Hey friends, it’s Sarah from @essjay_florals and I’m so excited to share this beautiful floral painting with you all. I’ve also included some printables at the end, so you can recreate your own as a gift or card for Mother’s Day!

Here are the materials you’ll need to recreate it:

• Watercolour paper - I’ve just used a student grade cold pressed paper, however any watercolour paper will do • Pencil & eraser
• Black waterproof fine liners - I’m using Sakura Microns in size 01 & 03
• Brushes – I’m using round brushes in sizes 2 & 6
• Your choice of watercolours - I’ve used Winsor & Newton in the following colours:
• Alizarin Crimson
• Permanent Rose
• Indian Red
• Payne’s Grey
• Viridian
• Oxide of Chromium Gouache
• Flesh Tint Gouache

1. Drawing your design

First print one of the printable designs or if you have your own design in mind, use that. Once you’ve printed the design or created your own, trace it onto watercolour paper.
(Tip: I carefully trace from my iPad to my paper or stick the print onto a window where light is coming in and use that to trace onto the paper)

2. Inking your flowers

Next draw in the outlines, I’ve used 03 for most of the line work and 01 for the finer details in the flowers centre. At this stage it’s very important to use a waterproof pen as we add watercolour next.

3. Getting creative with paint

Now comes the fun part, painting! I like to splash on colour relatively loosely, but the great thing about watercolour is you can be really precise and layer it up for lovely details through controlling the water or apply it liberally and let the colours just flow and mix together.

Some tips:

• If you want to control where the colour goes paint a petal and then move onto one that’s not directly next to it to avoid bleeding. You want adjacent petals to be completely dry to prevent bleeding.
• My approach is to let them bleed at least a little so I paint my colours on before the colours next to them have dried.
• Use more water for a lighter colour and for more intense colour use a greater ratio of paint to water.
• Paper towels are your friend, if you accidentally use too much water or the colour is too intense just use a little to mop it back up.
• Most importantly, have fun with it!

We'd love to see your recreations or take on this tutorial, so please tag myself @essjay_florals and @archerandolive on Instagram so we can see.