Flower Sketching in Watercolor and Ink

This week we worked on watercolor and ink flower sketching in both ART Camp and in our Thursday afternoon paining class.

This can be done in the studio while observing fresh flowers or from photos. Even better, watercolor flower sketches can be create plein air - right on the spot! You can take a hike and create wildflower sketches in your sketchbook or sit out in your garden and do the same.

All you need is a bottle of water, a cup to put it in, a brush, and  your paint pans. It's really a great way to quickly fill in your colors than using all those colored pencils or pastels - and a lot easier to carry with you. (Although, we did add a bit of oil pastel within our flowers here and there for an added resist effect prior to painting.)

We used a black Sharpie pen to create the basic sketch before filling in the shapes with watercolor. It is okay to lightly sketch your basic shapes in pencil first, but we learned right away that the pens aren't as intimidating as they seem, and we often ignore our pencil lines when re-sketching in ink. A great lesson in gaining self-confidence as an artist!

After painting in our backgrounds, we added a bit of salt to add more interest and fun to our work. The flowers were painted in as the last step.