Watercolour poppies are a wonderful painting subject for beginners (and the more experienced!) There are so many ways to go about painting them.
Here are three youtube demos of watercolour poppy paintings and tips for beginners, which are sure to inspire the loose watercolour artist in you.
You will be painting beautiful watercolour poppies in no time!
Watercolour Poppy Demo 1: Loose or Illustrative?
Poppies are a rather forgiving subject for an artist because they have such organic shaped petals that are loose and subject to the whim of the wind. If drawing is a bit of a challenge for you, poppies might be a great place to start.
Perfect symmetry is not required (unlike say, a teacup or a jug) and even if your lines don’t exactly replicate the poppy you are looking at your subject is likely to still be recognisable.
So an illustrative style is an option. By this I mean that you might want to approach the painting with a careful drawing that you then add watercolour to. Or given that the poppy is wild and free you might find a loose approach is more apt. I often find myself in something of a battle between my inner illustrator and my inner painter.
No prizes for guessing which one usually wins 😉
See what I mean in the loose watercolour poppy painting demo below.
Isolating the subject is a nice way to create a simple painting for a beginner. It is an approach I come back to time and again. You can create a painting that is essentially just a portrait of a single poppy on a white background. Or go crazy and splash in a bit of extra colour like I did in the demo above.
If you are looking for more ideas about the kind of backgrounds you can add to your watercolour paintings, this article will tell you all you need to know about how to add a watercolour background to your painting AND give you 8 options to consider.
Watercolour Poppies Demo 2 : Painting Poppies in a Scene
Once you have a bit of confidence with your poppies you might want to have a go at placing them in a scene.
I think the thing that often troubles the beginner watercolour artist when it comes to adding the scene or background is the fact that very often the poppy and the background will smoosh together.
As you will see in the demo below, I embrace that. In fact, I actually encourage it. I think those organic whooshes of glorious watercolour are so in keeping with the wild and free spirit of the poppy.
For me, the blend of poppy and background suggests the movement of the poppy in the wind and the sunlight streaking through the scene.
Now, who doesn’t want to see, paint or think about that?
Watercolour Poppy Demo 3 : Floral Landscape
One of the more striking images of poppies I have in my mind’s eye is poppies en masse. And actually, when you are painting flowers en masse, say in a landscape, you will be surprised to see how little detail you actually need in the poppies themselves. From a distance poppies and all wild flowers for that matter are really happy splashes of colour in the landscape.
Speaking of which, landscapes make wonderful painting subjects for beginners too. If you are looking for more ideas of what to paint next, this article will give you at least 7 great ideas of good things to paint.
In this third watercolour poppy demo video, it was the wild flowers including poppies that attracted me to painting this floral landscape. But as you will see, painting the distant foliage is just as satisfying! Check out the video to see if you agree with me…
If you are just beginning your watercolour adventure I have a whole class on watercolour supplies which you might enjoy. It’s free, and you can sign up here.
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