Water Lilies - Watercolor Lesson with Karlyn Holman

Draw subject with HB pencil. Mask the water droplets. Paint the flowers, reflections, lily pads and the frog. When completely dry mask everything but the reflections of the buds.

Clip or tape your painting onto a board. Wet only the front of the paper. Paint in a ladder of primary colours, leaving a white space between the triad of color. I used Windsor yellow in the middle, Quinacridone rose on each side and cobalt blue out to the edge if the paper. Spray a light mist starting at the yellow and moving that color to the edge of your paper. Then spray the blue and have that move towards the centre of the paper. Keep tipping and balancing out the movement of the colours. Add darks under the lily pads but not the buds. Best of all, draw some connecting darks horizontally through the composition to tie the shapes together.

When dry, remove the masking. Wet the scrubby brush and gently soften any areas missed by the masking. To make the water droplets, wet the shape and drop in color similar to the area surrounding the droplet. When the droplet dries, paint in a very dark elliptical shadow under the droplet. Use a razor blade to pop out a white highlight.


Materials List
#11 Water Lilies Lesson Kit
Saran Wrap
Incredible Liquid Masking
Palette Knife
Watercolor Palette
Clear Acetate Paper
Mr Clean Magic Eraser
#1 Brush
#8 Brush
1 1/2″ Brush
Fine Mister
Scissors
Half sheet Arches 140# Cold Press
Salt
Scrubby brush