Diane M Kellogg
- Feb 15
- 3 min read

Color Blooms

by Sivanvitha Juturu

Introduction:

In this project, we are going to paint some random flowers with different colors in watercolors. The final output will be a beautiful card that we can use for gifting purposes on various occasions and also for wall decors.

SUPPLIES:

Cold-Pressed Watercolor Greeting Cards 8"X 8"

PAINTS:

Brustro® Watercolors: BRWC1224

Sap Green ‎

Rose Madder

Cadmium Yellow

Scarlet

Purple

Cerulean Blue

Ultramarine Blue

Violet

Black

Yellow Ocher

Burnt Umber

Veridian

BRUSHES:

Round brush Size 6 4050R-6 Princeton Heritage®

MISCELLANEOUS SUPPLIES:

Watercolor pallet

Tissues

Water in 2 jars

Pencil

Tip:

I always like to use two jars of clean water, so one jar is used for warm colors and the other jar for cool colors.

Transfer the line drawing with only pencil, no other mediums (carbon papers) are used as they may bleed while using the watercolors.

INSTRUCTIONS:

Chrysanthemums:

This is a blue flower painted in the center of this painting.

To start with, load the brush with thick Cerulean Blue. Initially, we paint the center of the flower in a bowl (or U shape).

All the petals are in comma strokes or ‘C’ strokes. Usage of the brush should be pressured and lifted in a ‘C’ shape.

Next, lighten the color by shaking some paint in the water and painting the petals around the center as shown in the photos.

Finally, we still lighten the color by removing some more color in the water and painting the outermost petals.

While the paint is still wet, we add thick Cerulean Blue here and there as shown in the photos.

Roses:

Start by painting the center of the flower, we paint ‘C’ strokes here in different directions.

For the center, we load the brush with a thick mixture of Scarlet and Rose Madder. Petals are painted in a circular shape, start by slowly increasing the petal size with some gaps in between as shown in the photos.

Here the direction of centers is important. Please refer to the photo for the direction they are painted, it creates a great difference.

Like previous flowers, we lighten the colors and paint the outermost petals.

Finally using the wet-on-wet technique, add a thick mix of Scarlet and Rose Madder randomly on a few petals.

Likewise, we paint the 2 roses. Theother rose is painted with Rose Madder alone.

Yellow flowers:

To paint these flowers, understanding the shape is important because we do it freehand and in a loose style.

Load a round brush with thick Yellow Ocher and hold the brush like a pen, the strokes will be like just scribbling as shown in the photo.

While the paint is still wet, load Burnt Umber and add on a few places as shown in the photos.

The centers can be painted by loading the round brush with a thick mix of Burnt Umber and Black. Add some dots.

Similarly, the pink flowers in the opposite direction are painted. Painted in the same fashion. First, light Rose Madder and then add thick paint using wet on wet technique.

Centers are Cadmium Yellow dots.

Violets:

To paint the violets load the round brush with thin (means more water, less paint) Violet.

Hold the brush point towards you and brush the strokes individually joining them and forming a petal as shown in the photos.

Ad a few other petals by loading with Cerulean Blue with the same brush ( no need to clean), and also do some with Ultramarine Blue.

This should start with a broad width at the bottom and narrow it down to the tip.

Leaves:

Paint the leaves by loading the round brush with thin Sap Green. Leaves are painted in a loose style leaf shape.

Load the same brush with a thick mix of Sap Green, Veridian, and Burnt Umber. Add this paint in portions of the leaf randomly using a wet-on-wet technique.

Stems are also painted likewise.