Nature Painting in Watercolor

Learn to paint florals, ferns, trees, and more in colorful, contemporary watercolor

Kristine A. Lombardi

• Publisher: Walter Foster Publishing
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781633228863
• eBook ISBN: 9781633228870
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Art General

Find inspiration in the great outdoors and create simple, expressive watercolor paintings of the plants and animals that live there.

In Nature Painting in Watercolor, beginning and aspiring artists can learn to paint their favorite ferns, leaves, trees, florals, as well as animals, in a contemporary style using the popular watercolor medium. Start by learning about the tools and materials needed to paint in watercolor; then dive into a thorough and fun painting techniques section, which covers washes, glazes, how to add detail in watercolor, and much more. If you’d like to spend more time outside (who doesn’t?), check out the section on finding inspiration outside for tips on viewing and gathering natural painting subjects, such as trees, grasses, flowers, and many other plants.

And if you can’t get outside, we’ve got you covered as well, with suggestions for where to find images online and photos to use as references. Also learn to sketch and keep a detailed sketchbook—skills that will help you when you get started on the step-by-step painting projects in the largest section of the book.

The step-by-step projects cover popular natural painting subjects, including the ones already listed here as well as rocks, mushrooms, buds, blooms, big and small trees, and forest animals. All are illustrated and painted in the author/artists’s signature contemporary watercolor style.

Nature Painting in Watercolor offers a fun, refreshing look at painting plants for today’s artist.

Flowers: Buds, Stems & Blooms

CHILEAN FIRE TREE

1 With a liner brush and raw umber or another shade of brown, create a simple stem with offshoots.

2 Using a #8 round brush, start at the tip of the stem and then move down, pressing to create small petals with the widest part closest to the stem. The greens and browns may meld together if the paint is wet, or the lighter green will overlay the darker stem. Both are fine!

3 Using the wet-into-wet technique (here), load your liner brush with a warm red and begin adding the flowery lobes.

4 Try alternating an orangey-red with the more solid red to give your artwork some dimension. You can also add more water so that each lobe is a different value.

5 Add tips to the lobes using the red on your liner brush.

6 Return to the leaves and add a darker green to create more depth.

MAGNOLIA BUD

1 With a #8 round brush and a light peachy-pink wash, create a center petal and two thinner petals on each side.

2 While the wash is still wet, add a simple curved stem and a few leaves in green-gold. The green will blend into the pale peach-pink.

3 With a bolder shade of pink, delicately tap the #8 brush into the still-wet wash and let the color move about. Do this on each petal.

4 Tap a deeper shade of green into the wet base of the bloom to give it more depth and contrast.

5 Using a toothpick, score veins into the leaves on the stem.

6 Tap a bit of a dark hue, such as olive green, onto the leaves.

7 Darken the stem with dark brown to create more definition and allow the leaves to pop.

8 Add a t...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Introduction: The Great Outdoors—Inspiration Is All Around You!
• Sketchbook & References
• Tools & Materials
• Painting Techniques
• Nature’s Palette: Color Theory
• Ground Cover: Ferns, Mushrooms & Rocks
• Flowers: Buds, Stems & Blooms
• Critters: Birds, Squirrels & Chipmunks
• Seasonal Bits: Leaves, Pods & Thistle
• Trees: Barks, Branches & Roots
• Inspirational Photos
• Epilogue
• Acknowledgments
• About the Artist
• Copyright