here but it's worth it because it makes the background so much easier to paint. Now if you don't have masking fluid it is tricky to paint the dandelions in this way. You could use white gouache afterwards but you can't really paint around all those little marks that's why masking fluid is brilliant. You could use wax resist, it'll be a lot more loose but that's another thing you can do and you can also use salt as well to create the texture but it'll again be very very loose. If you don't have a cocktail stick you could also use a paper clip, anything that's got a really sort of something that makes a really small mark there and if you get blobs let them dry and then just peel them off before you start painting as well and remember to dry your painting naturally because if you blow dry masking fluid it is quite tricky to remove it afterwards. So I've applied all the masking fluid and I'm going to allow my painting to dry naturally. Now I'm using my Schmenke watercolor pot because there's one color I didn't have from my previous tutorial where I've got this leftover paint and it was some pink so I just needed to borrow a little bit of pink there so I'm mixing that up with a little bit of the quinacridone gold to paint this stem on the left hand side wet on dry with my size 6 brush. I'm just trying to sort of paint it quite carefully but what I do like about these dandelions they have got quite thick stems so it makes it a little bit easier. You can mask out the stems if you like and paint them later as well but I thought it's just quite nice to paint them in this way and then I'm actually going to protect them with masking fluid after the stems have dried. So I'm dropping in a little bit of water and a little bit more of the paint. As you can see from my palette there I use this for my previous tutorials that I've published on YouTube and there's lots of blobs of colors and washes of paint and I didn't clean it out because I always love to use it afterwards for other paintings it almost inspires me and it's quite nice for abstract backgrounds so what I'm doing at the moment is I'm just painting in the stems for these dandelions here and I'm using a mixture of permanent yellow you could use cadmium yellow with some of the phthalo turquoise there's a little bit of prussian blue there and also green apatite genuine so it's quite nice just to mix up the different colors and that's what I quite like about this photograph all the stems seem to have slightly different colors so I'm using quinacridone gold here some yellow as well as some cerulean to create the light green here and again on this dandelion on the on the far right here still using my size six brush working wet on dry and just a mixture really of some of the yellow and some of the prussian blue just to make a sort of a sort of a lightish green and adding a little bit more of the prussian blue at the bottom to make the color slightly darker I've added a little bit more of the quinacridone gold there and even a touch of burnt umber to make this stem a tad darker so I'm going to allow my painting to dry again and I'm actually masking out the stems with some more masking fluid and I'm going to allow that to dry naturally so once your painting has dried is I'm reawakening all the colors in my palette the prussian blue the ultramarine the indigo the Payne's grey the violet and it's all a bit of a mess really but it's really nice if you want to paint sort of an abstract background so I've masked out all the positive shapes I'm wetting the background as you can see I can wet over those stems as well because they've been masked out I'm using a large flat one and a half inch brush just tilting getting all that excess liquid off there is a slight bleed there I don't think I actually masked over the entire stems so I'm using a size 14 brush just dipping it into all that yummy paint all those different colors that I used in my previous tutorial to paint this quite lovely sort of abstracty background working wet into wet so what's quite nice about that if you have squeezed out tubes and you're not sure what to do with them you don't want to waste them it's an ideal opportunity to paint something like this or something with an abstract style background or you could actually do them you could paint tonal studies you know quick sort of sketches just using this leftover paint and you'll find there's less pressure because it's leftover paint you don't mind so much and it's quite liberating and there's lots of color harmony here as well so I'm really sort of loading this brush I'm trying to wake up that sort of cerulean blue there I'm just painting it over the top of some of the dandelions there just to make sure that I really fully get inside the sort of spaces there and there's nothing worse than having you know you taking your masking fluid off and you can see you haven't actually painted in that area which is the whole point so I'm actually painting in some darks there still using my size 10 brush and just using some Payne's grey painting damp into wet you can be so creative with this and it is so much fun so you must ensure your painting is absolutely dry before you remove your masking fluid I'm using a paper towel and I am just sort of taking off the paint I really quite like this way of removing masking fluid it takes it off really really well but you can use a plastic eraser a putty rubber your thumb there's lots of different ways of taking it off but make sure the paper is absolutely dry because you could tear it or you could smudge your painting as well so once you remove all of the masking fluid and I am painting wet on dry the dandelions using my size 6 brush just mixing up some quinacridone gold a little bit of permanent yellow some cerulean and just painting some light colors wet on dry here try to keep lots and lots of the white there you want to almost exaggerate the white and light of the dandelions to give the illusion that they are dandelions especially looking at them from a distance so you may have noticed that I swapped my palette there because actually I ran out of paint so it did the trick I've used the basically all of that leftover paint for the background I am going to use similar colors though so I'm using my watercolor pot here with a mixture of the quinacridone gold some of the yellows a little bit of the Prussian blue some ultramarine and a little bit of Payne's gray and just dropping that Payne's gray right in the center there painting quite a light sort of color at the top of this dandelion center and now I'm mixing up Payne's gray with some quinacridone gold and painting wet on dry but allowing it to catch that lighter area as well to have a lovely soft edge and just sort of blending as well with my brush there so you've got a real sort of light and dark there really makes that stand out still using I'm using my size four brush here actually and just sort of painting some of the very sort of light yellow green but also a touch of the Payne's gray in there as well so you've got a mixture of sort of light greens with a few little dark greens as well so I'm mixing up some Hansa yellow light you could use cadmium yellow light or you could use lemon yellow with the permanent yellow and you could use cadmium yellow so basically a light yellow and a bit of a warmer yellow if you don't have a warmer yellow you can add a touch of red or even a touch of quinacridone gold I'm painting wet on dry the yellow dandelions now and I've just dropped in a more of an orangey color through the center there so you could use a touch of burnt sienna with the yellow a touch of red or even the quinacridone gold to create that warm color I'm actually using a little bit of the quinacridone gold on its own there dropping it in to that right hand dandelion wet into wet just to create a sort of a nice warm center and it gets slightly darker as well doesn't it through the center I'm just painting a little bit more light green at the top of that stem there I think I had a little bit of masking fluid on there and just dropping in a bit of a mid green also so I'm going to start painting on this tallest dandelion here on the right starting off with the center I've got a little bit of pale green underneath and I am using my size 4 brush wet on dry with a mixture of a little bit of Payne's grey and yellow and also some quinacridone gold just to kind of create some a little slightly warm earthy tones through the center and also painting marks underneath there wet on dry and just make sure you leave lots and lots of white you can get very carried away and then suddenly all that masking is gone so you want to just sort of keep more white than seems right almost you know you kind of just exaggerate it trust me it works so I'm working on this right hand dandelion here painting the top a pale green color and a little bit of dark again underneath using the Payne's grey and quinacridone gold it's already looking quite effective here I'm just rinsing my brush there I'm just getting a pinch more of quinacridone gold just painting around the dark around that sort of light center there really sort of taking my time trying to say to myself less is more just picking up a bit of light greens to really end with some yellow there quite pale quite diluted just to paint some of these light marks just underneath the center but also catching that wet center and pulling it down a bit as well and doing so around that whole of that dandelion there but reminding myself to keep lots of white and light areas as well so I'm just sort of rinsing my brush really so it's a clean brush I'm just drizzling in a little bit of water there as well to soften things up a little so I've allowed the painting to dry again and I'm working now with my size six brush and mixing up some quinacridone gold some of the permanent yellow working wet on dry and painting in the yellow dandelion flowers here the petals in the center there and trying to look at how they sort of grow so they're growing out the center coming out to the outside edge but really trying to keep my outside edge lighter and then it sort of goes mid-tone and then slightly a darker tone through the center there and just sort of really discipline yourself just try and do less is more again I want to keep this really loose trying to keep the light and not paint too many details so I'm darkening up now the center I'm going to add a little bit more of the quinacridone gold to the permanent yellow mix and a touch of the Payne's grey as well so it's a sludgy sort of darker color I've also decided to add a touch of burnt sienna so if in doubt just put a little bit of burnt sienna with a touch of the Payne's grey only a smidge to darken up the center there you don't want it too dark that your eye goes straight there so you just want a few marks there painting this damp into damp I've just rinsed off my brush there I'm just getting a pinch of the Payne's grey and a little bit of the quinacridone gold and just painting a few more darks in the center damp into damp again if you're worried about it bleeding just wait for it to dry and then you can paint these darks in as well I'm just keeping everything loose ad hoc painting but if you're worried about that just let it dry if in doubt let it dry I'm just painting a few more dark accents here on this right hand dandelion I felt it was fading back a little bit so I'm just using some of the Payne's grey and a little bit of the quinacridone gold and doing the same to the tallest one here just to give it a little bit of pop with that dark accent of color there I thought it'd be quite nice as well just to paint a little bit of dark on the stems using my size 4 brush here wet on dry using a little bit again of the Payne's grey and some of the quinacridone gold but you could also use some of the cerulean maybe with some yellow as well just to vary the sort of tonal colors really because some of the stems are slightly different colors than the others so just sort of painting each one of these on the right hand side wet on dry so I think it's a good time to allow your painting to dry again what I'm doing is I'm mixing up a little bit of cerulean a touch of pink into the green and a little smidge of black or you could use Payne's grey here but it's a very very it's going to be a very dilute color so I've added lots and lots of water it's a tiny sort of pinky tinge to it there and I'm just painting onto the dandelions wet on dry using this size 4 brush glazing it on there just to paint some shadows try not to lose your white area so I'm just sort of painting it here and there if you're worried about that do what I'm doing here and dab off with a paper towel as well just to keep that light and it's a good time to allow your painting to dry once it's dry I'm actually using some white gouache you could use white watercolor or acrylic ink or acrylic paint working wet on dry with my size 4 brush I've diluted it slightly and I'm just adding a little bit more white on top of that shadow color just to bring out the dandelions again you may not have to do this I quite like doing this though because I've painted that shadow color it's it's dried off and now I'm just giving the dandelions a little bit of sparkle and detail sometimes you can't actually do this with the masking fluid or I can't anyway because it's very fine detail so here you can really finesse the dandelion a little or the dandelions a little bit more and you know me I love to use a little bit of white gouache at the end of paintings just to finish them off I'm quite pleased with that I thought I might just brighten up some of my yellows as well so I'm using the permanent yellow but you could use cadmium yellow and I'm just adding a little bit of just a few marks here and there working wet on dry I'm using this small round brush here just to give a little bit more warmth and a little bit more detail to the painting I'm also adding some white this is for those of you that may have lost your light a bit and I'm just painting this around the edges here just to create some lighter petals on the outside edge if you have lost the light on your stems you can add a little bit of white to a green a light green color that's the yellow and the cerulean paint this wet on dry onto the stems as well it's always these little finishing touches that can really sort of bring a painting to life and also rescue it sometimes as well I'm all about the rescue this is a little bit of alizarin crimson and I've watered it down slightly there I'm adding a little bit of Payne's gray to that and I'm just painting wet on dry some darks just in the center there as well just to give those dandelions a little bit more depth I always finish off my watercolors with darks and details and that's exactly what I'm doing here adding some Payne's gray to that alizarin crimson with Payne's gray and I'm just painting a few dark marks here on this sort of dandelion here just to sort of darken up that edge to really bring out the light as well and it just brings it away from the background as well makes it look a little bit more 3d as well I'm just painting a few finishing touches here wet on dry with a little touch of the Payne's gray with a tiny touch of yellow and just to balance things out I'm doing the same with the tallest one here I'm just adding a little bit more shadow to the stems I felt I lost the light you may not need to do this using just basically again leftover paint what's in the palette so there's a bit of alizarin crimson touch of Payne's gray a little bit of green there just to finish off these stems and it just brings everything together as well I couldn't resist painting a little bit more white here I'm using quite a rough sort of dry brush effect just to create some texture so the gouache is straight from the tube there so it's quite creamy and I'm sort of just dabbing and dobbing onto the outside edges to create that lovely lightened texture I'm removing the washi tape now to reveal a really nice white border it gives me time to assess to see if I need to do any more to my painting but I think I'll leave it there for now I really hope you enjoyed this tutorial and that it inspired you to maybe use some of your leftover paint from a previous painting and have a go at painting this dandelion painting or something similar with an abstract background if you have any questions about this tutorial please put them in the comments section below and if you'd like to see more content like this don't forget to subscribe to my channel where you'll get updates of my latest tutorials and if you'd like to get access to my outline sketches and my weekly exclusive tutorials why not think about joining my patreon membership details about the membership can be found in the description below thank you so much for watching this tutorial happy dandelion painting bye for now