Paint or draw any flower - my number one secret to perfect flowers every time

Hello everyone! In this video today I am going to show you my one technique for painting or drawing any flower in any direction, any shape. It's pretty simple and straightforward, and I think it will help you visualize when you are painting flowers. So the secret is cones. So flowers are like a cone. You think of the petals go around the cone with the inside of that top circle of the cone being the inside of the flower, and then the tip of the cone is where the flower petals are meeting the stem. To help you visualize this, I'm drawing a flower around this cone shape that we have put on the paper, and if you remember that every single flower is a cone because all of the petals come to a single point where the stem is, you can draw or paint any flower in any shape in any direction. You can paint really wide flowers and really narrow flowers, flowers going all different directions when you visualize this cone technique. And when a flower is facing you, you just need to remember that the tip of the cone is behind the flower, and so that will also help you visualize where all the petals should go. And in this example here I've done a cone that's upside down, but this is for a flower that has the petals that are kind of hanging off from where the center of the flower is. So that's another way you can help yourself visualize how to paint this type of flower. I'm going to show you three examples of very different shaped cones and how they apply to watercolor and painting an actual flower. So for this first example I am doing a very wide cone. This is going to transfer into peonies, roses, any kind of flower that has a lot of petals and has a really wide spread. So this cone is facing upward. It's really, really wide. You can see into the center of the top circle of the cone, and you don't have to be afraid to go outside the boundaries of the cone. So after I've drawn the petals that are within the cone, I go through and I'm drawing petals that kind of come outside of the cone. The cone is just a reference so that you know where all of your petals are going, and they're going to the tip where the point of the cone is meeting the stem. Now we're going to translate that sketch into an actual watercolor painting, and the way that you do that is really by just referencing the sketch, and you know exactly where your center of your flower is. And because you know where the center is, and you can see the cone sketch, you know that the tip of your cone is where all of these petals need to flow to. So you don't want to do random petals that are too big in the back, or too small in the front, or going a weird direction. And that's why the cone and visualizing it really helps to take your petals and your strokes in the right direction, so that it looks realistic and it looks like you knew what you were doing. For the second sketch, I wanted to show you a flower that was pointed maybe in a different direction, not necessarily up. And one of those flowers with the cone that had the center pointing up, with the flower petals drooping down to the side. This type of framework helps with daisy type flowers, and flowers that have long petals, or petals that are an exact number. And you can see that on the sketch to the left, because I had drawn my cone and I knew exactly where the center was, I was able to visualize how the petals on the right side of the flower are actually shorter because of perspective. And then also having that upside down cone for the right side of the sketch really helps me visualize where the center of my flower is, and how the petals fall to make it look realistic within the structure of the cone. So now as I translate that into watercolor, it really helps to have a sketch when you're trying to figure out that perspective of when a flower is to the side, because you don't want to make those petals on the right side of the flower as long as the left side of the flower, because you want it to look like it's facing away from you a little bit. And again, that cone sketch on the right flower really helps me to know, okay, I can't put petals along the back, because I really want to focus on the petals in the front to make it look realistic. So I'm keeping in mind the construct of the cone, and really being aware of where the tips are, and how big I wanted my circle to be within the cone, because that's where my petals go. For the third example, I wanted to show you a longer flower, maybe a flower that's actually a cone, or just has really long narrow petals, and that is upside down. I mean, these could be facing upward also, but I just wanted to show you some flowers that are hanging and more upside down, like a foxglove. Now in translating that over into watercolor, I am inspired by the shape of foxgloves, and the flower itself is pretty much a cone shape. And so I'm really just painting the entire flower as a cone shape, but I'm keeping in mind that my cones are hanging upside down. I know exactly where the center of my flower is, it's towards the bottom, because I'm looking at my sketch. So I'm thinking about the placement of every single one of these, and how they relate to the main stem, because all of these flowers will connect to one main stem. So the tips, and the shape, and the direction of the cones all need to reference that. So while my flowers are still wet, I'm going in and just adding a dark concentration of that same purpley color to the bottom, just right along the bottom, if not just above that bottom edge. And this is perfectly representing the openness of my cone. For the rest of the video, I wanted to show you how I paint flowers in real time, without a sketch. So sometimes you're going to sit down and just paint flowers, you're not going to have a very specific idea of where your cones are, or what direction they're placed, in reference to all the other flowers. And so hopefully this will give you a good visual representation of what it looks like to paint flowers in real time, when you're just going off your basic natural instincts of where the cone is positioned, and where the point of the cone is. If you remember where the point of your cone is every time you're painting a flower, you should be able to produce flower petals that make sense, and look natural to your overall flower and the composition. You made it to the end of the video! Thank you so much for being here today. I really hope this cone technique has helped you visualize how you can paint and draw flowers perfectly, every single time. Let me know if you use this, and if you have any recommendations for more videos down below, and I will see you next time. Bye!